In the American imagination, the phrases \"decline of the middle class\" and \"loss of factory jobs\" are almost inextricably linked. But the promise of the US governmentS. The recovery in manufacturing has gained strength and currency in policy, which many see as a way to reverse the economy. In his post-speech, President Obama trumpeted the growth of factory jobs. \"Think about America as we can,\" he told the audience in his State of the Union speech last year. \"An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech High-tech manufacturing, high qualitypaying jobs! \"But while there is optimism and nostalgia for the former US, it is worth mentioning whether the work of the factory is more likely to help today\'s workers rise to the middle class --- Or keep them trapped among the poor at work. Elena Suarez is taking a lunch break, walking along the side of the road in the industrial park where she works, eating sandwiches while walking, when I stop her from asking about her work. She is the machine operator of resontics, a manufacturing company based in Nashua, New Hampshire, specializing in precision laser micro-processing for the medical device industry. I asked Suarez how she was working. \"Poor,\" she said . \" \"I pay for my job. \"Suarez commute from Manchester, about half an hour away, and gas and car repairs cost her quite a bit of her salary. She said that three years ago, she found the job through a personnel agency for $11 an hour. Two years later, she was hired as a direct employee of the company. This means that she has several paid sick leave and has received medical and dental plans, which will cost a lot of workers. Her hourly salary also dropped to $10. 50. Her husband also works in a factory, but even with two incomes, the family has to budget carefully to get through it. Suarez said she saw more children in other families, or only one working parent, and she wanted to know how they managed. \"Sometimes I ask people,\" she said, \"How did you do it \'. \"It\'s not easy sometimes. \"In general, although the complexity of manufacturing work has grown over the past 40 years, their wages are far from keeping up with the growth of the whole economy. Adjusted for inflation, the industry\'s average wage is now below the medium-term level1970s. If there\'s some high The work of the skill factory also has a lot of low Skills, in many cases, are filled by a rotating casual worker or someone whose salary never exceeds the temperature level. There is a reason to give better wages to workers. One was presented by a paper from the 2012 Brookings Institution, which argues that the future of the United StatesS. Manufacturing depends on the willingness of enterprises to adopt a \"high road\" for production. This means investing in technology, using innovative approaches, and ensuring that workers have the ability to contribute to process improvements. The second argument is a more fundamental one that applies to the economy as a whole: workers are contributing to increasingly productive companies and they should share their income fairly. The $1. 2 billion international plastic molder Nypro is a company that accepts high-tech ideas Road manufacturing. In the old brick wall of a former carpet factory in Massachusetts, the precision plastic extruder turned into a machine that fixed the human body. The factory makes components for medical equipment and requires the high attention of workers. Even many floors. Production workers need to understand the quality standards of computers, robots and industries. \"It is very unusual to find someone who has been here for less than two years -- \"The level of university education,\" said company spokesman Al Cotton . \". He said that the workers were less educated when they came in, but they attended classes at \"Nypro University\" before and after the shift, at the principal cost of the company, some have even obtained a master\'s degree from a local university that has a connection agreement with the training program. Some workers working on advanced computers Cotton says driving machines can earn $100,000 a year. While this is partly due to the fact that people who are able to fill these positions are so short that they end up working 60 hours a week. Nypro is growing. When I spoke to cotton later in May, the company was looking to fill 100 positions in the position in Massachusetts. Atrium Medical in Hudson, New Hampshire is another growing plastic company in the medical device industry, but at least according to some employees, the company is less focused on investing in employees. ( The officials of the company did not reply to my call, which is also the reason for the resonance. ) Atrium was acquired by the Swedish Maquet Getinge Group for $0. 68 billion in 2011 and plans to move to a larger building soon. On a sunny afternoon, when I stopped at the factory, the workers were outside and had lunch at the picnic table. I approached two women who spoke quietly in Spanish and asked about their work. They said they were members of parliament. When I asked if the work was good, they hesitated. \"They pay the minimum wage,\" said a person familiar with the matter . \" $8 an hour. This is the starting salary, she added. She worked here with her friends for 10 years. They now earn $9 an hour. Another woman had lunch in the car and she told me that the member was moving between standing and sitting. \"Apart from the\" guys \"who run the welder, we do everything by hand,\" she said . \". \"Look at it if you can\'t keep up,\" she said . \". \"Let me say this, we are not paid much,\" she added . \". \"We are not paid much for the work we do. When I approached another worker, he immediately told me \"I like this place \". Benefits are not the best, he said, but after two years of work, he recently received a $11-hour raise. Because his girlfriend\'s salary is similar, they can support their son. He likes the schedule, work 10- Rest for one hour from Monday to Thursday and Friday. However, when I asked him if he would like to stay at the job, he said with a smile that it was good enough before he could return to college. He added with a slight irony: \"This is not my dream job. \"The difference between Nypro and Atrium is not black and white. 