Can you use a screwdriver?

Just what was this manufacturing industry that we had to preserve at all costs?  What were the special skills, possessed exclusively, by these workers?  And how long are these skills current in today's environment of rapidly changing technology?

For some years, in the 70’s, before working in government, I worked in the steel industry, for the very company that later shut down in Newcastle, and was involved in satisfying the iron and steel requirements of the many automotive industry component manufacturers that then spread across industrial NSW.  I was a regular visitor at many of the plants like Martin Bright Steels; Overall Forge; and British Leyland.

Apart from a few highly skilled design engineers, the majority of automotive workers are familiar only with the machines, processes and components they employ or assemble each day.  They need to be retrained when new equipment, processes or components are introduced.  As in many other manufacturing businesses they need to have the basic technical education, aptitude and experience to be re-trained quickly and economically,  but their current skills are specific to one manufacturing environment and have a ‘use-by date’.

At another point in my career I was involved in aptitude testing many hundreds of would-be industrial and mechanical apprentices.  It was evident that the required high level mechanical and spacial aptitudes were possessed by less than half of the cohort tested.  And because we were testing an already self-selected group, less than one person in five may have the necessary aptitude.  There is a dramatic difference in mechanical aptitude between individuals, that seems to be independent of home environment or other educational achievement.  As a result, some have speculated that mechanical aptitude is genetic, perhaps reinforced environmentally because those possessing these abilities are drawn to making things and, like musicians, the aptitude runs in the family.  Those at the other end of the mechanical aptitude spectrum have difficulty using a screwdriver and probably see no point in owning one.  

This supports the rationalist argument that Holden, together with other subsidised automotive manufacturers and their suppliers, have been effectively sequestering the best workers.  Not by being the most productive or efficient employers but by virtue of government handouts, and market protection, that allow them to unfairly compete for this scarce resource.  They argue that these, above average, workers should be released to find employment where their skills add real economic value, not in activity that is only profitable with a subsidy.