Jefferson, Wisconsin: Briggs & Stratton’s plants in Jefferson and Watertown, which manufacture all portable generator, home standby generator and pressure washer products for the company, will be closing their doors resulting in 430 jobs lost.

The American economy shed 467,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, its highest level in 26 years, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. Job losses were widespread among the construction, manufacturing and business and professional services sectors.

19 months into the recession, plenty of economic indicators are still getting worse. Inventories fell yet again, orders are still drying up, and companies that make things consumers want are still uniformly gloomy. A survey of US manufacturing conditions from the Institute of Supply Management reveals that manufacturers are far from cosy.

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AAM’s Indiana Field Coordinator Mike Mitchell checked in to give us a report of recent news:

“SOAR President Alan Penkowski allowed me the opportunity to give an update on AAM’s activities at his SOAR meeting.  I talked about the ‘Keep it Made in America’ bus tour and saving 7.2 million jobs tied to the U.S. auto parts supply chain.  The possibility of losing 7.2 millions jobs would put a strain  on an already crippled economy. It would add to the 52 million already uninsured and has the potential to increased the number of pensions taken over by PBGC (the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation).

“The SOAR members were glad to hear about the (ITC) International Trade Commission ruling in favor of a USW petition for the domestic tire industry but didn’t find any humor in JC Penney’s advertising an “American Made” T-shirt that was actually made in Mexico.

“SOAR President Alan Penkowski was outraged by the idea of the auto industry offshoring more production while being supported with taxpayers dollars.  He encouraged his members to get involved and call their elected officials.  He said ,”We elected them, they should be working for us, and they need to know that.”

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New Balance is the only athletic shoe company still producing in the U.S.  This video shows their Skowhegan, Maine factory talking about Made in the USA.

USW President Leo Gerard and the New America Foundation’s Leo Hindery have penned a strongly worded op-ed in The Nation that argues for a strong rebuilding of U.S. manufacturing:

The current jobs crisis is in part a reflection of the misplaced priorities of previous administrations, which let America’s manufacturing sector decline vis-a-vis our services economy. As a result, manufacturing industries now represent just 11.5 percent of GDP; the number of people working in manufacturing accounts for only 8.7 percent of the jobs in the country; and we have run an average trade deficit in manufactured goods of more than $500 billion over the past five years, all of which contributed to the huge buildup of US debt in recent years.

This almost complete neglect of our manufacturing base relative to our service sector represents the height of irresponsibility, because compared with those in manufacturing, service jobs pay below median wages, do very little to help America’s balance of trade, have a much smaller multiplier effect on other parts of the economy and mostly just move incomes around the country.

In their conclusion, Gerard and Hindery offer a number of constructive proposals, including significant revisions to U.S. trade policy and ongoing support for Buy America policies.

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Vice President Biden’s ‘Middle Class Task Force’ was in Ohio this week to look into ways to promote U.S. manufacturing.  In tandem with that, the White House blog published an excellent piece on the importance of manufacturing by Jared Bernstein.

Bernstein aptly notes that many people overlook just how fundamentally manufacturing is plugged into the U.S. economy:

In fact, there are more workers at the suppliers for big companies that make cars, or appliances, or wind turbines than there are at the factory that actually puts the thing together. In the case of autos, suppliers employ 3-4 times the number of workers at the big factory at the end of the line.

So supply chains are a big deal, and when the big factories hit hard times, the pain is amplified through this chain of suppliers. These are often good jobs too, so this is an important issue for the Middle Class Task Force.

ManufactureThis hopes that the Vice President’s task force will fully recognize the importance of manufacturing and will endorse proposals, including strong enforcement of U.S. trade laws, that can help the nation’s manufacturers.

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AAM Ohio Field Coordinator Ken Poweski checked in to let us know that there will be a ’Made in America’ Parade in Findlay, Ohio on Saturday, July 25th at 10:00 am.  Ken promises to send photos.  For more information, contact Ken: kpoweski [at] aamfg.com

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AAM Field Coordinator Mike Mitchell reports that yesterday, Munster, Indiana unanimously passed a Buy America Resolution:

Munster, like many other cities understands the importance’s of investing our tax dollars in America. By doing so we maximize the creation of American jobs, restore economic growth and opportunity. Munster Town Council President Michael Mellon, along with Munster residents Cheryl DeCero and Judy Terek, were in attendance at the Town Council meeting and spoke in favor of the Buy America Resolution. Cheryl who is currently laid-off  talked about using domestic materials and services to get our economy working again.  Judy was concerned about the creation of jobs now and in the future for her and her daughter.

