Your Ultimate Source in Machine Shop Referrals

There's a lack of qualified machinists in San Diego. Several local shops are constantly looking to fill vacancies to no avail. There could be several reasons why its becoming harder to fill those open jobs; job security, below average wages, and the high cost of living in San Diego.

Job security. It is human nature to be afraid of the unknown. Machinists who currently hold jobs in this tough job market are less likely to walk away from those jobs, even if they're not happy. That's because they already know what to expect in their currently job. Switching to another company is a little risky, especially if it doesn't work out. They'll most likely join the 11%+ unemployed in California for a while to come.

Low wages. With the economy in shambles, a lot of companies are very conservative on paying out lucrative salaries. The bottom lines of companies are constantly being squeezed. They'd much rather pay a little extra in overtime than add to their long term payrolls. Machinists with a lot of experience won't be tempted to jump ship for less than what they're worth.

The high cost of living in San Diego. Let's face it... San Diego is a very expensive place to live. Even with the housing market bubble popped, its still relatively hard to rent or buy a place to live in the county on limited funds. Before the housing market crashed, people were starting to leave the area for other cities with a lower cost of living. That migration has contributed to a shortage of machinists. Those highly skilled machinists left are now able to pick and choose the better companies they want to work for. The lesser qualified machinists would still fall into the 'job security' and 'low wages' categories.

This all equates to not finding qualified machinists. Local shops need to offer better compensation packages for potential employees and be more aggressive in recruiting/retaining machinists.

By Gretel C. Kovach, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Gary Robbins, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 10:42 p.m.

General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego — the last major shipbuilder on the West Coast — plans to eliminate one-fourth of its work force to cope with a prolonged slump in the industry, cutting as many as 1,150 positions.

The county’s largest manufacturing business said it has sent letters to 900 of its 4,100 workers, notifying them that they might be laid off starting in mid-July. About half of the 500 jobs held by subcontractors also might be cut.

“The potential work-force reduction is the result of a sustained downturn in the commercial and government shipbuilding markets that NASSCO addresses, as well as fluctuations in the Navy’s repair schedule,” Karl Johnson, a NASSCO spokesman, said Wednesday.

“It is possible that the (layoff) number could change if there is an increase in ship repairs,” he added. “Shipbuilding has always been a lagging indicator of the economy, and we’re still feeling the downturn.”

The impending layoffs would be the largest in 15 years for San Diego’s biggest waterfront union, Shipyard Workers Union Local 1998, which has about 2,300 members.

Although the downsizing had been anticipated for a year, the timing — unemployment in California remains in the double digits — is painful, said Robert Godinez, president of the local union, which is a branch of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers.

“It’s a massive layoff. It is going to impact the community quite a bit,” Godinez said. “Some of the employees are very upset, understandably so. It’s a change in economic well-being. They know the unemployment rate right now in California is high, and finding work is hard.”

To read more... http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/may/12/nassco-lay-many-1150/

Hardinge Inc. agreed to buy Jones and Shipman for $3 million from Precision Technologies Group Ltd. amid a hostile takeover of itself by Industrias Romi S.A.

Industrias Romi S.A. has offered shareholders of Hardinge Inc. $8 per share in a bid to takeover Hardinge. This all cash offer represents a 46% premium on top of the current actual value of Hardinge Inc's stock price as of 3 February 2010. The value of the takeover bid is $92 million dollars. Hardinge produces vertical and horizontal machining centers, CNC lathes, grinding tools and work holding equipment. The headquarters of Hardinge Inc. is in Elmira, New York. The product lines produced by Hardinge include Brideport, Hauser, Tschudin, and its own namesake, Hardinge.

Fellow CNC machinist and friend, Bill Swanson, is retiring from General Atomics-ASI. His last day will be Thursday, 1 April 2010. He has been employed with General Atomics-ASI for the past seven years. I wish you well in your retirement, my friend. See you at the party!

San Diego has had several years of underfunded pensions for our city employees. On top of that, many are 'double-dipping', buying time in order to qualify for higher retirement payouts. To make matters worse, many city employees are overpaid. Below you'll find a pdf file which contains the salaries of the city's top employees for calendar year 2007. The salaries include base pay and overtime. It contains 84 pages with the lowest salary + overtime entry at $75,000.64.

Curious entries include page 7 (Lifeguard Chief) with a salary of $120,000+, page 8 (Lifeguard Sgt) $118,000+, page 11 (Lifeguard Sgt) $112,000, page 14 (Lifeguard Sgt) $108,000, and the list goes on. I understand the fire department and the police department both have hazardous jobs to do but why are so many of them on this 84 page list? Remember, the lowest salary here is $75,000.

