This Ohio factory owner says she has jobs but few sober applicants

[Suppressed]

This Ohio factory owner says she has jobs but few sober applicants
By Alexandra King, CNN
Updated 5:01 PM ET, Sat July 29, 2017

(CNN)An Ohio factory owner said Saturday that though she has blue-collar jobs available at her company, she struggles to fill positions because so many candidates fail drug tests.

Regina Mitchell, a co-owner of Warren Fabricating & Machining in Hubbard, Ohio, told The New York Times this week that four out of 10 applicants otherwise qualified to be welders, machinists and crane operators will fail a routine drug test.

In an interview Saturday with CNN's Michael Smerconish, Mitchell said that her requirements for prospective workers were simple.

"I need employees who are engaged in their work while here, of sound mind and doing the best possible job that they can, keeping their fellow co-workers safe at all times," she said.

"We have a 150-ton crane in our machine shop. And we're moving 300,000 pounds of steel around in that building on a regular basis. So I cannot take the chance to have anyone impaired running that crane, or working 40 feet in the air."

President Donald Trump addressed his blue-collar base in Ohio this week, returning to his campaign theme of getting local communities back to work and returning jobs to America from overseas.

But Mitchell said she has jobs. She just doesn't have sober applicants.

For 48 of the 50 years her company has been around, drug abuse had never been an issue, she told Smerconish.

"It hasn't been until the last two years that we needed to have a policy, a corporate policy in place, that protects us from employees coming into work impaired," she said.

...

"This opioid epidemic that we're experiencing ... it seems like it's worse than in other places all over the country," Mitchell said.

...

"The difficult part about marijuana is, we don't have an affordable test that tells me if they smoked it over the weekend or smoked it in the morning before they came to work. And I just can't take the chance of having an impaired worker running a crane carrying a 300,000-pound steel encasement," she said.

...

Excerpt.  Read more at http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/29/us/ohio-factory-owner-cnntv/index.html

[Cripplecreek]

Opportunities for practitioners of sobriety.

[jmyrlefuller]

If you're not willing to employ the worker base you're given, you don't have jobs to offer them.

[Free Vulcan]

I've worked many a blue collar job in factories and warehouses over years. I absolutely know she is preaching the facts, it is an epidemic out there.

[Cripplecreek]

I've worked many a blue collar job in factories and warehouses over years. I absolutely know she is preaching the facts, it is an epidemic out there.

Yup. All you can do is try to keep potential problem employees in jobs that don't endanger them or other employees.

[mountaineer]

It's true in my state, as well. Many job openings go unfilled because applicants can't pass the drug test and, in many cases, also can't pass simple reading and math tests (for jobs that require such basic skills). A lot of potential workers don't bother to apply at all - they'd rather live off their girlfriend's welfare benefits and spend their time smoking dope.

[Jazzhead]

"The difficult part about marijuana is, we don't have an affordable test that tells me if they smoked it over the weekend or smoked it in the morning before they came to work. And I just can't take the chance of having an impaired worker running a crane carrying a 300,000-pound steel encasement," she said.

Interesting.   The problem isn't that she can't get sober workers, it's that she can't tell.  Folks who drink can do so on the weekend or evening after work and maintain a blue collar job.   They're sober when they arrive at work and able to perform an honest day of labor. 

Folks who smoke marijuana on the weekends or in the evening after work are just as sober, come the morning,  and able to work as those who drink.  There's no difference in impairment, no difference in sobriety.   

But the test for alcohol can detect this, and the test for weed, it would appear,  cannot.  So the employer can tell the difference between responsible drinkers and drunks,  but not between casual, responsible marijuana users and those who wake and bake.   

I'm not sure what to do about this, but the employer's recent policy of reliance on drug testing may be part of the problem.   It may be necessary to dig deeper, to obtain references about reliability and attendance, and other traditional marks of responsibility, rather than rely on a drug test that fails to answer the question the employer needs to know.   

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Folks who smoke marijuana on the weekends or in the evening after work are just as sober, come the morning,  and able to work as those who drink.  There's no difference in impairment, no difference in sobriety.   

you offer some proof on that or is that just some more babble?

[Jazzhead]

you offer some proof on that or is that just some more babble?

Have you smoked marijuana?   For approximately how long did you feel intoxicated?   

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Have you smoked marijuana?   For approximately how long did you feel intoxicated?

so, you have no answer, just insulting others?

You are a farce.

And you still have not answered how 99 Senate voters can result in 100 votes, nor what you consider 'less virtuous' people you need taxpayers to pay health insurance for.

Go ahead and say the word 'free rider' once more while you are at it.