Keep It Made In America Tour

Inside The "Keep In Made In America Tour"

Eric Hunt — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:00:07 -0400

Campaign for America’s Future’s Dave Johnson is interviewed by host Rick Smith of The Rick Smith Show, in Wheeling, W. Va., one of stops on the "Keep It Made In America Tour" by the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

In this interview the two discuss the causes of U.S. manufacturing’s decline in the last few decades. Dave notes that the crowds gathering at the town hall meetings all recognize the importance of American manufacturing and want to see its revival. He explains that the struggles experienced by Flint, Mich., one of the first stops on the tour, in the 1980s are no longer isolated to Flint, as an estimated 40,000 factories have closed during the Bush administration. Dave and Rick discussed how deregulation, outsourcing and the devaluation of Chinese currency have allowed the American manufacturing industry to decline, leading America into the worst recession since the 1930s.

Canton, Ohio Town Hall: We Can Make It, Build It, Grow It Here

Dave Johnson — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:33:50 -0400

The Canton, Ohio "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall meeting was at the Kent State University Stark Campus this evening. Lieutenant Governor and Senate candidate Lee Fisher spoke. His opponent, Rob Portman, (U. S. Trade Representative under George W. Bush) was also invited to speak to this meeting discussing how to recover the 2.4 million manufacturing jobs that were lost to China in the Bush years, but had other commitments and was unable to attend.

The crowd was welcomed by Stark County Commissioner Steven Meeks, who let us know that "Stark State College is creating curriculum that addresses needs of unemployed, and is growing 30% every year. Just announced a $2.1 million grant plus $8 million from Stark State, creating a Wind Energy Research and Development Center to test wind turbines." This partnership will train employees but will also bring wind energy business to the area.

After Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing introduced the organization and explained the town hall, Congressman John Boccieri, OH-16 spoke, saying, "We can make it, build it, grow it here." Later, "I thought the Chamber of commerce was supposed to protect jobs in the US not in Beijing. I fail to see how they believe that this is good policy for our country."

Next up was Senate candidate, Lt. Gov Lee Fisher. (Summarized from notes):

"Do we go back to the same people who gave tax breaks to large companies to send our jobs out of the country? To treaties that allowed these countries to dump cheap, unsafe unhealthy products, endanger our health and our economic health, put people out of work and companies out of business and industries vanished?

People think it’s OK the steel workers are upset, the auto workers are upset. It isn't. The key is to build alliances that go beyond steel, let’s talk about technology. The guy who founded Intel, Andy Grove, wrote recently that he no longer believes that free trade is the right way to go. In 1975 when first personal computer was invented, 125,000 people employed in the US. Today 125,000 are employed. This is the same but in Asia 1.5 million are employed in this business.

This is not just steel, glass auto, textiles, electronics, this is about solar panels, advanced batteries, wind turbines. We need to wake up the rest of America, you already get it that’s why you’re here, but the key to our victory is waking up the rest of American before it’s too late."

Interestingly, Fisher is running against Rob Portman, U. S. Trade Representative under George W. Bush. Portman was also invited to speak to this town hall discussing how to start recovering the 2.4 million manufacturing jobs that were lost to China in the Bush years but had other commitments and was unable to attend.

The Panel

Canton's town hall panel of local experts was Scott Paul of AAM moderating, with,

* Dave McCall District 1 Director for the United Steelworkers
* Athony Denoi, Plant Manager ATI Alegheny Ludlum (Stainless steel, other specialty steels)
* Max Blachman - Office of Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown

From notes:

Blachman – Sen Brown elected 92 to Congress, fighting for American manufacturing and workers ever since. Ran for Senate said let's make Ohio the Silicon Valley of manufacturing. Sen Brown had an op-ed in yesterday’s NY Times. (Note - a good read , it starts out, "TEN years ago this fall the Senate sold out American manufacturing.")

Steps to take – enforce trade laws, China created tremendous and unfair imbalance

McCall – We need a manufacturing policy. Level playing field. China currency. VAT – every country has a VAT except us. A company that makes something in India pays 20% tax, but when you ship the government gives the tax back, so companies in other countries get as much as a 20% break and China gets that break on top of currency manipulation and other schemes so that's now 60%. … Just try to get 1 pound of steel into China, you can’t. You can’t sell there, they are exporting their unemployment to us. … Why has this been going on for a decade, decade and a half? Because a whole lot of people have very short term thinking, don’t care, want to make their dollars now, want to get out. ... It’s time to give some protections to our American companies. They need to be profitable, so it is fair and balanced for companies and steelworkers as well.

