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Ratzenberger wants youth to focus on nuts and bolts

Date: 6/15/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD John Ratzenberger may have shot to prominence through a long-running comic performance on television, but there was nothing funny about the message he brought to Springfield in a two-day trip to the region: America is facing a crisis in manufacturing.

Ratzenberger, who portrayed letter carrier and know-it-all Cliff Clavin on "Cheers," finished five years of his own documentary television series "John Ratzenberger's Made in America" in 2008 and out of that came a realization that few American young people were being encouraged to go into manufacturing and building trades.

Ratzenberger said analysis shows the average age of skilled blue collar workers in this country is 56 and he fears when they retire out of the workforce in five to 10 years there will be an "industrial tsunami."

"The United States is literally running out of workers who can makes things - artisans . We got convinced about 25 years ago that everybody's got to go to college and learn computers and we forgot someone's got to supply the electricity," Ratzenberger said.

The owners of Onyx Restaurant hosted a dinner and reception Thursday night with Ratzenberger and area elected officials and business owners. Ratzenberger and Onyx co-owners Dr. Michael Spagnoli and Peter Pappas spoke to Reminder Publications prior to the event.

Spagnoli has been friends with Ratzenberger for years and asked him to come to Springfield to speak about the issue.

Ratzenberger was born in Bridgeport, Conn., to a mother who worked in a factory and a father who was a truck driver. Before entering show business, Ratzenberger was a journeyman carpenter.

He said that to him, factory workers have always been heroes and he hasn't appreciated how the entertainment industry and the media have portrayed blue-collar workers.

Ratzenberger started the Nuts, Bolts and Thingmajigs Foundation (NBT) to advocate and support more vocational training. NBT encourages the next generation of engineers, carpenters, welders, plumbers, mechanics, manufacturers and electricians - what Ratzenberger calls "manual artists."

Since its creation, it has become the foundation for the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association. NBT has provided funding for summer manufacturing camps, training programs and scholarships to one-, two- and four-year schools.

Ratzenberger now tours the country speaking about the need for more vocational training. He also wrote the book "We've Got it Made in America: A Common Man's Salute to an Uncommon Country" from his experiences.

The lack of emphasis on vocational training is leading to a serious lack of skilled labor, Ratzenberger asserted. He said industry officials have told him in two years there will be a need for 500,000 welders and that need will go unfulfilled if the present rate of training doesn't change.

According to the NBT, many young people today lack fundamental skills like basic math, science and even the ability to read a ruler and 25 percent of American children don't graduate high school - in some states, the rate is as high as 45 percent.

Keeping children indoors to play video games may placate a parent's concerns about safety, but Ratzenberger said it doesn't teach children anything.

Pappas said he agreed and supports Ratzenberger's efforts and knows first-hand about these issues. He worked for the Chicopee-based B.F. Perkins Company for years and saw how difficult it was to find skilled replacements for retiring workers.

"I believe in John's mission," Pappas said.

Pappas added that without manufacturing and its skilled workforce, the standard of living is lowered in a region.

"Manufacturing is the basis of this country," Ratzenberger said. He urged that young people who elect to go into a skilled trade be treated with respect.

Ratzenberger is concerned that elected officials don't understand the status of the skilled workforce.

"I spoke to Congress two and half years ago. They don't get it," Ratzenberger said.

He offered the following advice to parents with young children to help reverse the present trend: "I would tell them at an early age put a sandbox in the backyard . Let the kid climb a tree. Let him repair his or her own bicycle. Give them things to do with their hands that has texture so they can understand the physical world because we are all starting to live in a theoretical world that's not based on any reality. And if the child decides to go into the trades, treat the child as a hero and not as a failure -- because that's exactly who they are. "

For more information on NBT's efforts, go to www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org.