By: Vanessa O'Connell AND The Oddball Team

 Many stones are beginning to be cut by non professionals  Tiffany's is trying to train over 80 workers to cut diamonds  The quality of Tiffany’s diamonds may be decreasing  Tiffany’s is one of the largest diamond retailers  Was started by Charles Lewis Tiffany

 Price of individual diamonds are beginning to increase  Global market is expected to fall  16%  To $65 billion  U.S.  Expected to loose 900 specialties stores this year  1,500 closed last year

 Because of the diamond price increase, many companies are trying to find new ways to get diamonds  One way to do this is by having other countries cut and polish diamonds  Ex: Botswana, Canada, Belgium, South Africa, Vietnam, China, and Mauritius

 Founded in New York in 1837  Was a stationary and “fancy goods” emporium  Mr. Tiffany bought large jewelry collections at this time of fancy goods  Much of what Tiffany’s sells is not diamonds  Tiffany’s may buy things such as cutting machines from other companies  Botswana is the world’s largest producer of gem-quality diamonds  Tiffany’s could not easily get into Batswana

 In 2006 Botswana decided to license 16 international cutting firms  Tiffany’s decided to work with Botswana  These companies got workers from Botswana with a high-school-level education  These workers started working with inexpensive diamonds

 There are two different types of workers that are needed to make the diamonds  Bruters round the diamond pieces  Polishers add top and bottom facets, looking at magnified images of their diamonds captured by a lens near the whirring polishing wheel  Trainees who learn such basics of bruting and faceting become "qualified" workers in four to six months  About 30 % fail, the rest start handling gem-quality stones, working at a pace of up to one polished diamond a day

 For now, the plant's local workers produce about 250 finished gems each week, primarily "round brilliant" stones, with 57 light-reflecting facets, for Tiffany engagement rings  About 85% of the stones are considered "Tiffany qualified," and are forwarded to a Tiffany office for grading

 Local workers started to complain about their work environment saying it was unprofessional and they did a sit in saying they weren’t going to work until there issues were addressed but then Mr. Lejuta warned them they could be fired because their strike was unlawful  Responding to the letter and strike, Tiffany said workers expressed concerns as part of a union organizing effort, and that it intends to address grievances with a union representative

 The Botswana government is pleased with Tiffany's commitment to train residents. Other polishing plants are experiencing strikes  But Tiffany plans to keep pushing forward and begin clearing land this year to build a 20,000- square-foot factory. Set to open in 2011, it will employ as many as 275 workers

 If someone could work with these foreign companies and somehow sell these diamonds for less than large companies, a small diamond jewelry store could be started.