10 to 15% of production workers at Nypro\'s MIT plant earn less than $10 an hour, and of course there are also some well with high technical content But the two companies are beginning to realize how different production positions change. If you really want to seeover-the- In addition to Craigslist, map manufacturing is also possible. In Michigan, the number of jobs in the industry has been growing rapidly, with jobs committed to $35 an hour, plus the benefits of running computers -- Sitting next to a lathe like this: \"We are looking for candidates with at least one year of manufacturing experience. Candidates must be able to lift 50 lbs all day, bending, twisting and standing. All candidates must be flexible in shifts and can work overtime and weekends when needed . . . . . . . Compensation: $8. 00/hr. The moment is an interesting moment for manufacturing. The industry made a spectacular nose Dive between 2006 and 2010 with more than 2 losses. 5 million jobs, a record low of less than 11. 5 million. After that, it began to rise slightly to nearly 12 million. Economists have a lot of debate about whether this growth will continue, but advocates, including President Obama, have begun to drive it. Obama has created several pilot projects to help companies adopt high Technical manufacturing process and training workers to participate in it. However, for more and more people to talk about good jobs -- With the growth of the number of manufacturing jobs, the salary of the technology industry has not increased. Average hourly wage of manufacturing workers by real value Including the front- Line supervisor and programmer of computer Controllable machinery, as well as manual assembly and meat packaging-fell from $15. From 2010, it was $87 to $15. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012 was 51 years. These numbers may be a bit high as they do not include temperature. On average, poorly educated factory workers still earn a little more than they do in retail or fast food, but that\'s not always right. Different services American politicians almost adore manufacturing employers and factories. Without some sort of tax subsidy, it would be difficult to find a factory to expand or open a new location. The government resonated. When the atrium opens a factory in Nashua and when the atrium moves to a new location, it will be eligible for tax incentives for the New Hampshire. Howard Val is one of the authors of the Brookings Institution paper, which advocates Incentives in some states and localities do require companies to pay a certain amount of wages, but this is not common, and even if this is the case, there is often no enforcement mechanism. Overall, he said, these incentives are not particularly linked to creating good jobs. \"They just dig jobs from one place without creating any new value,\" he said . \". Wial, president of the University of Illinois at the Chicago city center for economic development, said if they encourage companies to pay good fees and support unionisation, Obama\'s efforts to encourage growth in high-tech manufacturing will also be stronger. Still, he says federal projects are a way to help manufacturers stay smart on technical methods. Now, he said, the technical complexity of different factories varies greatly. \"Some companies are working very hard to think about how to best organize their work, how to best utilize the skills of workers, and how to use more skilled workers,\" he said: \"How to engage workers in decisions that are critical to improving production and innovation. \". \"Some companies don\'t think about this very systematically at all. The difference means that some companies are much more productive, he said. Competitive Internationalthan others. He said there is often a correlation between companies with higher production efficiency and wage levels for workers. \"Of course there are some high He said, \"but, in general, to reach the highest level of productivity, you need to involve workers actively in solving problems and they won\'t be willing and unable to do so if they don\'t share the benefits. According to the report, manufacturing wages are at a low end in the United States. S. Compared with other industrialized countries, however, between 2000 and 2010, the country lost more jobs Paid countries The study also found that even in a narrow category of workers -- Use a stamping press to make a car die from sheet metal-U. S. Wages range from $10 to $17 an hour. In addition to the conclusion that high wages are accompanied by higher productivity, the report also states that direct labor costs often account for \"far less than 20%\" of the total cost of the manufacturer \", make the salary level a relatively unimportant factor in the competition ability. \"In general, manufacturing is not like Labor. \"Although it used to be dense, it\'s not that important,\" Wial said . \". However, he added that this does not mean that the company is particularly generous in terms of wages. \"Over time, we have seen this very disturbing trend, our productivity has grown, and the typical workers have not shared much, if any. \"Steve Saven is one of those who believe in a renaissance in manufacturing. An old- American School businessman in neat shirt and tie He saw a pair of shiny shoes. Well-known companies like GE rethink their processes and find it more meaningful to produce many products in the USS. than overseas. \"Manufacturing has created the middle class in this country,\" he said . \" \"In order to rebuild our middle class, we need to rebuild the manufacturing base. Sawin, CEO of Operon, said the company is not a temporary agency. It serves medical device companies including Nypro and Atrium, not just warm bodies to run machines and assemble parts, but also those selected to work in a modern manufacturing environment, then receive training for the specific company they will be working. At Nypro, Sawin and operation area manager Amy Oskirko set up a work area in a corner of the factory, defined