WANTED: Skilled machinists

Investing to build a sustainable pipeline of workers in Western Massachusetts to keep the precision machining sector from grinding to a halt

The team of Industry Leaders and Politicians who worked together on this project: Rep. Don Humason - Westfield; Rep. Sean Curran - Springfield; Sen. Mike Knapik - Hampden County; Bill Ward - Regional Employment Board; Buck Upson - Pioneer Tool, West Springfield; Al Nickerson - Berkshire Industries, Westfield; Larry Maier - Peerless Precision, Inc. - Westfield; Jack Mitchell - Mitchell Machine, Springfield (not pictured); David Cruise - Regional Employment Board (not pictured)

When Berkshire Industries recently advertised for an experienced operator of coordinate measuring machines, computerized equipment used to measure exactly machined parts after fabrication, they received applications from a worker from a local steakhouse, a worker with food service industry experience, and a former Yankee Candle Co. worker. “We got the butcher, the baker, and the candle-stick maker, but no one we could hire,” Al Nickerson, Vice President at Berkshire Industries, told The Springfield Republican.

The goal of the 18-month regional project, called RENEW, is to attract employees into the skilled positions that can sustain and grown the precision machining cluster in the lower Pioneer Valley, named the number-one traded cluster by the Pioneer Valley Regional Competitiveness Council.

The Western Massachusetts chapter of the National Tooling and Machine Association in Greater Springfield comprises more than 20 companies, employing about 900 skilled workers, with total gross sales in 2005 estimated to be about $110 million. Projected market growth in aerospace, defense and medical devices is very strong for the next five-seven years. Overall, the precision machine sector in the Pioneer Valley region of Western Massachusetts consists of more than 300 companies with about 7,500 skilled workers, according to a 2005 survey.

Workforce development is critical to the sector’s continued growth, as many of the current employees are approaching retirement age. While a skilled worker in the precision machinery industry can earn excellent wages and benefits within the Pioneer Valley labor market, the industry suffers from a lack of trained workers at all levels in this region

The program will also work to with schools to foster the necessary math, science, pre-engineering and machine tool education and training.

“We have to change some of the views of our young people in the seventh and eighth grade who are unaware of the economic opportunities,” said Buck Upson, President of the Pioneer Tool Supply Company, in a recent newspaper article.