DeNoi – We are in business because of specialty steel that goes into special places like nuke reactors, transformers. To make good steel you need: Good equipment good people know how to make it. China doesn’t have #3, intellectual property, if we lose that China can make it. Silicon Steel, best grade, now China says they can do. It's part of their energy strategy, for China to make their own. Titanium, we know how to make and others do not. Give us a level playing field we can compete globally. I keep on hearing industrial policy, it is a strategy, they are looking 5 10 20 years down the line. Has to be more than policy, has to be a serious strategy for long term/

McCall – on IP rights, I remember a guy testified before the China commission some years ago, who produced roof tiles for all KFC places in US. KFC got a contact from Chinese government to build 100 KFC stores in China. This guy, family business, invested in new technology, 40 employees. Business was good. KFC got this contract, the first load of shingles he sent got locked up on the dock and the government wouldn’t release it to be built on those restaurants until he gave them the formula and processes, KFC said we got to have these shingles, so he had to give up property rights. Now a company in China produces all those shingles, he is out of business.

Q from audience: “How do we get consumers to understand and support Buy American?”

McCall – Look what happens when we fight back. Cooper Tire built a plant in China, China said for 5 years you must export. So they have a price advantage, dump the tires here. So we filed a trade case and won, they put on a tariff, now they are dumping in Europe but not in US, so in Ohio now Cooper plant hires, 100 new jobs.

Q: “What is the government and manufacturers going to do to help put people 55 and older forced into retirement, back to work?”

Blachman – Sen Brown SECTOR act, labor grants to communities, allow labor an business and Community College or other anchor institution to come together with workforce investment board to fashion a curriculum to train for available jobs in new industries, fuel cells, advanced batteries, like what is happening at Stark Research Center on this campus. One-stop services often do not provide those specific skills needed to succeed in these industries.
This passed the House, Senate filibustered

DeNoi – challenge is to get a good educated workforce out there, we try to hire, give them tests, it is hard to get the skill set needed to work in steel. They have to have computer skills, math skills, problem-solving skills, we are having a difficult time finding it so we hire mature workers in this area because of that.

Paul – if you see a factory on TV it’s an action setting, abandoned factory, rusted chains coming from the ceiling, fire coming out of the floor and a dead bodies is thrown from the second floor, that’s what people see when they see factories. Now is clean, highly technological, exciting, and you have an opportunity

Q: "What three things if you could talk to the President."
DeNoi:
1) Level playing field
2) Long term strategy
3) Buy American
Silverware, it is not made here anymore. Gas grills.

So this was the last Town Hall I will be attending. There are more on the schedule and they are GREAT, and you learn a lot. Take a look at the schedule and see if you can make it to one. And I am sure there will be another round coming.

I will be thinking for a while and then writing a wrap-up post that take a bigger-picture look at what I learned this last week. So check back.

Erie, Pa., Town Hall: "No Country Ever Went Broke Investing In Its Own People"

Dave Johnson — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:03:00 -0400

Last night's "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall meeting was at the Bayfront Convention Center in Erie, Pennsylvania. Kyle Foust, Chairman of the Erie County Council welcomed the attendees and led off the Town Hall meeting, quoting Hubert Humphrey: "No country ever went broke by investing in its own people."

I recently spoke with a Tea Party member who did not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, sewer systems, etc. that make up the infrastructure that is the foundation of our country's ability to have companies at all. He actually thought that private companies do this, and that "government spending" just "takes money out of the economy." Maybe this is why so many candidates in this election say that "government spending" is bad but will not say, no matter how hard they are pressed, what spending they plan to cut in their quest for "smaller government."

The Town Hall

Following a Unitarian invocation by Rev Steve Aschmann, Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) -- the organization that is putting on these "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall events -- explained what AAM is about, strengthening manufacturing in this country. Scott gave the audience several facts about manufacturing:

74% of Tea Party supporters support more manufacturing, as do 82% of union members.
563,500 in Pennsylvania work in the manufacturing sector
This is down from 864,000 in 2000
And represents a 35% cut in manufacturing jobs.

