But contractors and dealers worry that finding people like Armatis will be harder and harder. Komatsu America Inc. But as he and others note, farm-grown labor is in increasingly short supply and finding such workers can take some traveling. To increase the union labor pool, employers and trainers are focusing new recruiting efforts among nontraditional sources. Presas is focusing his efforts at U.S. Dept. of Energy cleanup sites around the country and meeting with agency contractors. That development includes creating brochures written in English and Spanish, providing an 800 telephone number and advertising the program on the Web.
Community groups can bring recruits into the union.
Presas adds that the group aims to build retention with a mentor program that encourages apprentices to stay the course. But when push comes to shove on personnel shortages, equipment-owning contractors turn to equipment distributors and their technicians. In the competitive world of equipment dealers, service can make or break customer relationships. Half of the firm's 150 employees work as technicians. Recruited from local technical schools, they then apprentice in-house for as much as three months.