Job Status

[Cory Smith]

 

[fiatlux]

Ooooh, cruel

FL

 

[BillJ]

I would laugh but I just went through a similar situation. The best part is they did it by email.

 

[Deleted member 16349]

Landa has made a big deal about their cockpit for the operators on their redesigned press. They went to a lot of potential customers to get feedback. I can just see them talking with the offset press operators about what they would like to have. So along with the futuristic work station, they will get a cup holder and some other personal comforts.

I suspect that things will not turn out so well for these operators. After the Landa press concept is proven and is delivered, the managers of these packaging operations are going to think that with such a great press that is consistent and predictable and easy to run, we don't need to pay for these highly skilled operators. The idea of having a highly paid operator sipping his coffee in an entertainment cockpit might give the managers the idea for further cost savings. Let's lower their wage or replace them with lower cost labour. Good bye offset press operator.

 

[D Ink Man]

Landa has made a big deal about their cockpit for the operators on their redesigned press. They went to a lot of potential customers to get feedback. I can just see them talking with the offset press operators about what they would like to have. So along with the futuristic work station, they will get a cup holder and some other personal comforts.

I suspect that things will not turn out so well for these operators. After the Landa press concept is proven and is delivered, the managers of these packaging operations are going to think that with such a great press that is consistent and predictable and easy to run, we don't need to pay for these highly skilled operators. The idea of having a highly paid operator sipping his coffee in an entertainment cockpit might give the managers the idea for further cost savings. Let's lower their wage or replace them with lower cost labour. Good bye offset press operator.

The Landa concept will not prove. My personal prediction and take. Not as long as we are on this side of the ground Erik. D

 

[Colorblind]

I would laugh but I just went through a similar situation. The best part is they did it by email.

That's quite a classless, cowardly way of doing things... Shame on them.

 

[Deleted member 16349]

The Landa concept will not prove. My personal prediction and take. Not as long as we are on this side of the ground Erik. D

I have my doubts too. I should have said "If the Landa press concept is proven...".

Even if Landa does not succeed, there are a lot of digital printing technologies coming that will replace offset operators. I just thought it was kind of funny that Landa listens to the operators that will be gone because of his technology if he is successful. I suspect that deep down the interest in going to digital printing for management is to get rid of troublesome employees who think they are indispensable.

 

[gordo]

Hopefully the "cockpit" can be remote from the press and handle multiple presses. That way one press operator could oversee several presses from the comfort of an onsite or even off site control center. Although I don't know what, if anything, needs to be controlled. A minimum wage press minder to deal with paper jams etc. could be on site.

Shouldn't the press operate like a desktop printer but on a larger scale? I just put paper in and take the output away. Occasionally I replace an ink cartridge. Not very sophisticated operations.

Gordo

 

[kansasquaker]

Nobody likes it when their job is replaced by technology. And the managers doing the replacing are made out to be the bad guys. Strangely, nobody minds paying lower prices for goods that are manufactured using more automation and technology and they don't give a hoot about the people who lost their jobs to achieve that cost savings. While you can have empathy for those people, you can't lament or curse the progress of technology.

As for the actual point of the cartoon - outsourcing - we have no one to blame but the government and ourselves. How is any worker in developed country supposed to compete in "free and fair trade" with workers who earn a small fraction of the minimum wage in a developed country? The imbalance is too large for jobs to stay in developed countries. There are only three ways to stop it. 1. Lower wages in developed countries, 2. higher wages in developing countries or 3. protectionist trade policies. Of course not dealing with the problem creates massive unemployment. So pick your poison.

 

[D Ink Man]

Nobody likes it when their job is replaced by technology. And the managers doing the replacing are made out to be the bad guys. Strangely, nobody minds paying lower prices for goods that are manufactured using more automation and technology and they don't give a hoot about the people who lost their jobs to achieve that cost savings. While you can have empathy for those people, you can't lament or curse the progress of technology.

As for the actual point of the cartoon - outsourcing - we have no one to blame but the government and ourselves. How is any worker in developed country supposed to compete in "free and fair trade" with workers who earn a small fraction of the minimum wage in a developed country? The imbalance is too large for jobs to stay in developed countries. There are only three ways to stop it. 1. Lower wages in developed countries, 2. higher wages in developing countries or 3. protectionist trade policies. Of course not dealing with the problem creates massive unemployment. So pick your poison.

Two and three sound fine to me. Hopefully "2" selections are allowed. D