Candidates Speak

Two local House candidates spoke at this meeting. Mike Kelley, Republican candidate for Congress spoke first.

"We can’t control unfair competition. Just make it fair, that’s all, make it fair. Enforce the rules. We play by the rules, other people don’t. Chinese currency."

Q: "Will you support buy American policies?" A: Who would not? Especially in taxpayer-funded projects.
Q: "Hold China accountable?" A: The world has been waiting for America to take the lead. China has to be held accountable when they break the rules.
Q: "Policies?" Competition, we never back away from competition. We need to get a national strategy in place. Taxes – need a VAT. Others all do it. (Note, Kelley's answer is good for manufacturing. Short explanation: Other countries use a VAT to boost their manufacturing sector. Their manufacturers get a VAT rebate, but goods imported from the US do not, so in effect a VAT is a either a subsidy of their companies or a tariff on imports from us.)

Next up was his opponent in the race, Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper:

We need to get back to a manufacturing economy, to provide that good family-sustaining wage.

How to keep it made in America, three points:
1) Close the loopholes, Republicans’s did not vote with us on this. My opponent has pledged, signed a pledge no to remove the tax advantages given to companies for moving factories out of the country and outsourcing American jobs. (Note see my post on this today.)
2) Stop China’s cheating. Everyone knows China cheats. The currency bill, voted for it, the Chamber of Commerce - that's the national Chamber which is a very different thing from the local Chambers -- is against it. We also have to stop China's illegal trade practices and dumping (selling below cost to capture markets).
3) Invest in our domestic manufacturing base. The COMPETES act has passed the House, but Senate… Education.

Raw materials – rare earth elements, China is saying they can get these IF they bring manufacturing t their country.
We can produce them here, but don’t. Because China subsidizes, it is not profitable to start production here.

The Panel

This Town Hall's panel of local experts:
• Kenneth Boothe Jr., General Manager, Donjon Ship Builders
• Reverend Jeffery Priscaro, St. Ann's church
• Ron Oliver, Community Labor Leader
• Tim Ryan President, Apex Offshore Wind.
• David J. Rosenberg, Head of Marketing, North America Gamesa Energy
• Hillary Bright, Blue/Green Alliance Field Organizer.

Priscaro – When people make things It create sjobsm, revenue, they buy houses, participate in economy.

Ryan – Windmills, local wind turbines on old steel mill site, made in the US. Sun Ray project in Texas used GE wind turbines, GE Transport made the gearboxes. Gemasa, of Sain, has set up manufacturing near here. The Export/Import bank financing requires high local content. We need a national Renewable Energy Standard, then there is a tremendous opportunity for American manufacturing in wind energy.

Oliver – the effect on people of losing job, moving, move in with mom, manufacturing is the heartbeat of America.

Boothe – Donjon has recently gone from 13 employees, in 10 months have 118. 125 by end of year, 150 then up to 250.

Bright – Labor and environmentalists share common goals Hadn’t recognized how intertwined manufacturing is with a healthy community, environment, wages, families, healthy communities. And healthy environment. The way we see America in future generations, manufacturing is key to recognizing that.

Q: "Where are we going to get jobs? We need the infrastructure rebuilt, everything reconstructed. How?"

Bright – AAM, others have recognized that one of the largest opportunities is in clean energy. The stimulus was a down payment. Opportunity at federal policy level like Renewable Energy Standard to create the market and the demand to get it going, otherwise we lose the race to countries like China.

Oliver – We need to create the jobs here, the stimulus was using money to buy windmills made in China.

Ryan – We need new power plants as well as wind energy power plants. National policy has been up and down up and down, industry can’t survive on federal programs that last 6 months or a year, we need national policy that looks at the next 20 years or so.

Priest, we lost jobs because of legislation, we can gina jobs by legislation.

Q: "What can we do to stop the leak of jobs from US?"

Scott Paul: Stop tax breaks to ship jobs overseas.

(Note - All pictures by Ike Gittlen, USW, click any pic for enlargement, see the entire collection here.)

Erie, PA Town Hall Tonite

Dave Johnson — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:48:51 -0400

I'll be in Erie, PA to cover a "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall this evening.

