Two of my coworkers are 18 or 19. A clerk and a clean up guy. They're OK.

I could be wrong. I'm wrong a lot but I'm not sure if there's a problem with the work ethic of young people today anymore than there ever was. I remember hearing this same stuff back in 1978. Older people talking about how lazy the young people are. I'd like to think I was an exception, but I can't judge myself. Ask my old boss. Good workers are hard to find. They always have been and always will be.

Maybe I'm not old enough. There may have been a genuine "good old days" I wasn't working prior to 78. However,  I've known a lot of lazy old people.

I think Big Industry as well as Mom and Pop store should teach those who are willing to learn the fine art of Butchery..  I have love old school Butchery for as long as I can remember, but because It is very male dominated I choose to obtain an education in Human Resource Management and Labor Relations. With over 17 years, H.R. experience I was laid off and I have ventured to pursue my aspiration as a Butcher.

I have been apprenticing in a local (Mom & Pop) Butcher shop that caters to specific cuts of meat.  Nonetheless, out of the 10 Butcher Shops I asked for a free apprenticeship this particular shop was the only one that said “YES”.  When the owners (Men) see me, they ask me “Why you (a girl) wanted to be a butcher? Then all the guys stop and stare!!

I tell them that I am passionate about the job, determine to offer the customer quality; I am willing to take direction, and what I lack in education I will make up in determination and perseverance. I am willing to stand in the freezing cold for 40 hours a week, carry and assist other in loading and unloading meat product and most of all offer great customer service in exchange for education and experience.  Experience is priceless!!!  I want to know where my food is coming from.  I want to have the capability to explain to the customers the various cuts of meat and its function. I am willing to apprentice for free to show the owner that I am serious. Still!!! only one place has given me a shot.

I even created a resume explain my transition from HR to my Butchers Apprenticeship which I have sent to various shops. I have yet to hear anything but, I will not give up and I am determined to be a skillful Butcher.  February will be on year of actual Butcher hands on education.

 In my spare time, I purchase my own meat to cut and I read many book, I am studying diagrams and I look at YouTube videos for my education.   I really need to obtain an opportunity, (be it paid or unpaid), with a Skilled Butcher to learn how to cut all types of meat. I currently do not get opportunities cuts skirt steaks, New York strips, or t-bones.  I also know the dangers involved.  (I absolved the owners from any liability).  I have just started cutting oxtails on the electric band saw. AWESOME!!

I  writing all this to say that if  I put forth this much effort to learn, in addition to continuing  my  pursuits no matter the obstacles , then Meat Markets and Butcher Shop owners can invest time in those that really want to learn.  As a result, we can have many generations of skilled Butchers. In the future I would love to have my own Butcher shop and when this dream comes to reality  fruition,  I promised myself I will train those who have a keen  determination to do this type of work no matter their gender, age, or ethnicity.  It takes a special person to do this job and I am that person, you will not get a complaint from me. I love being a Butcher!!  

 

This drives me nuts!! Because people like me who are doing it for the love of the trade get over looked because owners have been burned!!  I believe that if you are doing a job that you love good money will eventually come.  But, there is a great feeling of satisfaction, gratification, that I get from delivering a great service to the community.  The butchers shop is not just a butcher shop. Just like a barbershop is not just a barbershop.  It is also a connection with the community and camaraderie, weather it is in a super market or a small shop.

 

This is bought over from LinkedIN where I have this same post,

 

Karl Moorehead

Operations Specialist at SUPERVALU

 

I cut meat for 27 years and then went into the office as a meat supervisor and am now a store director. My take on it is- we don't really have an apprenticeship program anymore. We just throw people in and hope they swim. I trained as an apprentice for 2 years, was an assistant meat manager for 5 years before getting my own shop. Thats completely unheard of now a days. Investing in training is the key, from the basic skill of cutting, merchandising, ordering, and how to make a gross profit. I see companies spending lots of money running around trying to fix problems in the meat department and never really getting much accomplished because the person running the department doesn't have the basic skills of those components mentioned earlier. A good meat operation is crucial to a successful store as well as fresh in general. The industry has done this to themselves. What steps will they take to correct it?

