Transcript - Remarks: Joe Biden Tours a Union Training Facility in Howell, Michigan - October 5, 2021 | Factba.se

Joe Biden

00:00:00 - 00:00:06 ()

Hey, man. How are you?

John Hartwell

00:00:06 - 00:00:09 ()

Doing good, sir. President.

Joe Biden

00:00:09 - 00:00:11 ()

Behind you. I'll hit you.

John Osika

00:00:11 - 00:00:13 ()

This is John Hartwell.

Joe Biden

00:00:13 - 00:00:14 ()

John Hartwell

00:00:14 - 00:00:15 ()

John Osika

00:00:15 - 00:00:27 ()

He's been at the training center for a long time. He's going to go over these simulators and everything we do, not only as training but what they do as far as outreach as well. So, John, if you want to take over.

John Hartwell

00:00:27 - 00:00:45 ()

So, welcome to our simulator training. We're going to go through a little bit of technology. I got Mr. Eric Muir. He's a first-year apprentice. He is practicing for his CDL for his first commercial driver's license. So, we've purchased this simulator. It helps us with wear and tear on our vehicles out back.

Joe Biden

00:00:45 - 00:00:48 ()

I used to have a commercial driver's license for 16-wheelers, yeah.

John Hartwell

00:00:48 - 00:01:06 ()

Nice. Nice. So, Eric's in an automatic mode right now, but we have four different transmissions that we can program into this simulator. And like I said, it's really helped get the basics and the safety down before we put them on a truck out back. We were doing a lot of clutch repair --

Joe Biden

00:01:06 - 00:01:06 ()

John Hartwell

00:01:06 - 00:01:14 ()

And a lof of truck maintenance. And it reduces that and that's been one of the bigger items for our apprentices coming in.

Joe Biden

00:01:14 - 00:01:16 ()

I tell you what, man.

John Hartwell

00:01:16 - 00:01:16 ()

[Inaudible] to hear that.

Joe Biden

00:01:16 - 00:01:26 ()

When you're driving this sucker, you're going to feel like you own the world. I'm serious. You get up there, man, you feel like you own the world when you sit up there.

John Hartwell

00:01:26 - 00:01:50 ()

It is pretty powerful. We have nine simulators in total in our inventory now. Mr. Mark Zinser is actually running an excavator. This simulator that we have here costs about $60,000. The actual excavator, if we had to purchase that or put somebody in it, we're talking maybe $400,000. So, it's an economical way to train.

John Hartwell

00:01:50 - 00:02:14 ()

These have actual motion platforms, so they move as Mark -- can you make it move some? He can really jostle it around, so I'm going to get it moving. We have been doing simulator training for about 20 years. And when we first started doing that, I was not impressed. Now, 20 years later, that's where the technology has come along that these really feel like the real piece.

John Hartwell

00:02:14 - 00:02:37 ()

So, one of the pieces that we do with it is we take it out for our outreach to the different CTE programs at different high schools around the state. We've actually set some high schools up to where they could purchase some so that they can train students there. CTE programs, when we think building trades in high school, a lot of times what we're thinking about is homebuilding construction.

John Hartwell

00:02:37 - 00:02:43 ()

And I think with the Build Back Better agenda, I think that the simulators, the training, they go --

Joe Biden

00:02:43 - 00:02:44 ()

I agree with you.

John Hartwell

00:02:44 - 00:02:46 ()

They go hand-in-hand.

Joe Biden

00:02:46 - 00:02:46 ()

John Hartwell

00:02:46 - 00:03:03 ()

So, a student could come out of high school now with some experience in operating or at least career exploration across the trades and say, "I want to be an operator," they could do a direct-entry application into our apprenticeship program and help us fill that, that skills gap.

Joe Biden

00:03:03 - 00:03:18 ()

You know what I find when I go around the high schools, they have -- it excites them. They don't know what they don't know, but they sit behind us and see this and they go, whoa, I like this. Not everybody, but the ones who really -- it turns them on.

John Hartwell

00:03:18 - 00:03:19 ()

You're correct.

Joe Biden

00:03:19 - 00:03:23 ()

They actually see what it's like. High school guys like this.

John Hartwell

00:03:23 - 00:03:25 ()

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well …

Joe Biden

00:03:25 - 00:03:27 ()

He and I, we're in the same high school class.

John Hartwell

00:03:27 - 00:03:50 ()

So -- so if you look around the room that we have today for our staff, that's why we need the young people in, right? We're not going to be in the trade forever. And, you know, with the money coming in to Build Back Better, it creates so much more opportunity. And as you know, not only for this country, but for the communities to bring that money in …

Joe Biden

00:03:50 - 00:03:51 ()

[Inaudible] it's a gigantic deal.

John Hartwell

00:03:51 - 00:03:54 ()

And get new infrastructure improved as we go along.

Joe Biden

00:03:54 - 00:04:19 ()

And by the way, not only that. What it's going to do is it spans out over 10 years. And it's real and on -- every bit of it is paid for, by the way. No deficit, every bit of it is paid for upfront. So, this idea that we're, you know, the -- my Republican friends say they won't do the debt limit because they don't want to -- the whole thing about this debt limit thing, there's nothing to do with money spent in the future.

Joe Biden

00:04:19 - 00:04:43 ()

It's all money that's spent in the past and by the previous administration. And they won't fund it. Anyway, to make a long story short, this is really exciting stuff. And, you know, one of the things over the last 25 years with the idea of "shop", quote, unquote, in high schools, so many high schools have cut two things, shop classes and music classes.