If you are in the Erie, PA area, tonight's event will be at 5:30 pm at the Bayfront Convention Center will feature the following guests:

Scott Paul, Executive Director, Alliance for American Manufacturing
Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, (D-PA) 3rd Congressional District PA
Mike Kelly, 3rd Congressional District PA candidate
Kenneth Boothe Jr., General Manager, Donjon Ship Builders
Reverend Jeffery Priscaro, St. Ann's church
Ron Oliver, Community Labor Leader
Paul Fitzgerald, Director, Erie Institute of Technology.
Tim Ryan President, Apex Offshore Wind.
David J. Rosenberg, Head of Marketing, North America Gamesa Energy
Hillary Bright, Blue/Green Alliance Field Organizer.

RSVP here and check on upcoming town halls in your area.

Wheeling Town Hall -- BIG Turnout -- Focus: Tax Breaks For Offshoring

Dave Johnson — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 10:12:28 -0400

Driving across Ohio toward Wheeling you pass one small manufacturing company after another - but not too many with lots of cars in the employee parking lot. I stopped in a coffee shop in a small township. They offered me a cookie, and when I declined, the owner said, “We’re giving them away, it’s our last day.” After 14 years the shop and the restaurant next door are closing because the landlord is giving up, auctioning off the building, and they don’t see how they can reopen somewhere else and make it. Too many manufacturers in the area have had to close.

Every manufacturing job supports four or five other jobs in the economy. This is seven or eight more gone. The Cut Nail plant dominates a section of Wheeling. It closed last week, after 152 years in business. That's a lot more gone.

The Town Hall

Friday night I attended the Wheeling, WV "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall meeting. This was a BIG event – 600 attendees big . (Note - All pictures by Ike Gittlen, USW, click any pic for enlargement, see the entire collection here.)

Many elected officials, starting with Governor Joe Manchi (now running for Senate) attended and spoke. Quite a few candidates for Congress attended and spoke as well. And there was a panel. The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register has a great writeup of the event.

The meeting began with a flag entrance presented by an honor guard of Young Marines:

This was a big event with a lot of speakers, so I'll only put up snippets of what was said. But the entire town hall was webcast live: see the recording of it here.

Alliance for American Manufacturing Executive Direct Scott Paul gave "manufacturing facts" between each speaker.

"Why should people care about manufacturing if they don’t work in a factory?
* Manufacturing provides 70 of all r&d, 90% of all patents, so if you care about innovation, next best thing…
* Manufacturing largest purchasers of technology, so if you care about…
* Manufacturing still employs 12 million, sizable portion.
* Also manufacturing has a multiplier effect, each job supports 4 or 5 others in your community. More than any other.
* Finally manufacturing jobs pay 22% better."

Vice President of the United Steelworkers Tom Conway spoke first,

"Thanks for coming, having a discussion, about what we think is a crucial issue, and one that America has been struggling with for a while. We’ve lost 50-60,000 factories over the last few years and millions of jobs. Labor and management do not have the luxury of not being together on this. We need to be together on this. Doing it jointly, telling a common story.

Trade is good but trade needs to be balanced, but now for 30 years we have had an imbalance that has gone on and one, and you can’t do that and expect to have a thriving economy, and think the country is going to exist off the growth in the financial services sector. Now 40% of our GDP comes from the financial services sector and you've all seen what’s happened.

You’ve got to have an economy that is based on something. You can’t keep having your best and brightest go to wall street.

It used to be there were two tickets into the middle class, get a union card or get a college degree.

Governor, Senate candidate Joe Mansion:

First question is will you support buy America policies? Made in America, even better.

There is not one thing in free trade that talks about fair trade. We can compete with any workforce in the world as long as it is on a level playing field.

Currency manipulation 40%, no rules or regulations on environment, and then we give tat incentives to companies to move jobs offshore.

Charlie Wilson OH-6, which borders on Wheeling:

We all have common interest, returing to economic security, returning our neighbors back to work and returning our communities to prosperity is a priority for all of us.

We shouldn’t be looking to advance new trade deals if the ones we have aren’t working. I’m proud to be a co-sponsor of Repeal NAFTA. Trade is important but it has to be fair trade and we have not had fair trade.
We have been outsourcing jobs, crippling thing in our economy, voted 2 times in last few weeks to close tax loopholes that encourage companies to outsource. How can we possibly justify rewarding people with tax breaks who send our jobs to other countries. Come here I’ll show you what has happened to our economy from jobs lost to trade deals.