General Atomics ASI (GA-ASI) has announced the successor to retiring GA-ASI President Rear Admiral Thomas P. Cassidy will be Mr. Frank Pace. Rear Admiral Cassidy has been with the company since 1987 and was a founding member during the formation of General Atomic's Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) in 1992*. Rear Admiral Cassidy will continue to be a vital part of the GA-ASI family as a non-executive Chairman of GA-ASI's Management Committee.

Mr. Frank Pace is currently the Executive Vice President of GA-ASI. His promotion to President of GA-ASI will take effect mid-March 2010.

*The exact dates of service to the company conflicts with published reports. Will update as necessary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics
http://www.answers.com/topic/general-atomics

***** General Atomics ASI currently has 4 machinist openings. One is Machinist I and the other 3 are for Machinist III & IV ***
***** Information is current as of 15 March 2010! *****

http://www.ga-asi.com/

... chatting with a client outside of his machine shop, when a gentleman (copies of prints in hand) approached us to inquire about getting a quote for his job. As we were talking a few minutes earlier, we had noticed this same gentleman enter and exit a few other machine shops close by. Obviously he was shopping the job to several other shops in the area. My client, I'll call him 'Tom', politely took the prints and told the gentleman he'd take a look at them. After the gentleman left, we watched him enter yet another machine shop, Tom and I went into his shop. Just inside the door, Tom casually tossed the gentleman's prints into the garbage. He noticed the puzzled look on my face and said 'Those guys waste my time'. He explained that he gets several of those kinds of RFQs (request for quotes) a week from guys price shopping the area machine shops. Most are looking to get work done for nearly nothing...

Tech update…

Many of you have the Apple iPhone and use various apps to tweak your iPhone experience. But what if you have any of the other competitor’s phones? Apps are usually exclusive to a specific phone and cannot be used on another brand. Apple’s iPhone represents about 17% of the world market. Nokia still has 40% of the market, followed by Research In Motion’s 21%. RIM is the maker of the Blackberry. All of these smartphone companies have their own app stores.

Enter Ilja Laurs, Lithuanian-born and founder of GetJar, an independent app sales portal. There are roughly 57,000 applications contributed by about 350,000 registered developers. GetJar has about 60 million downloads a month, second only to the App Store. This is where GetJar differs from all the other smartphone app stores… GetJar not only offers applications for the iPhone, Nokia, and RIM but for competing platforms, to include Android, Blackberry, and Symbian.

Once again, we've come upon the winter holiday season. Soon, it will be Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. I would like to encourage each of you to take the time and do something for our military personnel... a token of your appreciation for their service to our country. It could be something as simple as a thank you card, a small gift, or inviting a few of them into your home for a home cooked meal. Also, please remember the soldiers in the hospitals recovering from their injuries.

I'll post the information to a great charity group called Operation Homefront below...

Operation Homefront is a local support group dedicated to our active military, their families and our wounded warriors once they return home.

If you're interested in giving to a worthy charity this holiday season, please consider Operation Homefront. There are a couple of annual holiday programs to choose from.

Adopt-a-Family:

Here’s some disturbing news for businesses in California. It’s an interesting read from California State Assemblyman Cameron Smyth. I urge you to read the article… http://arc.asm.ca.gov/member/38/?p=article&sid=162&id=221614 .

Yes, the machinists of Boeing are paying the price for their arrogant pro-union policies. Did they really think that they could push Boeing over and over again without paying a price or consequences? How much did they expect Boeing to bend over backwards before Boeing looked elsewhere to do business?

That's a question I've been asked by several people I come into contact with. The answer, in my opinion, is as complex as the question was simple. I believe we've just about seen the bottom of the downturn of our economy... for the near future. I also believe we're going to have another recession within the next two to three years. The reason for my pessimism is simple, President Obama and the Democrat controlled Congress have spent this nation into a deep hole. They've basically doubled our debt with their 'stimulus package' and now want to impose 'nationalized health care' upon us too.

Boeing Swings to Loss, Announces Jobs Cuts
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Kathryn Elizabeth Tuggle
FOXBusiness

Boeing, (BA: 43.21, -0.01, -0.02%) the Chicago, Ill.-based airframe manufacturer, reported a fourth-quarter loss of $56 million and 10,000 job cuts on Wednesday.

On the company's earnings conference call, CEO Jim McNerney said that Boeing will cut 10,000 jobs, which is about 6% of the company's work force. That's more than twice as many cuts as the company announced earlier this month.

