CLC’s Kathleen Dietrich was asked to speak on PalletCentral’s spot for Industry Leaders Perspective future on the wood packaging sector:
“I would venture to say that labor, or lack of it, will continue to be the #1 problem for most pallet employers. As a result of that, I do believe that more and more people will turn to forms of automation and the domino effect will obviously be that equipment manufacturers will continue to create machinery that will work in the pallet industry domestically in the United States. I also believe that this will be a major factor in companies being acquired by larger companies as we are already seeing trending across the nation.
Production employees will continue to be a necessity for pallet companies and the competition for that type of labor pool will become more and more competitive. I do believe that as a result you will see employee benefits changes, such as higher wages, incentives, vacation times, more affordable healthcare benefits, and an overall better work environment. Our continued appreciation of current employees helps attract new ones, but more importantly, we retain our workers. I even wonder, when I’m thinking really far ahead, if someday we’ll see trade schools for the pallet industry. That would really be awesome!
Regardless, it is sure to be a very interesting and exciting future for our industry.”
