Maine's defense industry facing pressure of worker shortage

State leaders in the industry are working to ensure there are always enough employees as issues of national security won't wait for a solution to the worker shortage

[rogerrettinger]

Raise the $ pay and stop treating tradesman like dirt.

[bugspray]

Mr. Daigler is completely missing the mark. The issue that is most pressing is the housing. No one is building anything to house these thousands of employees they want. I was skilled, but only moved to BIW, because I was able to buy a home before moving. Until they recognize housing as an issue, they will never attract qualified and skilled workers. They really have no clue what the actual issues are.

[johndeere]

My son took machine tool in school for a year, took a year of engine repair in school, and went on to trade school after for welding, mechanical training and BIW sent him a letter he was not qualified to be entry level. My son passed his college program with excellent grades, and never missed a day, perfect attendance for the program. Not qualified my ass.

[Wheelgauge-btox]

Skilled labor is not cheap and cheap labor is not skilled!

[NoneOfYourBusiness-xn]

If they increased pay I bet the labor “shortage” would suddenly disappear.

[tims]

Look at the wages listed by General Dynamics. Experienced Pipe Fitter or Electrician : 28-32/hr. As either one of these you can move to a low cost of living Midwest state and make 35-40/hr.😅. But they’ll say, nobody wants to work anymore!

[TheRailfan]

Hello Afforable housing.Along with age discrimination.

[billyhorton]

Sorry, but your "workforce of the future" are presently preoccupied on their cell phones! Deal with it!

[stan]

Maybe not passing more anti gun legislation and promoting people who can do this work to live in your state

[MLSPlatforms]

Take away all the handouts! Plenty of people taking money that are able to work

[jivefive]

Why would I work essentially for minimum wage when 90% of my pay goes to the billionaires.

[Debora-mr]

Gardiner PD has actively picked a fight with the Department of Defense and just broadcast “I’ve got your defense article” over Gardiner PD’s LRAD. Maine won’t have to worry about getting more defense work because it won’t get any if it cannot control its city employees hired to enforce the law and citizens from going after the defense contractors and USMC military police’s parents.

[robertmclean]

With all the businesses closing, Boeing laying off you can't recruit workers..

[JoeyM-qw]

You have to have a family member in the Union to get cry that they cannot find employees, but, they do not give anyone "Not connected" a job. This is just an excuse on why they are behind schedule.

[eprofessio]

There are plenty of people to work, the problem is none of them want to work. They want to stay home and play call of duty. Time to let them play call of duty IRL.

[danielschmitt]

How to replace a workforce you have eliminated, attacked and financially destroyed? You don’t.

[morrisyoung]

Maybe if we didn't send everyone who graduated highschool to college for a liberal arts degree we would actually have some useful young people.

[kostyaa]

How about just bring in more workers from overseas? Visas are cheaper to issue than trying to attract natives with more pay.

[dreadfuldonkey]

Maybe the education department should’ve did a better job! How many of you retained any information about computer science from 1995?

[danniegibbs]

And Trump wants to do away with over time? Can even get people to work straight 40