CHEERLEADER FOR US MANUFACTURERS

April 7, 2008
WILLIAM ARMBRUSTER
Host of Travel Channel program blames schools and Hollywood for poor image of blue-collar workers The average American factory worker is 52 years old. That’s a scary thought. And it’s part of the reason why actor John Ratzenberger is on a crusade to promote U.S. manufacturing.Ratzenberger, best known for his role as Cliff Clavin, the postal worker in the TV sitcom “Cheers,” is the host of the Travel Channel’s program “John Ratzenberger’s Made in America.” The show, which spotlights U.S. manufacturers, entered its fifth season on April 2. It airs Wednesday evenings at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times. The May 14 episode will spotlight Bedford Park, Ill.-based Hoist Liftruck, a manufacturer of forklift trucks. “We’re literally running out of factory workers. I know a fellow in Chicago who could put 200 welders to work tomorrow, but he can’t find them,” Ratzenberger said in an interview with Shipping Digest. “I’ve talked to company heads who had to turn down big orders because they can’t find enough people with the requisite skills,” he added.Ratzenberger blames the school systems and the media for the poor perception of manufacturing and the paucity of young people attracted to factory work. “In the last 20 to 30 years, we’ve convinced kids that they have to go to college. A lot of kids don’t want to,” he said. Nonetheless, schools discourage students from considering blue-collar professions, and many, including the Los Angeles school system, have dropped shop courses, he said. This contributes to high dropout rates, he said.“What we’ve done as a culture, and certainly Hollywood is complicit, is we’ve denigrated anyone who works with their hands. We depict carpenters, bricklayers and welders as being dirty and stupid,” Ratzenberger said. “That’s always gone against the reality I grew up with. People who work with their hands are not stupid. You have to be highly skilled, dedicated and proud of what you do.”He recalls visiting one high school class and asking the students how many of them planned to go to college. All but one raised their hands. When he asked that student what he planned to do for a living, the student replied that he wanted to become an auto mechanic. The other students all laughed. Ratzenberger said he told them they would end up with big loans and waiting tables after graduating from college, while the auto mechanic would be fixing their cars and making a lot of money.“I would love to speak to an association of school guidance counselors,” he said. Many schools are not eager to have him visit because they don’t want a celebrity coming around and asking questions that could prove embarrassing if they were picked up in the local media, he said. Because the schools have failed to teach fundamental skills, many companies have to spend their own money to teach simple things such as how to use a ruler to measure 5/16ths of an inch, Ratzenberger said. Hank Cox, the National Association of Manufacturers’ vice president for communications, said the skills gap is the one issue that always comes up whenever he speaks to manufacturers’ groups around the country. “Young people coming out of high school today are simply unqualified to work in modern manufacturing. Our schools are pathetic,” he said. Noting that the NAM invited Ratzenberger speak at its National Manufacturing Week conference several years ago, Cox said, “We love his TV show and appreciate his commitment to manufacturing.” But, Cox added, “sometimes he sounds like he’s advocating protectionism, which makes us a bit nervous.” Concerned that young people spend too much time playing video games and not enough time doing things with their hands, Ratzenberger co-founded the Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation. Its goal is to introduce children to the joys of tinkering. “Little hands build big dreams. Give children tools and watch them build America,” the foundation states.Its Web site — www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org — includes an essay by Ratzenberger. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and all great inventors, he writes, “shared one thing in common: As children, they had all been inveterate tinkerers. They fiddled with things, took them apart, put them back together, wondered how everything fit together — and tried to make something new out of what they’d learn by doing.” The actor expressed his concerns in a meeting with members of the Congressional Manufacturing Caucus, co-chaired by Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Ill., and Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio. He told them the U.S. will face “an industrial tsunami in six to 10 years” because of the aging of factory workers and the shortage of talented young people entering the work force. Ratzenberger said he has been asked to run for Congress three or four times. “I keep saying ‘no’ because I figure I can get more done privately. With the support of factory owners and unions, I figure we can put a coalition together that would show people the value of going into trades,” he said.Ratzenberger, who co-authored the book “We’ve Got It Made in America,” a collection of essays, grew up in the blue-collar city of Bridgeport, Conn., which he describes as “the jewel in the crown of the industrial Northeast.” Many of the factories he visits now still use machines produced in his old hometown, he said. Besides the TV show and his crusade to promote manufacturing, Ratzenberger is active in the movie business. His voice can he heard in every animated Pixar film, including “Toy Story” and “Ratatouille,” and he has the lead role in a new film called “The Village Barbershop,” in which he plays a small-town barber. The film shared the prize for best feature film at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Diego last month. Ratzenberger said the producers are looking for a distributor so the film can be shown in theaters nationwide.