Frank Romano: This is Frank Romano from WhatTheyThink.com. I’m here in Hong Kong with two American consultants who deal with both the American companies and Chinese companies. And I’d like them to tell me the difference between American printing and Chinese printing in terms of their workforce, skill levels, etcetera. So, Joe Pesci.

Joe Pesci: I was at USST, which is the University of Science and Technology School of Printing up in Shanghai and I was giving a little speech to the graduate students. And after the class, some of the people come up to me and they’re asking kind of unusual questions. And so I asked them, why did you pick the printing industry as your life’s work? And they said, “Well, when I got out of high school, my grades weren’t high enough so I get five choices of college and printing sounded kind of interesting, so I picked printing. Well, you know, you go back to the states and all the guys from our generation, we know, I mean, they were printing since, they were, you know, five years old or, you know, at least in high school. So it’s a real passion for people; we’ve been at it forever. I just found it interesting that that kind of history of the workers is so much different. And I find that in the factories too where they really don’t have the passion for the industry that I think that I think we do.

Frank Romano: Now, when they go to work for a printing company, where do they live?

Joe Pesci: All of the factories that I visit, export factories, have dormitories. And there may be anywhere from you know, 300, 400, 500, 1,000 kids that live in the dormitories. Now, we say, wow, that’s kind of unusual, but if you got up to Lowell, Massachusetts at the Historical Society, that building used to be the dormitories for the weaving mills in Lowell Massachusetts. So it’s – it’s the only way that people can afford to live in these cities. And it’s probably good for the kids that come down to work and makes it easy for them to afford to be able to live in these expensive cities.

Frank Romano: Now, again, they send most of their money back home, I take it.

Joe Pesci: I suspect that’s what happens. And they’ll come and they’ll work for two, three years and they’ll go back to their hometowns again. And especially, as I suspect, the girls will come down and earn their money and then go to their home town and buy an apartment, hopefully, and get married.

Frank Romano: Now, what happens then is a **** of turnover then in the printing companies of their skilled labor.

Joe Pesci: I see a lot of turnover. And new owners tell me that a printer, an operator, will get offered, you know, 10 cents more an hour and he’ll be gone. Some of the better printers take care of their employees. I’ve seen the same operators for many, many years. So it’s – it just depends on the company itself.

Frank Romano: And are kids in colleges actually learning printing there at all?

Joe Pesci: There are a lot of colleges that teach printing over here. And lots of students in Shin Jin, there’s 400 students in the printing industry, in the printing program there. Up in USST there’s 4,000. Most of those are design people, but there are a fair number that are in the printing program. The problem is the equipment they have is pretty old and not very up-to-date. So they don’t get a lot of hands on experience ****.

Frank Romano: Thank you, Joe.