The company attributed the loss to a well-publicized 58-day strike by its machinists, which led to fewer airplane deliveries and further delays on its 747 jumbo jet.

I guess right now, many of you are probably wondering what the current and future domestic economic situation holds for you.

If you're an employer, you're concerned about future contracts, and getting paid for work already completed... not to mention if you will eventually have to let go of some of your employees. What do you do? It may be a little late, but one of the things I use to do when times were good was to always keep some sort of idea brewing on the back burner. When things got a little slow, I would devote some time to that idea. How to develop it, what my target market would be, how to get that product in the hands of potential consumers. And the list went on and on. The main thing you're concerned with is keeping those spindles going and the parts coming off the machines. When that stops, everyone is in a world of hurt.

Wishing everyone the very best in 2009!

Operation Homefront is a local support group dedicated to our active military, their families and our wounded warriors once they return home.

If you're interested in giving to a worthy charity this holiday season, please consider Operation Homefront. There are a couple of annual holiday programs to choose from.

Adopt-a-Family:

Would you like a great way to connect one on one with military families to say a special thank you this holiday season by providing food and gifts to the family. Community sponsors must be able to provide an entire holiday dinner with all the trimmings for the family (estimated $50-$100) and gifts for each of the children (minimum of $30-$50 per child). If you would like to sponsor a family for the holidays please complete the Sponsor Participation Agreement below and fax to us at 858-695-6845. You will be contacted shortly to discuss your application.

Holiday Food Baskets:

While I hope all the candidates I support will win their respective elections and the ballot initiatives I'm interested in do pass, I want to encourage each of you to vote in Tuesday's elections. It is a right and a privilege to be able to vote. Please do your duty as citizens.

Northrop Grumman and USO Debut Renovated Center for San Diego's Active-Duty Military Families

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 16, 2008 -- San Diego's active-duty military and their families can enjoy some relaxation and comfort at the newly renovated United Service Organizations (USO) Downtown Center. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) joined forces with the USO and local businesses to remodel the center, unveiling the high-tech 18,000-square-foot facility today with a ceremony and tour.

Photos accompanying this release are available at http://media.primezone.com/noc/.

"For many active-duty service men and women, USO San Diego is their home away from home and a popular place to spend time with friends and family," said Tim Verhoef, acting CEO for USO San Diego, in front of more than 100 guests and representatives from local military and government agencies. "Northrop Grumman and its employees are commended for their hard work in making this renovation possible."

The Machinists strike at Boeing continues into its second week. To get a more in depth look at why the Machinist Union went on strike, please read the article at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008169753_boei... .

Our domestic, as well as global markets, are in turmoil. And yet, these Boeing machinists somehow think that a strike strengthens their ability to bulldog Boeing into an unfavorable union contract. Its no wonder why Boeing is outsourcing their work to other countries, who have people more than willing to do the 'jobs Americans don't want to do'. It would not surprise me in the least if Boeing ends up sending nearly all of their work offshore, with the exception of those government contracts that require the work to be performed domestically. If and when that does happen, the unions will have no one to blame but themselves.

This is what is wrong with unions in the United States. They've outlived their usefulness and have become a financial burden to manufacturers. Take this excerpt from an article I was reading today...

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Boeing's three-year "best and final" offer included bonuses totaling at least $5,000, raises averaging 11 percent, pension increases and a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment — $34,000 in average pay and benefit gains per employee, according to the company. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,416361,00.html)
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“Where do you guys all hang out?”

That was the question I was asked a few years ago by a young female recruiter for a large temporary agency. She had called on day when I wasn’t too terribly busy at my shop. Normally, I wouldn’t have had a lot of time to spend with non-business related calls but, like I said… I had a little extra time that day.

She started off the conversation by introducing herself and asking if I could help provide her some assistance in finding machinists to fill vacancies she currently had in her agency. The conversation went something like this…

Headhunter: Can you tell me, where do you guys all hang out?

Me: What do you mean?

Headhunter: I’m having a little trouble finding machinists in the area.

Manufacturing trends change over time. Our economy is constantly changing. Sometimes we’re experiencing growth, sometimes its contractions. Our ability to deal with the changing trends allows us to remain competitive as well as survive the ebbs and flows.

5th Axis CNC Receives 2008 Best of San Diego Award

WASHINGTON D.C., June 17, 2008 -- 5th Axis CNC has been selected for the 2008 Best of San Diego Award in the Machine Shops category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA).

The USLBA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USLBA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Company EVP Receives Lifetime Achievement Award in Aerospace Engineering