Spending economic recovery plan funds on products and services that both create jobs and help keep Americans employed is also the right thing to do.

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John Colm, the Executive Director of WIRE-Net, reported on a visit by Vice President Joe Biden to Ohio:

“Vice President Joe Biden hosted an outreach meeting of the White House’s Middle Class Taskforce, held in Perrysburg, Ohio which is near Toledo and about 100 miles east of Cleveland or 70 miles south of Detroit.  The meeting’s focus was the connection between US manufacturing, the middle class and strong communities, a set of issues which has not been actively pursued at the level of the White House in the recent past.  But the Vice President convenes the cross-agency task force and, along with his chief economist, Jared Bernstein, has put the issue squarely on the table for the Obama Administration.

“The event involved a panel of economists, policy researchers, Sec’y of Commerce Gary Locke, and the Administration’s point person on the auto industry Ed Montgomery, Governor Ted Strickland and a few others.  I was invited to discuss WIRE-Net’s work in the US wind turbine industry through it’s Great Lakes WIND Network (GLWN).  The event was held at the new plant and headquarters of the Willard and Kelsey company, which manufactures high tech thin-cell solar panels and which inked its first deal, worth $60 million, to export panels to Thailand.  The firm currently employs about 40 people but has plans to hire as many as 4,000 over the next 12-18 months.  About 400 people attended the forum and also had a chance to weigh in  on the manufacturing connection to a strong middle class.

“The Great Lakes Wind Network has grown to over 1,000 companies in 30 states and Canada.  GLWN is organized to help grow the domestic content of US installed utility-scale wind turbines, which is currently only about 50%.  Through its relationships with key international turbine assembly companies (like GE, Nordex, Vestas and others), GLWN’s technical team has developed a in depth knowledge of the qualifying standards, manufacturing tolerances and business requirements that the turbine OEMs require of their potential US-based suppliers.  GLWN presents a technical supply-chain workshop to help educate US based manufacturers about the opportunities and challenges of entering this very hot, but very demanding market (think aerospace precision and mining industry scale but only moreso and you get a picture of what is required of these huge components that must operate 24-7-365 for 20 years).  The GLWN project is most developed in Ohio, but is growing fast in other Great Lakes states and beyond.  In Ohio in 2008, GLWN helped facilitate four deals, working with the Strickland administration, to finance capital investment of over $100 million and that will result in 300 high skilled jobs in the metalworking industries in projects located around Greater Cleveland and in central Ohio.  This is just the tip of the utility scale wind iceberg, which is projected to continue its double-digit growth for each of the next 20 years.

“Governor Ted Strickland and Vice President Biden both understand the opportunity, and I was able to share some of the key challenges in this particular industry.  These include capital for expansion and for wind farm developers.  The capital markets still are not working like they should and it is slowing investment and job creation in the wind industry.  A second key challenge is the lack of skilled metalworking employees.  To be trained and effective in the wind industry requires a manufacturing background, and probably at least 90 days of on the job training for most positions.  The specific training cannot be delivered at community colleges due to the size of the parts and their expense.  Helping more wind-positioned firms become strong at delivering structured on-the-job training is going to be critical if the US is to have a chance at reaching the Department of Energy’s wind goal of 20% by 2030.

“For more information on the Great Lakes WIND Network, see our website at www.glwn.org.  Interested firms can register there to get listed in our growing wind supply chain database.”

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On Monday night, the Reading, Pennsylvania City Council passed a Buy America resolution.  Local coordinator Carl Ramich was a driving force in pushing the council to consider the resolution. 

To date, more than 500 state and local governments have passed Buy America resolutions, including the Pennsylvania House (and 72 other Pennsylvania city governments).

The reason for pushing these resolutions is that earlier this year Congress passed a stimulus bill that included Buy American provisions.  A number of groups have lobbied to oppose these provisions.  In order to make sure that state and local governments follow through on implementing Buy America policy, AAM field coordinators have conducted an ongoing campaign to make certain that state and local governments spend both stimulus funds and taxpayer money on American-made products and services when possible.

Read more about Buy America by clicking here.

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