The former Cheers star and veteran voice of Pixar films is on a mission to revitalize U.S. manufacturing.

“The reason the world is free is because of American strength,” he says. “And America’s strength is based on manufacturing. And manufacturing is based on invention.

“Every single industry, and there’s no exception to this rule, started with one person inventing one thing. And every single one of those people started off as a child tinkering.”

In his estimation, there’s not nearly enough tinkering going on these days, which he fears will have dire long-term consequences.

America, he says, has lost its manufacturing mojo. There aren’t enough students entering vocational schools or the industrial trades, he says. With a dearth of wrench-savvy workers, there aren’t enough people to repair the nation’s crumbling bridges, buildings and water systems, let alone operate the gears of America’s mighty military machinery.

The 64-year-old Ratzenberger, who once was a carpenter and is the son of a factory worker and truck driver, says the nation is facing an economic “tragedy of epic proportion” stemming from a decline in U.S. manufacturing and the men and women who know how to run, make and fix things.

“We may never recover if we lose our manufacturing edge to other countries,” he says. “The pervasive impact of this crisis has the potential to turn America into a second-rate economy.”

This year Ratzenberger, who is a board director and leading voice for the nonprofit organization Center for America, is gearing up a campaign to evangelize domestic manufacturing. The centerpiece of this crusade is the television documentary Industrial Tsunami.

The documentary’s message that there’s a shortage of skilled workers in the United States is told through young people, parents, manufacturing executives and community leaders.

The work owes its origins to the John Ratzenberger’s Made in America, which aired on the Travel Channel between 2004 and 2008 and honored American inventors, factory workers and the like.

That show also inspired the book he co-authored, We’ve Got it Made in America, A Common Man’s Salute to an Uncommon Country, as well as the genre of blue-collar reality shows, including Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, among others.

There’s little reason to doubt Ratzenberger’s latest media project won’t succeed.

“You know there are 137 cities in the United States with water systems that are failing, where the water pipes are over 100 years old,” he says. “There are 250,000 bridges in disrepair and not enough people to fix them.

“The reason Third World countries are Third World,” he says, “is because nothing works. Basically, that’s where we’re headed.”

Full story can be found at http://www.inventorsdigest.com/archives/6646

“People are starting to realize they’re putting themselves out of work…”
Watch the interview, here.

“We don’t build that here anymore.” The words hung in the air like fog. I heard the same statement repeated by many of the small businesses we profiled on the “John Ratzenberger’s Made in America” series on Travel Channel.

Despite amazing innovations and inspired workers, the tragic reality is that American industry and trades are under assault from within — we don’t have enough skilled workers to make America work anymore. Many companies are literally begging workers to come on board, offering well-paying, high-skilled work and training just to stay afloat.

The most popular phrase in today’s political lexicon is “job creation.” Americans of all persuasions are demanding that something be done about jobs. Seeking a fast fix, leaders in Washington and in the states are offering up tax cuts, low interest rates, and the promise of “green jobs,” all of which have some merit.

But in an American economy that’s losing its industrial base, “fast fixes” won’t prevent the coming tide of job loss and the entire culture of American productivity that goes with skilled work. The impact will be devastating.

The average age of a skilled worker in the U.S. is 55. Credible statistics from the U.S. Labor Department and elsewhere suggest that somewhere between 3 million and 15 million jobs go unfilled due to skilled worker shortages. Every major sector is affected, from crane operators and welders to high-tech producers and health care providers. We’re talking about trillions of lost dollars and a repositioning of America as a debtor-consumer, rather than the global leader-producer. This is the perfect storm.

Some critics have said that the American economy is too resilient to fold, and that we will innovate our way out of the “old” manufacturing economy and into a bright and shiny future in which Americans will find new ways to work and produce. I enjoy “first principle” discussions as much as the next guy. But these discussions have little value when America is staring down the barrel of a failing economy, crumbling infrastructure, and a workforce made up of college graduates and unskilled labor.

I prefer to focus on what is, rather than what might be. The warning lights are blinking on overdrive — America is in trouble. We need a long-term effort to educate, train, and deploy America’s skilled workforce. We have very little time to get this right.

