MECHANICAL ENGINEERING: FUNDAMENTAL TO MOST BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY

Text / Robert Steiert
Translation / Mark Slay
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When we speak of mechanical engineering, many people think of the giant presses that could be seen in the press plants of most auto manufacturers. Wikipedia, the well-known Internet encyclopedia, defines mechanical engineering as one of the oldest engineering disciplines.

Mechanical engineering is one, if not the, fundamental industry without whose products production in other industries would simply be impossible. The auto, aircraft, electric and electronics industries, to name a few, all need the products, that is the machines, of the mechanical engineering industry.

In contrast to industries like electronics or information and communication technology, many people regard mechanical engineering as part of the "old economy". But that classification does not fit the actual situation of the industry.

A brochure of the German Mechanical Engineering Association (VDMA) published in 2001 contains the following description on the importance of the industry: "Old Economy? Wrong! To be sure, mechanical engineering does have a long tradition, but it is inseparable from the history of determination to achieve constant innovation and improvement. For that reason, today, knowledge of machines and processes are being constantly expanded through the application of intelligent technology. Even the way mechanical engineering firms see themselves has changed. From producers they have become service providers: once producers of problem-free technical competence, with the courage to innovate and develop customer-oriented system concepts, they have become this so-called 'old" new high-tech industry."

This description is clearly demonstrated by the products of many companies in the industry. For example, a steam-roller - known today as an earth compactor - still looks the same as it did 50 or 80 years ago. While in the old days it was the weight of the roller that determined the quality of compaction of the soil, nowadays it is the vibration of the roller. The rollers are equipped with sensors which constantly measure the condition of the ground and automatically adjust the vibrations of the roller. The driver monitors the vibrations on his or her instruments, but does not feel them as they are not transmitted to the driver's cabin. In extreme cases these machines can even operate without a driver, being controlled by Global Positioning Systems.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING IN "THE TRIAD"

For many years three countries - the United States, Germany and Japan - were the leaders in mechanical engineering, measured on the basis of annual sales. In 2006 the U.S. led with sales of 272 billion euros, followed by Japan with 174 billion euros and Germany with 167 billion euros. They were followed distantly by Italy, France and the United Kingdom (see figure 1). But if one takes the countries of the European Union all together, with annual sales of 456 billion euros and a total of more than 2.5 million employees, the EU is number one. In the mean time, China with some 150 billion euros has risen to fourth position.

Within Europe, Germany dominates with almost 40 per cent of production and 34 per cent of employees, followed by Italy and France.

The mechanical engineering industry also plays an important role within the Triad countries. In the U.S. and Germany in 2006 more workers were employed in mechanical engineering than in the auto or electric industries. Only in Japan was the number of workers in the auto industry higher than in mechanical engineering, but even in this case more workers were employed in mechanical engineering than in the electric industry (see figure 2).

STRUCTURE OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

The structure of mechanical engineering differs considerably from other metal industries such as auto, electric, ship building, steel and aerospace.

Mechanical engineering is not a uniform sector characterized by a particular product like cars, aeroplanes or ships. Official European Union statistics distinguish among 24 sub-industries. The German Mechanical Engineering Association distinguishes among no less than 40 specialized groups which make up the mechanical engineering sector. These include machines for the production and use of mechanical energy (not counting engines for aircraft and motor vehicles), pumps, compressors, fittings, gear systems, sprockets, lifting devices, conveyors, forestry and farming machinery, machine tools, construction machines and mining machines.

While the auto, aerospace and some other industries are dominated by a few big transnational companies, in mechanical engineering small and medium-sized enterprises with a few dozen to a few hundred employees predominate. A study for the European Union has shown that in countries like France, Belgium and Italy, but also in the new EU members in Eastern Europe, most firms have fewer than 20 employees. In Germany and Switzerland firms with between 50 and 250 employees form the biggest block. Statistics list more than 11,000 mechanical engineering firms in the U.S. In Japan there are more than 8,500 and in Germany around 6,000.

The production processes in the sector are just as diverse as its products: large-scale mass production such as in the auto industry exists only in some sub-sectors, for instance earth compactors. There are also a few major companies with production locations around the world such as SKF, INA-Schaeffler and Timken, but even those multinationals are relatively small enterprises in terms of turnover as compared to auto or aircraft companies.

Many areas of mechanical engineering are dominated by small-scale production and even individual, custom-made production of machines which are often developed and produced to solve a specific problem or for a specific product at the customer's request.

UNIONS AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

In many unions, mechanical engineering and its employees have often had a rather second-class status. The degree of union organization in the three countries of the Triad has often been well below that of the "classic" sectors of the auto, steel and shipbuilding industries.

In Germany the proportion of organized employees is estimated at around 35 per cent. In Japan, according to official statistics, it is 24 per cent. There are no reliable figures available for the U.S. Given that for private industry in general in the U.S. the level of unionization is under 10 per cent, the level for mechanical engineering is unlikely to be any higher (see figure 3).