The Conservative Tax Pledge

One speaker said something I want to hilight: Mike Oliverio, Congressional Candidate, WV-1, said something about the "Norquist No New Taxes Pledge" that I think was significant. Oliverio called it a pledge to keep those tax incentives for closing factories and outsourcing jobs.

I support legislation that prevent outsourcing of jobs, these tax giveaways have to stop, my opponent signed a tax pledge to continue these giveaways to corporations. I just can’t imagine how you can sign that kind of pledge in today’s world.

His opponent David McKinley:

The stimulus failed, only added debt to the government. We’re driving business away by overtaxing and overregulating. National Association of Manufacturers, Chamber of Congress, Tea Party backs me, Right to Life back me.

I want to freeze tax rates where they are now to remove uncertainty. Create confidence what our tax structure is going to look like they will start hiring again. Eliminate overregulation of business.

Nancy Pelosi is toxic to our political environment.

About 3-400 other candidates spoke. The Libertarian Party, the Mountain Party, the Constitution Party, others.

The Panel

After approx 28,245 more candidates spoke there was an excellent panel discussion, moderated by Scott Paul, with
* Tom Conway, VP USW
* Kenny Perdue, AFL-CIO West VA
* Beri Fox, CEO of the Marble King Company

Note: About Marble King. Wheeling and WV have been hit hard by imported glass. Glass used to be a very big industry in West Virginia. There were 240 glass manufacturing companies in WV 30 years ago. Marble King is one of only 6 remaining companies.

Berri – Marble King is a 75-year-old company. We want to help keep the American dream alive,. Glass business in WV second only to coal, 240 companies 30 years ago, today 6. The obstacles are substantial. Something has to be done.

We did kids’ toys, supplied game companies. All moved to China, NONE manufactured in US now. This created huge stresses on what was our market share, so we bagan to diversify our product into other areas, creative innovative. Now, you buy spray paint, aerosol, shake it, that sound is our marbles.

Question from audience: Tax Breaks for offshoring?

Conway - companies getting tax breaks are also the companies that have taken control of our government, big multinational companies, they leave American workers and communities behind and we can’t tolerate it any longer.

I think that is the best line to close with. If you need a reason to vote, there it is.

Lorain, OH Keep It Made In America Town Hall Meeting

Dave Johnson — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 23:17:59 -0400

Thursday evening I attended the "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall in the John Spitzer Conference Center at Lorain County Community College, an impressive, large campus. Lorain, Ohio is another town with closed factories, boarded-up houses, high unemployment, and ringed by the national big-box vulture chains whose business model is to suck the remaining funds away to Wall Street.

Driving into Lorain

As you drive from town to town in Michigan and Ohio you see one after another a ring of the "big box" stores and national chain stores around each city. You also see the "brownfields" of rusted-out, closed factories, empty, falling-down buildings. Then you go to the downtown and you see boarded up houses, empty storefronts, deteriorating and deteriorated communities, idle people standing on corners. As you drive into these towns you can just see what is happening in a nutshell.

You used to hear about how Wal-Mart was predatory, how it would show up in an area and after a while the downtowns would dry up, local business-owners would go broke, local business employees would be laid off, and the local people would have to work for low wages at Wal-Mart, while the region's spending money would go off to the wealthy few who run these things.

Well a juicy story of devastation like that one gets around, and there are those who hear it and say, "Hey, that's a great idea, I wanna get me some of that." So the Wal-Mart business model has taken off and now there are any number of these vultures, ringing the cities and towns around the country, so often private-equity owned. They are draining away the lifeblood of the downtowns, fighting off the unions to keep wages down, even demanding tax breaks to move in and "create jobs." You see all the same stores circling every town now, running all of the local and regional businesses unto the ground.

Here are some pictures from the inner Lorain area but you see it all around: (click for large)

The Lorain Town Hall Meeting

As I said, the meeting was at Lorain County Community College. The turnout was good, a number of candidates, local officials, and people from the community.

The opening speaker was Congresswoman Betty Sutton. “Manufacturing is the backbone of our economy. It’s the backbone of our nation. We’re aware here in Northeast Ohio that it created and promises to support the idea of a middle class.”

