Cleveland Manufacturers Fighting Skills Gap

On the shop floor at Astro Manufacturing & Design last week, David Slamic guided an electrode wire across a slim, smoldering block of steel, shaping a precision part that will go into a surgical device for the Cleveland Clinic. Then he wiped his hands on an oily rag and beamed like a toymaker.

Twenty-nine and good with his hands, Slamic loves his work. His employer, meanwhile, treasures his skills. The Willoughby man showed up at the Eastlake factory six months ago and applied for a job, explaining he'd been running manufacturing machines since shop class at Mentor High School.

Astro executives not only hired him, they asked if he could bring in 10 more young people like himself. Slamic, who makes more than $20 an hour as a machinist, said he could not bring even one.

"My friends, they have got a false perception," he says, as a $300,000 computer-driven lathe thrummed gently behind him. "They think it's a dirty job, factory work. They don't actually know what it's like."

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