As far as what constitutes what a butcher does, and being a workhorse, etc. A lot of you guys are just playing dumb to the fact that everyone is taking cuts everywhere, except skilled workers, and if you don't consider what you do as skilled, and or skillful, in dealing with the customer, management, handling sharp objects, and doing this all in colder temperatures at the crack of dawn, damn near 365 days out of the year, you have to be out of your mind,

Everyone wants to screw the younger generation, and it's that philosophy that has kept you older gentleman in the field for so long, and has kept anyone else out, which has a lot to do with a lot of other industries, the older generation doesn't want to lay down, and because of this, all the tiered systems are erased, the chances of having replacements is diminished and the notion that there will be another generation to step up as a meat cutter is practically absent, because most of you have signed contracts, and union agreements to basically put a stop to your own industry, whether it be for the rights of you to punch out earlier over your co-workers or for you to step out before cleaning the room starts, it must be nice to have such a cushy position and only dealing with the aspects of your work that are enjoyable while the rookies take it amongst themselves for 10.00/hr to baby sit your messes after you're headed home.

Did you work 25 years to get that sort of respect or did you do the same thing, in a time where inflation wasn't an issue, and you were still getting paid a decent wage to do it?

Don't play your butchery expertise to the sacrifice of any level of decency or humanity, if you've been in a freezer, you know the numbness associated with it, and you know a lot of supermarkets don't enforce drug laws, and i know a lot of you do self-medicate on top of other things just to stay sane, and in that regard, why should these younger kids have to suffer any level of that self deprecation at the hands and accounts of generations passed?

Should take a good hard look in the mirror, and consider how many rookies have passed through filled with piss and vinegar ready for the challenge but fell short because of bad policies, bad working conditions, and short wages, yet you always have this older gentleman ready to step in for nickles on the dime that gets servants instead of co-workers.

Fairness of the trade? or inner bias and an unwillingness to procreate the second generation, I feel at any rate these two things will ultimately destroy the industry itself, on top of micro-management, and typical drama associated with the brain lapse of sitting in cold temperatures longer then two hours a day. I find it somewhat pathetic to assume that the younger generation isn't a generation of workers, I'm 22 years old, and I've worked damn near 33 different jobs since turning 18; varying from baker,deli, meat, and now in my current industry of mining, which by the way started my wages just shy of 23/hr. oh, and sadly the working conditions are better. :)

Melnick I agree!!

Leon,

   There's a lot of truth in Karl's post.  Years ago we had a contractual limit of 1 apprentice for every 6 journeymen but that is no longer the case. Nowadays the chain I used to work for brings in "apprentices" just to lower the overall wage percentage of the dept. There seems to be no real intent to turn them in to skilled journeymen and in fact under the latest contracts the most they will ever be is a Class B meat cutter, NOT a journeyman.

He's also right about unskilled meat managers. When I was in the business most meat managers, or Chief Journeymen as they are called in a union shop, were the best of the best. However as time went by, contracts got worse, dept hours were cut, there were less and less incentives to be or stay a meat manager. I did because I needed the additional pressure and stress to keep from becoming bored, but many of the old timers, having plenty of seniority, stepped down.  Meat manager became the only way for a newbie part timer to ever get full time, so it was only part timers who applied. Most of those were woefully unqualified but they are the only ones interviewing for meat manager so that is how it went.

Jim

Well said Sawman. In the old days I managed 18 cutters  and apprentices and 6 meat wrappers in my dept. Then we went from hanging quarters to boxed beef, fresh whole chicken to pre-cut and packaged chill pack, and eventually much of the beef, lamb and veal would come in cut and packaged. My company actually removed most of the equipment except for the service grinder. But then sales went down the toilet, the company realized it's mistake and went back to at elast cutting bef, pork, lamb, and veal in the store.

However you cannot turn back the clock. As more and more discounters came up, like BJs, Walmart, Costco, etc, the traditional supermarkets are struggling to stay alive.  This is why pay has decreased so much, union shop or not. It does unions no good to hold out for high rates if it just forces companies into bankrupticy.

Times change, economies change, and this is why I changed careers after 28 years in the business.

Jim

Leon,

  Connect to me on LInkedIn when you get a chance. I am at:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshenry

 

Jim

November 06, 1985|HENRY WEINSTEIN | Times Labor Writer

 

came arcoss this today, notice the date on it, wonder if there is still 10,000 still in southern Cal.

Gazzmac wrote:

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This is a real problem in Austarlia

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 Wasn't Ken Rosewall's father a meat cutter?

 I think "muscles" has the record for the most years (19) between first and last major (singles) tournament wins. He won the Australian Championships in 1953 and Australian Open in 1972 and a lot of others in between.

Looking forward to the Open starting in about a week.