Joe Biden

00:04:43 - 00:05:04 ()

And because -- I mean, you've probably changed a lot of that, but it's just amazing how you get something -- think back the first time you said, god, I think I might like to do this stuff. No, I'm serious. I'm serious. And it just is most -- I think it's great. I really do.

John Hartwell

00:05:04 - 00:05:10 ()

If you step right over this way, sir. Tim Butcher, who's one of our instructors here.

Joe Biden

00:05:10 - 00:05:12 ()

Hey, Timmy. How you doing there? Good to see you, pal.

John Hartwell

00:05:12 - 00:05:37 ()

Tim's was actually operating in the same simulator with a loader on it. So, we've got eight different pieces of equipment that are programmed into this one simulator, including cranes. So, it's economical, again, for us to train that way. The students coming out of high school that would come into our apprenticeship program, they're coming into a three-year, 6,000-hour Department of Labor-registered apprenticeship.

Note

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[Break in audio]

John Hartwell

00:05:37 - 00:05:38 ()

We found this in a garage.

Joe Biden

00:05:38 - 00:05:39 ()

John Hartwell

00:05:39 - 00:05:57 ()

It's been in the garage for 15 years, and if things go wrong. So, we're in the process of restoring it. I can also pull it in. You see that red crane on the left? When we pull it in, this will be propped out there somewhere, too. But it's a work in progress, but we're getting there with it. So, it was exciting just to find it.

John Hartwell

00:05:57 - 00:06:06 ()

It still runs. So, I'd like to introduce you to Steve McFarland. Steve McFarland [Inaudible]

Joe Biden

00:06:06 - 00:06:08 ()

My best friend in high school, Jimmy McFarland.

Steve McFarland

00:06:08 - 00:06:12 ()

I don't think any relation, sir.

Joe Biden

00:06:12 - 00:06:14 ()

He had hell of an arm, too.

Steve McFarland

00:06:14 - 00:06:16 ()

Did he? Not me. I'm not so good at [Inaudible]

John Hartwell

00:06:16 - 00:06:28 ()

He wears multiple hats. He's not only the shop foreman, he's the lead technician instructor. He's also the apprentice coordinator for the technicians. So, this is like his room. We're in his area.

Joe Biden

00:06:28 - 00:06:29 ()

John Hartwell

00:06:29 - 00:06:32 ()

So, when I walk through that door, he says, "Now, wait a minute. This is my spot." So --

Joe Biden

00:06:32 - 00:06:34 ()

Permission to come aboard, sir.

Steve McFarland

00:06:34 - 00:06:35 ()

Yes, sir. Thank you very much.

John Hartwell

00:06:35 - 00:06:36 ()

I'll let you take it over, Steve.

Steve McFarland

00:06:36 - 00:06:54 ()

Mr. President, thank you, first of all, for coming to our training facility and seeing what we have to offer here. Really appreciate it. It's a good thing. As the governor knows -- know that we're really doing something special here. I guess I'm in charge of the technicians, apprentices, which our program for that is just in its infancy.

Steve McFarland

00:06:54 - 00:07:26 ()

It's like seven years old. So, our -- operating part of our training center, those apprentices, 70 years, right? So, we're just getting things rolling. But as Mr. Osika said, you start with projects there, 75 years old, right? Bring them back to life so everybody can see them. Then you compare that to the machine you'll see when you walk outside that's on our new [Inaudible] the 12M grader when you get outside, the difference in how technology has changed over the years and how we have to keep up with the technology in our young people and, you know, whoever wants to apply for the program.

Joe Biden

00:07:26 - 00:07:31 ()

Did you think your guys would be flying drones and going to make bridges as you were -- I mean, come on.

Steve McFarland

00:07:31 - 00:07:36 ()

Well, honestly, sir, when I was in the military, we started flying drones, so I knew that was coming.

Joe Biden

00:07:36 - 00:07:38 ()

All right. That helps.

Steve McFarland

00:07:38 - 00:07:45 ()

The future -- our military has the future. There's no doubt about it, and that's a great place to start for people.

Joe Biden

00:07:45 - 00:07:46 ()

Steve McFarland

00:07:46 - 00:08:08 ()

So, we are an apprentice program for the technicians, that's four years, 8,000 hours. They spend 200 hours a year here at the training center, hands-on, in-classroom training, which is good for us because, as you see, we got our guys working on forklifts. We have our spider cranes over here. This one's, actually, battery powered, real nice.

Steve McFarland

00:08:08 - 00:08:34 ()

This is our propane power. Once you step outside, you'll see a whole array of our dirt equipment. My guys maintain all of that. It's quite a challenge because how do I teach to all that technology and different technology? But we base everything on fundamentals, right? I can take up fundamentals of electronics from my floor truck to my spider crane, to my 298 crane [Inaudible] and a glory flag out back.

Steve McFarland

00:08:34 - 00:08:44 ()

And then it can expand. And then you bring these young men and women come in together, and they use what they've learned out on the job to teach each other.

Joe Biden

00:08:44 - 00:08:45 ()

Steve McFarland

00:08:45 - 00:09:01 ()

Now, that's where the learning really starts, right, when they start to talk. And then you're just kind of leading them down the path as they go. And as they get more involved, they do a lot of self-investing, which what apprenticeship is all about, the self-investing part. And it's wonderful. It is wonderful.