Before any lawyer steps into the new Du Page County Judicial Center in Wheaton, laborers have already been there to lay the bricks and paint the walls. And it is estimated that for every Fermilab scientist in the high-tech corridor, there are three or four technical support workers.
From doctors to corporate CEOs, from teachers to bank presidents, few people in white-collar positions could do their jobs effectively without the assistance of their blue-collar counterparts.
Despite its image as a white-collar corporate haven, Du Page County could hardly exist without the blue-collar market. But here, as elsewhere, market trends have blurred the notion of the blue-collar worker.
Where once blue-collar workers were largely unskilled, today many have higher level training. At Hill Engineering in Villa Park, for example, vice president of manufacturing Bob Martinelli said, ”Things have gone high tech in our industry. We`ve got computers on the machines that we`re building. It`s a completely different field today than it was 20 years ago.”
More than 70 people are employed at Hill, where sophisticated machinery is used to do tooling for the automotive industry.
”It`s a very skilled labor in the tool and die field,” Martinelli said. ”We`re emphasizing the better-skilled people. Today our shop requires testing and good scores in math and mechanical ability. When I started we just filled out an application, started working and that was it.”
Similar changes to keep up with improving technology are happening in other blue-collar occupations as well. In fact, the whole definition of blue collar has become difficult to pin down, according to Bruce Anderson, director of the Du Page Area Occupational Education System (DAOES, formerly DAVEA) in Addison.
”The term blue collar and white collar is something that is a carryover from the past, and there really is more of a merge that`s coming through,”
Anderson said.
People who have been in traditional blue-collar fields are now working in environmentally controlled shops using computerized equipment.
”Is that person a blue-collar worker? Yes, under our old description they are,” Anderson said, ”but really their skill level is so much higher. Maybe they`re a multicolored collar.”
Those being trained at DAOES, College of Du Page and other local vocational programs are learning that computers and continuing job-specific education are part of most fields today.
”Computers are creeping in everywhere,” Anderson said. Take automotive shops, where computers are used to diagnose car problems or consulted to call up model manuals with the touch of a few buttons.
Mechanics at Village Garage and Tire in Glen Ellyn use computers and often attend additional training clinics.
Owner Mike Fahey said, ”You can`t just have the dropout mentality any more. You can`t be a mechanic without minimal high school plus all kinds of additional technical training.”
Annual income for an auto mechanic is about $30,000 to $40,000, Fahey said. ”There are a lot of guys going downtown on the North Western with their lunch in a briefcase,” Fahey said. ”The unfortunate thing is they have to pay for the $150 shoes, the $300 suits, the $26 shirts and the $30 ties to go make less than the guy that`s wearing the blue polyester work outfit.”
Anderson agrees. ”In Du Page County a lot of people want to be doctors, lawyers or whatever, there`s no question,” he said. ”Yet there are some phenomenal opportunities in the evolving technology fields that will be just as lucrative as what you would have if you went on to college. You`re going to do equally well. (Blue-collar jobs) are not necessarily a dead end.”
How much the industries are currently paying depends on experience, overtime and related factors, but a recent followup study of 1989 College of Du Page graduates showed average annual salaries.
Broken down, the figures for technology programs averaged $28,000; for health and public service graduates $24,600; for business services $18,100.
A spot check of local labor groups cited journeyman hourly rates of $14 to $20 in wages for tool and die makers; $21.88 for electricians; $28.13 for sheet metal workers (including benefits), and $23.68 for plumbers.
Yet workers do not seem to flock to the trades in Du Page County these days, report area labor offices. ”It`s not a desperate situation, but it`s difficult,” said Jerry Baginski, director of training for the Tooling and Manufacturing Association, which runs apprentice classes at the College of Du Page.
The Tooling and Manufacturing Association estimates a demand for 720 new tool and die or mold makers and machinists in Illinois each year until the year 2000. But new apprentices finishing training programs amount to only about 230 annually, leaving a shortfall of nearly 500 graduating apprentices per year.
”Du Page is no different from other suburban areas,” Baginski said.
”The whole scenerio is true across the U.S.”
Other trades have apprenticeship spots going begging. Yet data from the Illinois Department of Employment Security indicates that in blue-collar occupations, manufacturing and construction will see increased demand through the year 2000.
In Du Page County for example, more than 4,760 jobs are expected to be added in the area of laborer, helper and material mover/handler-a 34.5 percent growth rate.
Bill Syversen, principal planner with the Du Page County Development Department, is one who tries to keep tabs on the county`s future job needs. In that capacity, he says he has noticed an increase in blue-collar job opportunites in the past year.
”Du Page County is a very diversified economy,” Syversen said. ”Our manufacturing sector has really rebounded. That`s what we`re forecasting until the year 2010.”
Syversen pointed to Du Page County communities such as West Chicago, Bensenville, Addison and Villa Park as being strong blue-collar areas. ”We`re not all communities of Napervilles, Hinsdales and Oak Brooks,” Syversen said. ”We do have a blue-collar population.”
Jobs are also drawing blue-collar employees from Kane and Cook Counties, particularly from Elgin and Aurora. In addition, Syversen predicts increased opportunities for reverse commuting from the city out to Du Page, where jobs are being created.
The county anticipates that about 65 percent of the jobs that will be created between now and 2010 will be low-wage jobs, defined as those earning $425 or less a week, and most will be service-related positions.
It is also predicted that a decade from now, only 25 percent or less of jobs will be unskilled, compared to 50 percent maybe 10 years ago, Anderson said. ”If you cannot use your head at the same time you`ve got your hands in gear,” he said, ”you`re not going to have the employable skills that you`re going to need to be able to succeed.”