Sutton talked about the bill passed recently by the house that confronts Chinese currency manipulation. She hopes the Senate will also pass this, but we all know how difficult it is to get anything through the Senate. She also said that unlike Wall Street shuffling paper money around, what creates real value is the manufacturing of goods, which supports four surrounding jobs in the economy for every manufacturing job.

Following the opening remarks Scott Paul of the Alliance for Ameican Manufacturing presented a number of facts about manufacturing in Ohio and the country. 624,700 people work in manufacturing in Ohio, down from 1,021,000 in 2000. 39% of Ohio's manufacturing jobs were lost in the last decade. For the country the last decade was the worst ever, worse than great depression. We lost 1/3 of all manufacturing jobs with 50,000 manufacturing facilities closed.

“When I grow up will there be jobs in America?”

Next came a panel, moderated by Scott Paul, with

Larry Taylor, Plant Manager, US Steel Corp’s works in Lorain
Dave MaCall, Director of District 1 for the United Steelworkers, USW in Ohio
Kelly Zelesnik, Dean of engineering technologies at LCCC Elyria

A video of a question from a young person in Lorain: “When I grow up will there be jobs in America?” was asked of the panel.

MaCall: there will be jobs, because we have to take action, have to level the playing field. Things we need to do. Not be protectionists, have fair and balanced trade. But we need net exports. That’s how we grow. Every other country has a value-added tax so when someone makes a product that country writes a value-added check, so it is a subsidy on them and a tariff for us. America’s Visa card has run out.

We have 100 million tons of demand for steel in the US, has been for decades, last year demand was 60 million tons. Huge numbers of people laid off, from lack of demand, lack of consumption, and illegal trade.

Kelly, LCCC is partnering with manufacturing. LCCC invested in needs of community, 2 of 4 cornerstones of the college are education and economic development. LCCC is helping grow local economy with a new sensor center to develop and commercialize sensor technology. Industry and educational partners and entrepreneurs to access the center to develop and test prototypes and shorten the time to send products to the market as well as train employees. The center is an attractant to new businesses.

MaCall: We need national policies like every other country has. Businesses need to know there is a policy in America that will make sure there is access to capital, etc. For green startups, it is hard for companies to make investment when other countries helping their industry and we are not. Wall Street gets refinanced, now they’re holding it back, won’t let small businesses have access at reasonable rates.

Paul Q: What is the role in trade laws to keep steel competitive and on level playing field?

Taylor – We need strong trade policies that are strictly enforced. If they are not enforced they do no good, if we have this there will be jobs in future, level playing field. We stopped China on the steel tubes, but now other countries are producing subsidized product, we don’t get government subsidies, they do, we must have strong policies that we enforce.

Concluding

Over and over I am hearing these themes emerge: trade is good but stop illegal trade practices, level the playing field to enable us to compete, put together a national policy, improve trade education and training, invest in our future.

*The last 3 photos by Ike GITTLEN: USW

Tonight's Wheeling, W.Va., Town Hall Will Be Webcast

Dave Johnson — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:12:36 -0400

I have just learned that tonite's "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall in Wheeling, West Virginia will be webcast live starting at 5:15PM EST.

Visit the Wheeling Town Hall - Live page for the webcast.

From their page:

With the election less than three weeks away, West Virginia Senate candidates will address the issue of creating jobs and reinvigorating manufacturing at a “Keep it Made in America” Town Hall Meeting in Wheeling, WV. More than 700 voters are expected at the Town Hall Meeting, which is part of a 10-state tour sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). The voters will have a chance to directly question candidates and elected officials - from West Virginia and Ohio - on such key issues as rebuilding U.S. manufacturing for the global economy and balancing trade with China.

You can watch the town hall here live starting at 5:15pm ET today (Friday, Oct. 15th).

On Twitter? Follow us @KeepItMadeinUSA and use the Town Hall hashtag: #aamtht10

Jackson, Mich. 'Keep It Made In America' Town Hall An Energized Event

Dave Johnson — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:34:13 -0400

Yesterday I was in Jackson Michigan to attend the 2010 "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall Tour meeting. It was a very well-attended event, and everyone I spoke with seemed energized because someone is out there talking about what they consider an important issue, and thought that manufacturing is vitally important to the country, for jobs, and so we can pay our bills.