We are currently producing a documentary and education program, “Industrial Tsunami,” for national release in early 2012. In “Industrial Tsunami,” I will showcase programs across the nation that are providing hands-on, meaningful training to a new generation of Americans. There are some terrific efforts underway, primarily in the private sector, to bring skills to young people. Bradley Tech high school in Milwaukee is a prime example — high-tech and practical skills taught by professionals alongside excellent academics. This is promising. But there’s more that needs to be done to right the ship.

It starts with kids. We must foster the love of tinkering and the self-reliance and creativity that come with it. The old “shop class” model has essentially disappeared. Let’s develop and promote hands-on learning at home and in schools.

Government needs to help; in some respects, it can do so best by simply getting out of the way. Too often, regulations are disconnected from good intentions and become economic roadblocks with little social value. Add to that a lawsuit-crazy culture that makes every job and activity a liability waiting to happen. Government policies that drive young people into a “college or failure” mindset make skilled work career choices a practical impossibility.

We must also expect and demand that our media culture change its portrayals of skilled work and workers. Workers were once honored as the backbone of America in our movies and books. In today’s celebrity-driven media, however, skilled work is demeaned and skilled workers are often portrayed as a grimy cautionary tale. Who’d want a job like that?

The stakes are too high to hope for a changing economy that will innovate and create fast enough to offset our shrinking skilled work-reliant manufacturing, construction, and infrastructure building and maintenance industries. We face an epic challenge, but it’s also an unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of the need for skilled work and workers. These jobs exist today, and they don’t require billions in “stimulus” to develop down the road. Note to lawmakers and policymakers across America: The window of opportunity is closing fast. Will America get to high ground before the Industrial Tsunami hits?

John Ratzenberger is an actor, author, Center for America Board member and advocate for America’s skilled workers. He is currently producing a documentary and education program, “Industrial Tsunami,” on the devastating loss of skilled workers and its impact on American prosperity and culture.

CFA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose programs bring people face to face with issues that affect the future quality of life, economic prosperity and freedom in America. CFA offers a wide range of learning programs and knowledge resources about ways people can get involved to help solve America’s problems.

Find more information on the Center for America and John’s developments on the “Industrial Tsunami” campaign at www.centerforamerica.org.

It’s easier than you’d think.

Reader’s Digest, December 2010

by Natalie Van der Meer

Actor John Ratzenberger, perhaps best known as the barfly postman Cliff Clavin on TV’s Cheers, now plays an even more engaging role offscreen as an activist. He has spoken out for American manufacturers at congressional hearings, and in 2004, he created, produced, and hosted Made in America, a show for the Travel Channel, in which he visited 200 iconic U.S. companies to celebrate the men and women still making products on American soil. He is also completing an independent film about the current job crisis, Industrial Tsunami. Here, his recommendations for keeping jobs at home. 

Buy American. “Everyone who’s out shopping should just go into a store and say, ‘Where’s your made-in-America section?’ If they say they don’t have any, then say, ‘Thanks, I’ll find it somewhere else.’ They’ll get the message. Go to my website, ratzenberger.com, for updates about the shortage of skilled American laborers and more tips on what else you can do.”

Support hands-on training. “We need to reinstate vocational training in skilled manual crafts. Ask about adding shop classes to your local school curriculum. If you’re experienced in a trade, offer an apprenticeship to students to learn your skill. It’s alarming that the average age of industrial workers today is 55, and the younger generation isn’t being equipped to take their place.”

Change perceptions. “A lot of people think that manual labor is demeaning, that if you don’t have a college degree you’re a lesser human being. High school guidance counselors should be telling students that factories today are immaculate, and some people in manufacturing make good money. Within two years, there will be a need for over 500,000 welders in the United States. Look around at all the things that need welding: bridges, water systems, sewer systems, ships, railroads. One of the reasons the Roman Empire collapsed is that roads fell into disrepair and there weren’t enough stonemasons to repair them. The same thing could happen here.”

