Workforce Challenges in Unionized Manufacturing
The Institute, in consultation with unions and labor-management partnerships in advanced manufacturing, has developed a list of the most pressing workforce challenges affecting the sector. Those workforce challenges are:
Challenge 1: Increasing firm/facility competitiveness and employee employment security through incumbent workers’ skills upgrading: The nature of work in the manufacturing sector is changing. Increasing use of both advanced technology and new work processes has added to the skill requirements of most manufacturing occupations. Consequently, employers seek affordable ways to finance training for incumbent workers, and workers need specialized training to help them retain the better paying jobs within their firms and industries.
Challenge 2: Responding to small and medium size firms’ and/or facilities’ (those with less than 500 employees) recruitment and training needs: In recent years, large, formerly vertically integrated firms have aggressively embraced the outsourcing and subcontracting of many of their component parts. In the process, they have made their own operations leaner and meaner, while pushing significant parts of the production process to firms that are typically smaller. These smaller firms generally have fewer resources to commit to training and education programs and/or new employee recruitment. Many small and mid-sized firms have no full-time human resources managers, and their education and training programs often consist of tuition reimbursement policies, where individual workers must take the initiative to obtain additional education and training on their own. To promote cost-effective new worker recruitment (see the potential link to # 3 below) and incumbent worker training within these smaller firms, initiatives that facilitate common training, assessment, screening, etc. for jobs at small and medium size manufacturers are especially important. Cross-employer skills training—while always desirable—can help ensure, in a cost-effective way, that workers in smaller firms get the skills they need to compete in the global economy. Training and education programs should link to economic development policies that respond to the needs of sectors, industries and local or regional economies.
Challenge 3: Meeting employer demand while minimizing the deleterious effects of layoffs: While layoffs are a part of the manufacturing landscape, employment opportunities exist in the sector for those with relevant skills. To address this challenge, workers and employers need: a) apprenticeship or skills standards programs that provide portable, industry-recognized credentials to help workers access available jobs and help employers find skilled workers; and b) mechanisms to assure that laid off manufacturing workers can identify promptly good manufacturing jobs still available in their regional labor markets.
Challenge 4: Assuring a pipeline of specialty-skilled workers: Apprenticeship programs that prepare specialty-skilled workers in manufacturing have decreased dramatically in number and size during the past 20 years. Employers have been reluctant to invest in training workers whom they might not need in the future. This development has reduced the number of qualified workers able to replace the soon-to-be retiring skilled trades employees in manufacturing. The sector urgently needs specialty occupation training programs, including revitalized and updated apprenticeship programs, that provide industry-recognized, portable specialty skill credentials.
Challenge 5: Integrating workers with limited English proficiency: The manufacturing workforce is increasingly foreign-born, and as a result, the need for English language skills represents a growing challenge for the sector. Employers have difficulty finding programs that address the needs of limited English proficient workers in a manufacturing context.
Challenge 6: Maintaining the pipeline that channels young workers into manufacturing: Employers and unions share a concern about the future of manufacturing in the US, particularly as the workforce in the sector ages. Both workers and employers call for the K-12 education system to inform students about the changing nature of manufacturing and the wage potential manufacturing jobs provide, while preparing them for careers in this sector.