Jackson

Jackson, for your information, makes a claim to be the city where the Republican Party was founded in 1854. One thing is for sure, it was a very, very, very different party then.

I last visited Jackson three years ago. The downtown was dreary, and I remember walking around trying to find a place to buy a sandwich, giving up and ending up at a dreary fast-food place outside of town. Like Flint, things appear to be changing. In Flint is has been public/private government/business partnerships that has helped revive the downtown and the area. The University of Michigan has opened a Flint campus right downtown and you can feel the difference. I'm moving fast on this road trip so I didn't have time to investigate what is behind the different feeling in Jackson. But I had trouble getting to flint because I kept passing all these highway construction zones with ARRA (stimulus) signs. The official U-3 unemployment rate is down to 12.8% from 15.2 earlier this year.

The Town Hall

The meeting was in the Commonwealth Community Center, downtown. The large room was full, approx 275-300 attendees. I asked around and things were getting started and people were getting seated and it was a diverse audience politically, including some Tea Party supporters. Everyone I spoke with seemed energized because someone is out there talking about what they consider an important issue, and thought that manufacturing is vitally important to the country, for jobs, and so we can pay our bills. A recent poll found that 74% of tea party supporters want government strategy for manufacturing

The format was speakers, a brief PowerPoint presentation, buffet dinner and a panel on manufacturing featuring local business, labor and others. Following is a brief summary trying to catch the essence of what some of the speakers said.

Jackson's Mayor Karen Dunigan gave a very short welcoming talk, saying “Every day politicians speak about jobs, and yet we are still losing jobs.”

Next, Lansing Michigan's Mayor and candidate for Governor Virg Bernero spoke, saying that when they say we are done with manufacturing, that it is a thing of the past, they are saying we are done with America being a great country. You can’t just have consumption, you have to make things. It isn’t gross domestic consumption, it is gross domestic product, with "product" being a key word.

Congressman Mark Schauer, MI-7, “Cash for Clunkers invested in auto industry, got our steel plant to reopen, 3 shifts of workers now here in Jackson, we need to do more of that, fight for jobs in Michigan,” and he had a debate in an hour gotta go. "We need to make decisions about educating our workforce, trade, make sure our dollars are not stimulating jobs in China… We were the arsenal of democracy, and China is spending twice what we are spending on renewable energy technology."

The Panel

Sharon Collins, local restaurant owner: The Pickle Barrel Deli
Mark Gaffney, President Michigan AFL-CIO
Amanda Proctor, Exec Director, Shop Rat Foundation
Bill Rayl, Jackson Area Manufacturers Association, also on the Council of the National Association of Manufacturers
Moderator: Scott Paul, Alliance for American Manufacturing

From notes:

The Shop Rat Foundation offers hands-on skilled trade education to kids, creating the next generation of proud skilled workers and citizens (shop rats).

Rayl: The federal government needs to step up in this country and realize that the gloves are off on the global playing field, it’s not a playing field it’s a war field, they’re cleaning up, free trade is one thing fair trade is another. We need government to help us out, to fight these trade practices.

We need to be able to go out there and compete. We want ot do it. China has a big market for us when we can play fair but they hamstring us, one hand tied behind our back, Chinese government is fighting us all the time.

Scott: There may be difference between business and labor on a lot of issues but on American manufacturing there is very little disagreement, especially on holding China actable, R&D tax credit, there is a lot of support for doing all of it.

Rayl: Manufacturing is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s an American issue, we can make anything you throw at us, we have great skilled workers out there, companies that want to keep those people in good paying jobs, give health care and all that stuff, but we can’t do it if we can’t compete on an even playing field.

Gaffney: A trade agreement that lets a company just pack up a factory and move it to another country just because wages are lower, leaving behind a devastated community and unemployment, is just bad policy.
As the country tries to get out of bad economic times hopefully the people in Washington figure out that manufacturing is the way to help. IF there aren’t good-paying jobs for people to go back to, what are we going to do?