Reader’s Digest – December 2010

The Washington Times, Nov 12, 2010

by John Ratzenberger

The “jobs crisis” is nothing new. In fact, the current political debate misses the bigger picture. It won’t be elected officials and bankers alone who save the day. What our leaders have been doing – and not doing – has consequences for American jobs and the future of American enterprise. We’ve each got a stake in the game, and we each have a role to play in fixing it.

I’ve met with hundreds of American community leaders and entrepreneurs who have joined our campaign to tackle the bigger jobs issue. We don’t have enough jobs right now and, conversely, we don’t have enough skilled workers to fill key jobs. Major obstacles blocking solutions to our national jobs crisis – abusive litigation, complex regulations and cultural biases – have been addressed on an ad hoc basis, like over-the-counter cold remedies.

These are challenges that must be tackled together, with an eye toward “actions have consequences,”or they will kill us separately. We need a plan that will cure the patient, not just treat our symptoms. That’s why I’ve kicked off a national campaign.

America has moved away from its common-sense, risk-reward ethos formed over many generations into a consequence-free mentality, in which bad decisions don’t really change behavior. Tragically, one word best describes a broad section of the “new America” – bailout.

I agree with Matthew Crawford, the author of the 2009 best-seller, “Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work”; namely, that the way we work from top to bottom has broad public consequences. See America in 2010 – the consequences abound.

Mr. Crawford observes that “in the boardrooms of Wall Street and the corridors of Pennsylvania Avenue, I don’t think you’ll see a yellow sign that says ‘think safety’ … no doubt because those who sit on the swivel chairs tend to live remote from the consequences of the decisions they make.” His practical suggestion says it all: “Why not encourage gifted students to learn a trade … so that their fingers will be crushed once or twice before they go on to run the country?”

As part of our national campaign for skilled workers, I am currently in production on a documentary, “Industrial Tsunami.” What I’m finding in my daily chats with innovators and employers is that the “loss of skilled workers” is a symptom of our nation’s “bailout” culture.

Here’s how this plays out: A teenager gets hurt in high school shop class. His parents sue the school. The school district cannot afford the costs of liability risk, so they cancel vocational training. Thousands of kids in one school district go without the opportunity for hands-on skills training.

This same teenager graduates high school and faces a media culture that tells him that he must go to college or be a failure. Taking a minimum-wage service job, he reads about high unemployment in the daily newspaper. Despite available technical training and vocational schools, he doesn’t think that jobs really exist on the other side. The celebrity culture further stigmatizes his views on skilled work. Only low-class people work with their hands, or so goes the implied message.

Meanwhile, employers are starving for skilled workers in all sectors, from health care to infrastructure construction and repair to high-tech manufacturing. These employers, however, face an ever-increasing mountain of regulations that sap resources from recruiting and hiring into bureaucratic compliance that often has little to do with public health, safety and welfare. Skyrocketing liability insurance premiums and litigation costs drain further dollars away from training – not to mention research-and-development innovations that would create millions of new jobs. That would be too costly, too risky.

Loss of opportunity. No incentives. Loss of pride in work. These are symptoms of the underlying disease that the media calls “the jobs issue.” As a former carpenter, I can assure you that smashing your thumb with a hammer teaches you to move your thumb out of the way. If you don’t move your thumb, the house doesn’t get built. These are the consequences facing Wall Street, Pennsylvania Avenue and Main Street.

John Ratzenberger is an actor and entrepreneur, and his website it www.ratzenberger.com.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/11/skilled-labor-falls-by-the-wayside/print/

© Copyright 2010 The Washington Times

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Did you know:  Hamm the Pig’s voice has been known to autograph pictures mailed in.

Ratzenberger, a leading advocate fighting the skilled worker shortage, is scheduled to present to this prestigious group Nov 17 on behalf of Foundation for Fair Civil Justice.

Legal Momentum, the Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, is celebrating 40 years of advancing women’s rights in 2010.

The Foundation for Fair Civil Justice (FFCJ) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate, motivate and empower the American people to understand they have the greatest stake in removing obstacles to a fair civil justice system, innovation, entrepreneurism, and job creation. FFCJ creates multi-media educational programs, publications and website features that reach millions of Americans through radio, television and the internet. Learn more at http://www.foundationforfairciviljustice.org/