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Opinion: Here’s to blue-collar workers – and bringing more to the trades

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Throughout history, high-profile people have garnered the most attention and recognition. The average American worker is less likely to receive accolades or attention both in the media and our daily lives. 

With media outlets providing more channels of content over the last couple of decades, we have been introduced to television shows and movies highlighting some of history’s greatest engineering feats and construction accomplishments.

Beyond that, shows and documentaries give a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the making of items we frequently use – and often take for granted. Put all this together, and it is just amazing to see what generations have been capable of doing as we built America.

It wasn’t until Mike Rowe came along with his show “Dirty Jobs” in the mid-2000s that the average American worker took center stage. You can have the grandest of vision and intentions, but you need millions and millions of workers to pull it off.

Finally, we were able to see what the average American worker did day in and day out to make everything around us performs the way it was intended. Whether it be at the office we work in, a storm shelter to provide safety or a manufacturing plant that produces our food, a lot of people come together to make it happen.

What I found most inspiring about a show that focused on the average American worker was the attitude and pride with which they went about their day. These jobs can result in long days of hard work in dirty, and often dangerous, conditions.

You might think these tougher conditions could chip away at that positive attitude, but it doesn’t. They are there, every day, applying their professionalism and expertise to get the job done right and safely.

The question is: Why do they do it? Let’s face it, it tends to be the white-collar professionals that get more attention in society and the media. Parents want the best for their kids, which has led to decades of telling children they have to go to college to get a good job. While it is not bad to go to college, there is much that could, or rather should, be said about going to work and learning a trade.

For one, it doesn’t require tuition costs or student loans. With the increasing cost of a college education, many graduates go out into the working world saddled with debt. The starting salary of some degrees is not very much more than a teenager can make out of high school, and there are many students who leave with student debt and no degree. 

Beyond the financial aspects, some might ask why someone would want to go into a profession that consists of hard work and long days. Well, it’s called labor for a reason. Some kids just grew up in awe of the big equipment on job sites and knew they were going to go into construction. Others are just looking for a job and find they like the work and the sense of accomplishment when the job is done. 

The good thing we learn from these shows is that you can see our labor force has more technology and better equipment at their disposal, leading to safer job sites than we have ever seen as an industry. Frankly, it is hard to imagine how contractors of the past were able to accomplish what they did seeing the modern equipment and techniques at our disposal now.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the individual – and the pride and determination they possess. What do they want to accomplish? It could be the young “go getter” laborer that wants to learn a skill with the goal of starting their own company. Or it could be the skilled laborer that is content to go to work every day doing their best while building the life they want for their family. 

The men and women in construction have touched every aspect of the lives we live. While they go about doing this every day, I hope they take a moment to step back to look at what they have done to make our lives better and take pride in their work. It is something we should all take the time to appreciate.

Mark Gambon is the president of the Springfield Contractors Association Board of Directors and an agent with Nixon & Lindstrom Insurance. He can be reached at mgambon@nixonins.com.

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