As ManufactureThis returns from a colorful July 4th weekend, we take note of some recent news regarding the U.S. flag.  Apparently, the U.S. imports roughly $5.3 million worth of American flags each year—with most of them coming from China.

More than one U.S. lawmaker has found the idea of foreign-made flags a bit incongruous.  Not only have a host of Chinese products been found to contain shoddy materials and lead paint, but the notion of a repressive, communist state assembling flags  for the democratic United States seems a bit illogical.

Earlier this year, West Virginia House of Delegates member Jack Yost sponsored House Bill 4150, which would require that any U.S. or West Virginia flags purchased with state funds be made in American.  His bill was signed into law on March 28, 2008.

Last week, Yost was interviewed on CNN’s Lou Dobbs to discuss the bill.  A retired Steelworker and army reserve veteran, Yost said that he was motivated to introduce the bill after seeing foreign-made flags used at a veterans memorial ceremony.  As he explained on CNN, “I lost all of my pension that was promised to me and my health care that was promised to me, as did thousands of other steelworkers. And as a veteran, I feel that it is unpatriotic and disrespectful to put a foreign-made product on a veterans’ memorial.”

Yost and thousands of other Steelworkers lost pensions when their former employers went out of business due to predatory competition from China.  And if $5.3 million in imported flags seems small change, consider that the U.S. racked up a $256 billion trade deficit with China in 2007.  Dumping, subsidies, and illegal currency manipulation have given China an unfair advantage over U.S. producers and so, as long as Beijing continues to cheat at the rules of world trade, it makes little sense to wave flags made in China.
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Yesterday, ManufactureThis started to call for submissions from folks around the nation.  We’re asking you to share your stories about lost manufacturing jobs, and about how your friends, family, and community are coping with unsafe products, closed factories, and unaffordable healthcare.

We’ve received a number of responses already and will include some of them in our daily content. 

By the way, when you write to us, please let us know if we can include your full name and your hometown.  Even send us pictures if you’d like.  Email it all to scapozzola@aamfg.org.

Without further ado, here are two selections from our Mailbag.  Both reference our first “Keep it Made in America” Town Hall meeting, hosted by John Ratzenberger.

From: Sandy in Pontiac, Michigan
“Please come to Michigan to do a town hall meeting.  I am sure everyone would turn out - most of us have lost our manufacturing jobs - now we are at $10.00/hr jobs with no benefits.  The people that have lived and worked in Michigan their whole life - now have nothing - thanks to jobs being outsourced.  We must make a stand and keep manufacturing in the United States or we are going to become a third world country!”

From: Patricia Mannion in New Hampshire
“Please thank John for his work. I am an ex-manufacturing worker for 25 years. We have all been completely devastated and lost our ability to keep up with rising costs due to less viable job opportunities and I have seen many people lose their 401K retirement and jobs and ability to rebound…I am a 53 yr old woman and my father recently died and asked me “what are you folks going to do in the future with no retirement pensions.”

ManufactureThis will continue to share the stories of everyday people trying to make ends meet after their manufacturing jobs have been outsourced.  Keep writing to us, and we’ll keep printing your letters.  It’s important that someone has a record of the dislocation brought about by outsourcing.  Maybe we can get some of our presidential contenders to give a read through our Mailbag.  And maybe, just maybe, they’ll say, “Hmm, I think there’s a problem here…”
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The big day is here and we have some big news…

The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) has partnered with actor John Ratzenberger (“Cheers,” The Travel Channel’s “Made in America”) to host a national series of “Keep It Made In America” Town Hall meetings this fall.  We hope to see you there.

By the way, AAM’s Scott Paul published a piece on today’s Huffington Post that discusses the Town Hall meetings.  Read it here.

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Over the weekend, there were two interesting local news stories on manufacturing job loss that caught the attention of ManufactureThis.

One comes out of Port Washington, Wis., where Briggs and Stratton announced that it would be closing a plant that makes lawn mowers and snow throwers. With its closing, 325 jobs will be cut, and according to the local machinists union, the average worker at the plant has a tenure of about 20 years.

“Tool room machinist Mike Helminger is 59 and has worked with the company for 37 years. He says more manufacturing jobs are disappearing and he worries who will hire him at his age.”

To get a good look at what the future holds, Helminger need only read a story posted the same day in the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

Headline: Santa Cruz yet to rebound after manufacturers left town starting 10 years ago

The story comes on the 10 year anniversary of the closing of a Wrigley chewing gum factory, which cost the area 300 jobs. The next few years following that plant closure saw the closing of other facilities, including Salz Leathers, Texas Instruments, Raytek, Giro and Lipton Tea.

“City finances have not only dipped since the manufacturing foldings, they’ve tumbled to the tune of several million dollars because of lost tax revenue — a combination of sales, utility, property and other miscellaneous taxes. The city has yet to fully recover, even a decade after Wrigley pulled the trigger.

“And, the manufacturing jobs — once considered a bridge to the middle class for workers with less education — have not been replaced, leaving few alternatives for people living in one of the nation’s most expensive communities.”

The story points out that countywide, the manufacturing sector has shrunk by more than 40 percent, from 10,700 in 1996 to less than 7,000 now, and points out that the significant loss has been:

“the elimination of good-paying jobs with health benefits and retirement.”

As MT has said before, unfortunately, this is a story that sounds all-too-familiar to far too many communities around the country.

MT has raised the questions before: What are we going to do to strengthen the American manufacturing base that is the cornerstone of our nation’s economy? How can we ensure American workers the economic security to realize their American dream?

It’s going to take a tremendous amount of determination, a commitment to working together, and an acceptance on the part of many that our nation’s economy isn’t humming along for everyone with nothing to worry about. Too many families, like hundreds in Port Washington and Santa Cruz, are far too close to the possibility of losing their jobs and their livelihood. 

There is no silver bullet that will strengthen manufacturing on its own, but there are many steps that will help, including enforcing and strengthening trade laws, reducing the trade deficit, addressing health care, pension and energy costs, and providing incentives for creating good paying jobs in the U.S.

Another week, another debate. As you’ll recall, last week we posted on the fact that not once in the Democratic presidential candidate debate was the word “manufacturing” used, despite the fact that South Carolina, the site of the debate, has lost 91,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.

Well, this week, we’re on to California, where more than 376,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost (the most of any state in the nation). Will any of the Republican candidates use the “M” word tonight? We hope so, in fact, we’ve publicly called on the candidates to tell us how they plan to address the serious challenges facing American workers and companies.

Additionally, The Politico, which is one of the sponsors of tonight’s debate, is giving voters the chance to submit and vote on questions they’d like to have asked of the candidates tonight. ManufactureThis has submitted a question:

“American manufacturing provides 14 million jobs and generates 80 percent of new patents, but it has challenges: 3 million lost jobs and 40,000 closed facilities, many because of trade with China. Do you have a plan to strengthen manufacturing?”

Click here to get to The Politico’s site, sort the questions by Topic (choose “Trade”), and then look for ManufactureThis.

Hopefully the candidates won’t need prompting from our question to get them to talk such important issues as manufacturing, international trade policy, health care and retirement security for Americans.