There are many reasons for this. For instance, many unions concentrate more on organizing blue-collar rather than white-collar workers. And even among the blue-collar workers, due to conditions in their countries, they concentrate overwhelmingly on semi-skilled and unskilled workers rather than on highly trained employees such as engineers. But many employees of mechanical engineering enterprises have a relatively high level of skills. "Traditional" workers' unions often find it difficult to gain access to that group of employees.

The higher skill level of mechanical engineering employees in many countries has also led to the situation where companies in the sector are desperately seeking workers but cannot find them, while there are no longer enough jobs for workers with a lower skill level.

The small and medium-size of companies in the industry also implies a higher input of resources by the unions to organize workers in those companies and to continue to serve them once organized. In addition, many of these small and medium-sized firms are scattered all over the country and are not necessarily in the areas of industrial concentration in which assembly plants of the auto industry, for example, are located. Since the unions' local offices are also often located in areas of concentration, that means longer travel time for the unions - and often to organize a mere 10, 30 or 200 employees rather than the thousands to be found in an auto plant.

The percentage of union organizing as described above probably also applies proportionally to other countries besides those in the Triad, and they show that there is substantial potential for winning members in the industry. In view of the declining number of employees and hence, often, of members in the "classical" industries, consideration should be given to strategies that can realize this potential.

IMF ACTIVITIES IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

In the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), for many years mechanical engineering has been somewhat neglected compared to other industries. Activities were long dominated by sectors in which the major member organizations had a substantially higher degree of organization than is the case in mechanical engineering. Activities geared to enterprises also played an important role. Since only a few major transnational groups were active in mechanical engineering, there were few potential targets for activities at the enterprise level. Only in recent years, following the increasing globalization of the world economy, have mechanical engineering firms established subsidiaries in foreign countries in order to open up new markets. Previously production had been concentrated mostly in the companies' home countries.

One exception here is SKF, the Swedish ball-bearing company, which has long had production sites scattered around the world. For that reason as early as the 1970s the Swedish unions were pressing for enterprise-oriented activities in the IMF devoted to that group. Starting in 1975, meetings were held every four years, and in 1995 they led to an agreement between the company and the IMF on the founding of a "World Union Council" to meet every year.

However, the IMF, like the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF), has recognized the importance of the sector and they have both drawn the appropriate conclusions for union work. Several years ago the EMF set up an ad hoc working group for the sector. By decision of the last EMF Congress held in 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal, the importance of that sectoral work was upgraded and the working group was converted to a sectoral committee. The IMF is closely linked and coordinating its work with that sectoral committee.

After years of neglect, the IMF reactivated its work on the mechanical engineering sector at a conference held in the U.S. in 2004. Although the conference concentrated on the three countries of the Triad, it was also open to unions from other countries. A small steering group was established at the conference. In 2007 that steering group held a workshop with Japanese colleagues, which was continued in April 2008 in Germany and reported to the IMF Executive Committee in May 2008.

Another conference on the mechanical engineering sector is planned for 2009, involving the three Triad countries and unions from other countries that have an interest in the sector. At the conference the possibility of breaking down activities into working groups of particular sub-sectors will be discussed. Those sub-sectors could be: machine tools, construction and construction material machines; and the sub-sector of elevators (lifts) and conveyors.

There are a number of topics and problem areas which affect the sector as a whole, for example qualifications and advanced training of employees, the shortage of specialists, the increasing number of temporary workers and increasing trends toward the transfer of component manufacturing to so-called low-wage countries.

In addition, however, there are many specific topics which are only relevant to their respective sub-sectors and for that reason they imply a breakdown of union activities, not only at the national, but also at the international level. For those sub-sectors IG Metall in Germany has already done some preliminary work with national working groups, and partly also with the EMF at the European level; work that can be taken up and extended at the global level by the IMF.

CONCLUSIONS

Mechanical engineering is of central importance for many other sectors since it produces products which enable those other sectors to produce.

According to a study by the Deutsche Bank, that importance will only increase, since mechanical engineering occupies a central position in the development and manufacture of products on which great hopes are placed for the age after oil. Solar energy, photovoltaics, wind power - all of those products were developed and made competitive by mechanical engineering.

The energy crisis can be solved and a climatic disaster avoided only if the global energy mix follows the laws of sustainability more closely. Mechanical and equipment engineering occupies a key position here, because it can generate the solutions that can ensure better energy supply in the future, impose less of a burden on the climate and prevent the cost of energy from further skyrocketing.

As a developer and supplier of "enabling technologies", machine and equipment engineering is involved in all three segments and will play a special role in the necessary modernization of the global power plant park, efficiency revolution in all fields of energy use in industry and by consumers and the development and marketing of new technologies for renewable energies.

The sector's central importance within the economical structure should also be reflected in the work of European and international union confederations. The beginnings for that have already been established - they need only to be taken up and expanded.

One of the most important tasks here will be to intensify union organizing in the sector. Present-day figures show that there still exists sufficient potential. It will not be easy, if only because of the varying structure of mechanical engineering, divided as it is among small and medium-sized enterprises. But not to take up the challenge would mean excluding a large number of employees, including highly skilled employees, as potential members. That certainly can not be in the interest of the unions or their representation of the workers.

To meet that challenge, new strategies must be developed, strategies which may also make discussions on a restructuring of international union work necessary.