[Jewelry making - Article 00477] - Re: [Orchid] Certified Bench Jeweler

[David L. Huffman]

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Hello Noel

    I'm sorry, I have to agree with Don, unionization is largely
    responsible, in my opinion, for the higher wages of the trades he
    mentioned.  Unionization is also responsible for our 40 hour work
    week (where it still exists) and the end of child labor in this
    country.  That aside, certification is all well and good, but it will
    do nothing to raise jeweler's wages without licensing.  Plumbers and
    electricians have to be licensed as well as qualified for their work.
     This limits competition from just any hack that wants to hang out a
    shingle.  Not so with jewelers. 

>         . . . The menial jobs you mention are well-paid largely because
>     otherwise no one would do them 

    There are far more menial jobs paying rock bottom wages.  Farm
    workers have dangerous jobs too sometimes, but are low paid, and it's
    back breaking work (I know, I've done plenty of it).  I've also
    worked in non-union factories where the work was dangerous, hard, and
    low paying.  Plenty of people were lined up for those jobs too.  And
    who wants to be a housekeeper for a motel? Miserable work cleaning
    toilets and changing linens, it's boring and backbreaking too, and
    very low paying, but there are always openings.  Hotel workers were
    once unionized, but that only survives in the big tourist areas.  We
    used to see a huge influx of seasonal hotel workers from Jamaica
    during our tourist season. 

>         . . . Moreover, plumbing and garbage collection are far more
>     indispensible than what we do. 

    It's not always a matter of necessity.  It's often a case of supply
    and demand.  There's demand for jewelers, and the supply of truly
    capable and efficient ones is now low, hence jeweler's wages are on
    the rise.  If you are a retailer and you don't have access to a good
    jeweler, you are going to be put out of business by the ones who do. 
    Ten years ago, I could only hope for $35-40,000 a year and benefits. 
    Now I can get $50-60,000, and I was at the top of my game 20 years
    ago.  Jeweler's wages have been low, historically, mainly because of
    the large immigrant work force that was and is employed by this
    industry.  It's not essential to be proficient in English to work at
    the bench, and often immigrants have the skills from jobs in their
    native countries.  But they are also easily exploited.  When I worked
    in the sweatshops of our industry, I was outnumbered by immigrants,
    legal and illegal, 5 to 1, and when INS pulled up, dozens of men and
    women were out the back door headed for the parking lot.  Look at the
    names on the old jewelry stores.  They tell the history of the series
    of nationalities brought in to work in this trade.  The oldest are
    the Jewish names, then Irish, then Italian, followed by Armenian,
    followed by Middle Eastern and some Mexican, and now Ukrainian and
    Russian.  Why, if there are still immigrants to hire, is it getting
    harder to find a good jeweler?  The immigrants who are arriving now
    don't have the skills, they are coming from areas where fine jewelry
    was never a big industry, and the jeweler's role has changed.  He has
    to be an all around strategist on repair, design, and sales.  And he
    doesn't have time to train anyone.  The jewelry schools are turning
    out graduates, but these students are years away from being able to
    sustain a competitive repair and custom design component for today's
    retail. Frankly, I'd like to see the jewelers unionize, but it would
    be a daunting task to undertake.  It would have to start in the
    manufacturing end, and that's moving overseas (where you can still be
    killed for trying something like that). 

David L. Huffman


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