There is a growing trend in butchery for owners to avoid employing qualified butchers as the industry is simply unable to sustain the wages, even though they are among the lowest paid trades.

The main problem of cause is that the majority of butchers are not really butchers at all, because the modern day training system is very inadequate in applying the required skills and expectations are so low.

Back in my days as an apprentice, to qualify meant spending time at college however these days colleges are a thing of the past as all training is 'on the job' training.

What this means is to qualify one only needs to show that they have performed a task, not perfected it.

So the end result is these newly qualified people in the workforce who don't cut it.

As retailers we are like farmers, 'price takers' so while by all accounts, and comparing trades such as electrical, we should be getting about $40 per kilo for quality rump steak, yet struggle to get $26. I'm 55 and can do the work of two or three of these so called tradesmen.

So when the cost of employing a butcher, about $30 per hour all things considered (they receive about $23 of that) the only way shops can survive these days is to hire apprentices, most have a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th then farm them out once their time is up. Others choose to run the gauntlet and pay mainly cash wages.

So the result is all these trades qualified people out there with little to no real prospects of finding, let alone keeping a full time job.

It's an industry that has been crippled by ruthless supermarket chains and consumer demand for cheaper products. Fruit shops and bakeries are having the same issues.

The problem is these young people, mainly guys, spend their low paid apprenticeship years training to what these think is a high standard, only to be rejected, meanwhile our industry suffers.

Dear rehctub,

We've been very lucky - we've had the best butcher-shop
and butcher over all these years. All I have to do is
tell my butcher what dish I am planning to cook for
either the family or a dinner party - and he'll recommend
the cut of meat. He's never disappointed me.

I'm sure that his staff are learning from the "master,"
and will undoubtedly do well in their future careers.
I consider ourselves very lucky to have found a butcher
who's so passionate about his job.

Dear rehctub,

I appreciate your passion for the skills involved and the pride in your trade. Unfortunately in our changing society trades get automated out and are replaced by substitutes.

My son was once a qualified printer. Qualified printers have been replaced by computer programs which organise printing setups.

He is now a professor of anthropology.

In our current world a prime skill remains that of finding a way to make a living when a trade disappears.

Yes Foxy, that's exactly how I run my shop and I am teaching my boys the same way. If you don't have passion you will fail these days.

david, I had a guy in my shop 15 years ago, he was about mid 50's.

When I asked him how he was going he told me when he was 21 he was one of two people who could set a certain type of print up and was paid $50,000 per year working for the SMH, he said he thought with his skills he was set for life, then came the computers, the rest is history however he did say he got the odd job here and there for his line of specialized work.

Butchering is not so much suffering from automation, rather from the industry being unable to afford the wages now, even though they are very low. All driven by the consumer however things are changing so lets hope.

Butch, didn't we cover this in a thread you posted about a month ago regarding butcher qualifications and the mass merchants?

Hi there REHCTUB...

I do understand what you mean Butch, though I suspect it's not only isolated to to your Trade of Butchery. Also there are some trades that are regulated by government licencing protocols eg, electricians; aerospace mechanics, in fact anything to do with servicing Aircraft; plumbers and a few others. Whether Butchery is also mandated by government as a control mechanism, I can't be sure?

But many of the traditional trades are; as you correctly aver, trained 'on the job' as it were. I guess there's some benefits in such training, as you learn only what's necessary to do that specific job, with nothing else that might be considered as superfluous.

Even in my old job, you learn the formal (law) material that's needed for the job and later for Court, while you're still in the Academy. And upon graduation, you're 'buddied' up with a senior member, and off you go to put into practice all the stuff you were required to learn in the classroom. However what happens in reality, your senior off-sider will probably mutter something like;

'...forget what they teach you in the Academy, it's all just bullsh.t, I'll show you how we really do things on the street...!

In my humble opinion, there's probably room for both methods of training? An equal mix of 'formal' (classroom/workshop) and 'informal' (on the job) training. I'm not sure whether you would agree with me Butch?

Dear rehctub,

I wouldn't have thought that butchers would be
affected by automation. I had always assumed
that it would be more the repetitive and boring
work that would be taken over by machines.

Perhaps students need to find out what jobs give
them the best chance of not being replaced by a
machine.

Anyway here's a link that I found interesting:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-04/kohler-what-jobs-will-be-left-once-the-machines-take-over/

The ABC tells us that 44 % of jobs will be automated in the
next 10 years.

It's unfortunate that many people don't do their jobs today
because they like the work. They do it out of necessity.

cont'd ...

My apologies, I made a mistake in typing the previous
link. Here's the correct version:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-04/kohler-what-jobs-will-be-left-once-the-machines-take-over/5133218

Foxy, we have automated machines that debone chickens, remove the excess meat from bones and make sausages without human hands other than to push buttons.

Most of the large supermarkets now have the bulk of their meats prepared off site and most of this is now sliced, diced, stripped by machines so yes a lot of jobs are gone.

S for the jobs you refer to I would suggest nursing and aged care are two fields that will never (big statement) be automated.

I will be retired soon and my son is being groomed to take over my business and is undergoing intensive training as we speak, along with my other boys I have with me. I have only seen two previous apprentices come all the way with me and im proud to say they have both managed shops.

Perhaps we might wake up one day to see supermarkets dismantled and a rebirth of fresh food shops. One can only hope but you never know if we find ourselves with 20-40% unemployment.

Dear rehctub,

We can indeed only hope that quality comes
back into all food shops. What a difference
that would make. Congratulations on the way
you've trained your boys. I wish that your shop
would be near where I live. I would certainly
support your business.

Is butchery really worthy of still being called a trade? I know in the past butchers were expected to know everything. From slaughtering, even if they never did it they still had to know and understand it, to boning and breaking down whole carcasses. How many butchers today do more than just cut up a prime cut into steaks/portions etc? Most of the butchers in the supermarkets seem seem to be just glorified shelf stackers. The meat comes in already cut and packaged elsewhere.

I sympathise with you flesher but it is the same for all of us. The good old days of workmanship, competence and pride at work are long gone replaced with greed, "efficiency" and exploitation. I used to be a chef but the changes in that industry, all bad, drove me out and I ended up dismantling EWaste until recently. My employers shut down as the industry changed(or should I say was rorted) and was taken over by huge multinationals using giant crushing and sorting machines to replace people like me.

Everything is about money and greed these days and the results are that we lose all the things that we cant put a dollar price on. Caring, compassion, pride, honour, trust, workmanship, friendliness, honesty, all thrown aside because you cant make a buck out of them.
What a sad world.