by temporary partitions containing several large tables. Applicant- Nypro alone has 20 to 40 in a week. Participate in reading comprehension, basic math, manual dexterity, and visual testing. If they do well, they will continue to receive industry-standard training on documents, calipers, and microscopy for checking plastic parts, and how to \"wear dresses and clothes \"-- From the hair net to the shoe cover, bandaged with sanitary plastic to keep the product clean. The whole process takes six to eight hours in two days. unpaid— Oskirko said it depends on the training needs of the client company. Sawin said his company provided services to help the United States. S. The company competes. For employees who work for Operon, they can easily increase or decrease employees based on their needs at any given moment, and they can hire those who perform best as permanent employees. His company has helped eliminate artificial speculation, the most variable part of any production process. \"You go out and buy a bag of screws and you believe they will work with very few exceptions,\" he said . \". \"On the other hand, people . . . . . . They are everywhere on the map. To a large extent, the position he filled was not complicated, said Sawin, partly because of the automation of production functions. \"In many cases it downgraded the human character to check, monitor and control the machine, pack, label, and maybe a little bit more assembly,\" he said . \". As with all other training topics, new employees watch DVDs marked with \"professional ethics. Sawin says it\'s something you can\'t really teach, but they tried it because it\'s a big problem among the people they hired -- The biggest reason they didn\'t get a full offertime. \"For some reason, many young people are not instilled in the basic principles of good professional ethics,\" he said . \". Sawin said the salary of the employees he hired was $9 to $12 an hour. Health insurance is not provided by operators The plan it wants to offer is not up to state- A statutory minimum in Massachusetts or New Hampshire. Even if the salary is only $8, which is not uncommon for casual workers in the industry, says Sawin, which is not bad given that the job is entry-level. \"This guy may have bagged groceries at Stop & Shop last week,\" he said . \". I asked Sawin if people would work harder if they were paid more, but they said he didn\'t think so. \"I don\'t think it has anything to do with pay, it has nothing to do with principles,\" he said . \". If there is a dispute about whether paying more wages to production workers will increase productivity, there are other arguments that need to be considered. How much a worker contributes to the success of the company and what compensation she should receive for her work company is unlikely to raise the issue to herself. Historically, raising wages has been the work of the labor movement. But few trade union delegates in manufacturing today13. In 2012, 4% of production workers were under 19. Between 2% and 2002 recently. \"It is almost impossible now to form a union through the National Labor Relations Act procedure,\" said Brad Markle, executive director of AFL. CIO Council of Industrial Alliances When it comes to the real recovery in manufacturing, Markell suspects that unless the U. S. He revised the trade policy, but he said that there is no better intrinsic reason for the production work that does exist in the country at the moment than they pay. \"In these areas, the added value of each employee is enough to support a good employee But the question is whether these workers have the ability to withdraw their wages from these companies, \"he said. \"In an era of high unemployment, it\'s very difficult when we lose a lot of manufacturing jobs and when people don\'t join the Union. Markell said it was not clear whether more complex products and manufacturing processes would lead to jobs requiring better training or higher pay. \"Average 17-year- \"Old computers are very complicated, so how much education is needed,\" he said . \". \"Of course, this is not the case, because the computers involved in the work have higher wages. It\'s more about motivation. \"Resontics, a high-profile laser micro-processing technology company that works in Elena Suarez Technology manufacturers measured by almost any standard. Its machines can be as small as one in ten millimeters, and it does so for the medical device industry, which is very interested in new technologies. But when I asked Suarez if she had received a lot of training for the job, she shrugged and said, well, you have to learn to use the machine. A colleague from Suarez asked me to call her Judy, who said it was not particularly difficult to run the machine. \"If there\'s anything more boring than asking,\" she said . \". Judy, a woman who looks and behaves to show that the office manager is not just a machine operator, has been in the manufacturing industry for 30 years. She works most of the time in a company that produces electronic test equipment. She was trained as a computer programmer there and then went back to school to read the blueprint. Over time, she raised her salary to $20 an hour. But when the company closed the local factory, she found that there was no translation of her skills. Four years ago, when she was employed by Resonetics, her experience earned her a starting salary of $12. 50 an hour. Soon, she learned new skills, including inspections, which meant staring at the microscope to find defects in plastic products produced by the machine She told me that the shoulders and neck are harder than the eyes. Her salary today is $15 an hour. She said she was able to live on that, partly because she paid off her mortgage during the years of her high-paying job. Her pension from that job was also very helpful. Judy said that since she started working there, management seems to have improved in terms of resonance, but overall, she thinks the industry is more difficult for workers than before. \"I think loyalty played a role in it years ago,\" she said . \". \"This is no longer the case. It\'s all about money.
