METUCHEN – In his time at the microphone in front of the Legislative Manufacturing Caucus, tool and die maker apprenticeship trainer Gary Slawik of Bihler of America Inc. criticized the work ethic of many millennials he seeks to train for manufacturing careers.

“Everyone wants to be the next American Idol,” said Slawik, a lifelong New Jerseyan.  “What I’m selling is hard work and yet I draw blank faces when I talk to them about opportunities.

“We lack warm bodies that want to learn skill,” he added. “Instead of offering free college to everyone for which they have no passion, I would suggest free skills training: manufacturing or construction.”

And yet routinely, Slawik said he rarely identifies little sense of urgency for skills.

He often encounters young people who begin learning the tool and die trade and then bail to go work at a friend’s landscaping company, he said.

He got a big hand when he completed his remarks.

“The comments on young people are disheartening,” Senator Joe Cryan (D-20) said.

Much of the problem derives from ignorant supposedly educated parents, Slawik said.

“I’ll go to a gathering of educated people and say ‘I’m a machinist’ and people say ‘What’s that?'”

For his part, Senator Ronald L. Rice (D-28) gently chastised Slawik.

“You’re in Phillipsburg,” said the Newarker. “We can’t get to you.”