" on the Scrapheap " , a Patternmakers lament

[Loonar]

G'day all, Will try not to drag it out...! You may recall the kerfuffle with cmi (industrial) re. Ford last month. A few of us today were laid off at Toowoomba Metal Tech., with, it would seem a gradual wind down over a few weeks, unless a buyer steps in. I know it is everywhere at the moment ( poor buggers at the Hastie group too). Anyhoo, me , mid 50's, Patternmaker, very much a dying art, unlikely to get anything close.. Unfortunately (!), a bit of emotion creeps in, a bit of an iconic place , the dear old T'wba Foundry, goes way back to the 1870's, evolved into the famous "Southern Cross" windmills, irrigation etc. , munitions for the war effort, etc. etc......so there you go...... Manufacturing is almost but not quite (unless you're specializing in mining??) dead in Australia... Goodnight

[Till_Lind]

Will only get worse next financial year. Sure it would be a lot to do with global and Australian economic problems, but Labor are going to make manufacturing in Australia even less attractive from the 1st of June. Sorry to hear of your current circumstances, best of luck.

[pottery beige]

did my apprenticeship in a large high production foundry..

spent a fair bit of time in the patternshop for the machining side of it..

full of oldschool patternmakers.. a truly outstanding clever can do people..

on of my biggest regrets is not taking in enough of these old guys knowledge at the time....

[Geez Louise]

Sorry to hear about your job Loonar. Hubby and I just both lost our jobs last week as the company we worked for, closed down. 10 people lost their jobs in one day. Sure, it is not a lot when compared with other companies, but that is 10 more people looking for employment.

Sadly, skills such as yours, will be lost within a few generations and we will be poorer for it.

Hope that something comes your way quickly.

Cheers
Col

[nuthin' fancy]

My sympathies Loonar. There must be a place for rare skills, surely.


Chin up.

[cs123]

Loonar, It is very sad to see these trades disappear. I hope you find some more work.

It would be great if you can link up with the local historical society to pass on your skills to others. I know you would have a lot of interest.

Perhaps you can start up a small foundry and do boutique jobs like for people that make model engines.

Originally Posted by Geez Louise

Hubby and I just both lost our jobs last week as the company we worked for, closed down. 10 people lost their jobs in one day.

Ouch, sorry to hear that.

[gtfpv]

im sorry to hear , i am disheartened by all this unemployment that is coming upon this contry all of a sudden . WTF is going on ?? why is everything shutting down ?

[madwag]

time to retrain much of the Australian work force into an industry with a complete/comparative advantage.

[gtfpv]

Originally Posted by madwag

time to retrain much of the Australian work force into an industry with a complete/comparative advantage.

like what , carbon tax measurement / internet selling , stamping car registrations/ selling groceries , and building , selling fast food , or pouring beer . cab driving ?

[Geez Louise]

We are actually quite lucky, Jack was offered another job within 30mins and started the next day, and I have been offered 2 other jobs, however I am taking a few months off to play mum for a bit before my youngest gets too old.

At least we were lucky,...so many other people are not...tis only going to get worse for a lot of people out there...

Cheers
Col

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by gtfpv

im sorry to hear , i am disheartened by all this unemployment that is coming upon this contry all of a sudden . WTF is going on ?? why is everything shutting down ?

This..... Beat me to it.... Seems like nothing is secure anymore.

Hope things improve fast for the people out of a job....

[madwag]

Originally Posted by gtfpv

like what , carbon tax measurement / internet selling , stamping car registrations/ selling groceries , and building , selling fast food , or pouring beer . cab driving ?

Without getting into the emotion of the fact that no one wants to lose their job, which is terrible. The economics of the situation is, back in the 1870's when this factory in the OP started, this was a new industry with over 100 years of growth ahead of it. Industry's come and go, just like the mining industry recently, the trick is to encourage workers to start or retrain to be eligible to grow new industry's. And don't quote me on this figure but something like 30% of jobs in 10 years don't exist today.

