The US demolition is reeling after a seemingly endless onslaught.
Watching the US demolition industry from a remote vantage point some 5,000 miles away, I am increasingly reminded of an ageing heavyweight boxer that has staged one comeback too many, taken a few too many blows to the head, and is now acting purely on instinct to survive.
Of course, there was little that the combined brainpower of the US demolition sector could have done to protect itself from the crushing blow of economic recession that rocked it just over two years ago; that punch caught by surprise the economists that are in the business of forecasting these things, so what hope for the demolition industry?
But rather than regrouping and allowing its head to clear, the business has taken further repeated blows which, although not fatal, have left the industry battered and bloodied.
First there was the influx of non-demolition outsiders encroaching upon industry turf, bidding for work and winning it with alarming regularity.
Then there was the “every man for himself” bidding war that seemed to have the sole aim of ensuring that everyone worked for nothing.
And then, just last week, came a spate of fatal accidents that occurred with such rapidity that it will be a miracle if OSHA doesn’t order an immediate and industry-wide investigation.
But what is most remarkable about this onslaught is the industry’s reaction or, rather, its failure to react. Like that ageing boxer, the demolition business is stood defenceless in the middle of the ring with its hands by its sides, just waiting for the next blow to land.
Where is the unity? Where is the rallying cry to bring the industry together to fight back? Come to think of it, where is the fighting spirit that has traditionally made demolition men so feared and revered?
My personal fear is that the first devastating blow of recession has forced individual companies to adopt a “look out for number one” attitude that eschews unity in favour of a survival of the fittest philosophy.
It is hard to blame a company – often family-owned – to think of others while struggling for survival themselves. And, in the short term, maybe that Darwinian stance will make sense.
But what of the long-term? What of the over-arching initiatives – standardised training, for example – that drive an industry forward as one?
Of course, it is unimaginable that the entire industry could ever be knocked out entirely. Yet the sector has taken such a huge amount of punishment in the past few years that by the time its collective head clears, it may just find that the rules of the game have changed and someone else may be wearing championship belt.