Manufacturing is one of those industries that cant remain competitive in a developed nation. What is happening today in the west with will one day happen in India and china i think, as they become developed, demand better pay rates, working conditions, etc which drive up production costs until the jobs eventually go offshore again, perhaps to south america or Africa. And so the circle of life continues.

[Loonar]

P.S., as a bit of an addendum to this, we believe Ford (Aust) ensured i.e. paid (directly/indirectly) for our last holiday break over the Christmas/New year period, so, ta v. much and to all the well wishers thank you for your gracious comments and i note a lot in similar circumstances......

[302 XC]

Originally Posted by madwag

Manufacturing is one of those industries that cant remain competitive in a developed nation. What is happening today in the west with will one day happen in India and china i think, as they become developed, demand better pay rates, working conditions, etc which drive up production costs until the jobs eventually go offshore again, perhaps to south america or Africa. And so the circle of life continues.

Ive heard that the workers in the lower paid countries are already starting to scream about their low paid wages,so expect things to start on the up with regards to prices,maybe not next week,but in the distant future,but it will be to late for others to perhaps fire up that long lost industry
Tooling,moulds, machines,equipment and workers will be either scrapped,sold on or moved to maybe greener pastures
I remember a few years ago in the steel manufacturing trade , it was cheaper to buy aussie made steel off shore than it was in our own country
Pritty sad

[gtfpv]

i know about moving with the times . but in the process we are becoming a bunch of govt dependent morons without skill , please dont get me wrong , but stamping papers and typing on keyboards , decision making about money , and punching numbers , or i should say ( swiping a bag of frozen vegies past a scanner for a living ) arresting somebody , or driving them somewhere , whilst it might bring the country into the future , it is not going bring us forward as a human species , there was once inteligent people around , now you can buy your degree by paying fees to a university which cannot discriminate against you for any reason . the majority of australian citizens will be that dumbed down it isnt funny and worse yet they wont even know it and think they're cluey .
i better leave this topic now . i'm not happy about these things .

as a senior tradesman , i have seen engineers that trained me and engineers today , the difference is going from very intelligent constructive people to nowadays having contractors on your contacts list so you can speed dial them to pull you out of a breakdown situation with a bandaid on a weekly basis .

[302 XC]

Originally Posted by gtfpv

i know about moving with the times . but in the process we are becoming a bunch of govt dependent morons without skill , please dont get me wrong , but stamping papers and typing on keyboards , decision making about money , and punching numbers , or i should say ( swiping a bag of frozen vegies past a scanner for a living ) arresting somebody , or driving them somewhere , whilst it might bring the country into the future , it is not going bring us forward as a human species , there was once inteligent people around , now you can buy your degree by paying fees to a university which cannot discriminate against you for any reason . the majority of australian citizens will be that dumbed down it isnt funny and worse yet they wont even know it and think they're cluey .
i better leave this topic now . i'm not happy about these things .

as a senior tradesman , i have seen engineers that trained me and engineers today , the difference is going from very intelligent constructive people to nowadays having contractors on your contacts list so you can speed dial them to pull you out of a breakdown situation with a bandaid on a weekly basis .

Absolutely
Even in the 15 years i was in the metal trade, goin from a low end scale job upto management level, i saw the trend in the less hands on approach
but the funny thing was, anyone text book trained,or newish to the field,i wasnt scared to get out and show how its done,where as many who have gone from the floor to the office,cant be bothered helping or on passing a skill
Look at the employee job turn around between jobs, theres just no longivity in anything wether employers or employees
Theres no incentive to learn anything, earn a pittance for your first 3 years learning a trade or earn 3 ,4 maybe 5 times an hour flippin burgers or delivering pizzas,these jobs arent long term,but the hourly rate draws them in
Im all for ,stay in school,learn a trade or join the forces (trade),but what trade do we teach today thatll have a demand tomorrow ???