Amanda:
Q) Filling a need, do you think what we have now with our high schools and Community Colleges is enough?
A) Definitely some great programs out there. Lot of great but definitely not enough, we’re trying to push, we need to focus on education more than we are. A lot of people don’t think it’s not worth the time to train a 6th grader, don’t think that far back, but I want to stress you've got to get them young, get them interested, without middle and high school programs going on anymore kids don’t know about trade skills, they’re afraid of tools, but get them doing that, they are more confident, they will go out get a job or go on to vocational schools.

Manufacturing In Michigan

I guess I don't have to tell you that Michigan is known for automobiles. But manufacturing in Michigan was wiped out in the 2000-2008 period. There were 897,100 people working in manufacturing in Michigan in 2000. There are 466,400 people working in manufacturing in Michigan now.

Other Jackson Town Hall Resources

MLive.com covered Virg Bernero speaking at the rally.

Steve Capozolla was live-blogging Jackson's town hall event last night.

A local radio station has posted some audio from the event here.

Details of the Keep It Made In America Town Hall Tour

And this: American Made Shopper had a display at the meeting. They only sell items that are Made In America.

Flint, Michigan: A City Ahead Of The Rest Of Us

Dave Johnson — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:28:48 -0400

I am in Flint, Michigan today, getting ready to drive down to Jackson for this evening's "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall. Flint has been through it and has come out the other end. Now the rest of us are going through what Flint has been going through.

Many people know about Flint from Michael Moore's1989 movie "Roger & Me." In the documentary General Motors had closed factories in its home town, outsourced the jobs, and left the community behind. This sort of corporate behavior was becoming common by 1989 but it was still shocking that an American company would do this to Americans and America. The movie focused on the effect this had on Flint and its people. You might remember seeing block after block of boarded-up homes and people talking about how the try to get by.

This has now been a familiar story for decades, companies closing factories, outsourcing the jobs, abandoning the communities, a few at the top pocketing the money and leaving absolute devastation in their wake.

I was last in Flint three years ago, visiting relatives. Twenty years after the movie Flint was still struggling, in depression, its downtown full of closed stores and many of the blocks of boarded-up homes were worse, if anything. There were "For Sale" signs everywhere, and this was before the national housing bust. But there were many signs of people learning to cope. The Farmer's Market was going strong. The University of Michigan was working on a new campus, the Mott Foundation and others were working on various approaches to try to help the community...

So here I am again. You can see three years worth of progress here. Revival is clearly occurring. The new U of M Campus is open and clearly making a difference. Part of the downtown is clearly revived, including the Durant Hotel restoration, while other parts are under construction. The Farmer's Market was named one of the best in the nation. There are fewer "For Sales" signs around. All around there is a better mood. Crime is still bad, there are still abandoned buildings, but a corner is turned.

Flint Farmer's Market:

Flint Ahead Of Nation

So Flint has been through it and has come out the other end. Now the rest of us are going through what Flint has been going through. And the rest of the country has a ways to go before we will see the other end of this. Roger & Me was 1989 and now it is 2010. The same crap is still going on, and more so. As I said, in 1989 it was still shocking that American corporations would treat Americans and America the way they did. But now we have been through another two decades of the few at the top closing factories, outsourcing the jobs, devastating the communities, pocketing the money and then using their financial power to demand tax breaks to further defund government. The difference is that now we all live with the effects, not just Flint.

I'll Be On The “Keep it Made in America” Town Hall Tour Next Week

Dave Johnson — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:17:47 -0400

I will be joining and writing about the "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall tour. (Click through for more info and a map.) The tour is from October 12-29 and I will be joining from October 12-19.

The official tour announcement:

Creating Jobs Takes Center Stage at "Keep it Made in America" Fall Tour
Town Hall Meetings in 10 States Ask Political Candidates, "How Will You Create Manufacturing Jobs?" October 12th-29th

WASHINGTON, DC. Oct. 4, 2010 - With the midterm election less than five weeks away and all polls showing the economy and jobs topping the list of voter concerns, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) has announced its 2010 "Keep it Made in America" Tour. The non-partisan group will hold Town Hall meetings in 10 states to help voters directly question their candidates and elected officials on such key issues as unbalanced trade with China and rebuilding U.S. manufacturing for the global economy.

"A majority of likely voters say the U.S. no longer has the world's strongest economy and that Washington isn't doing enough to rebuild manufacturing," said AAM Executive Director Scott Paul. "People are greatly concerned about our lost standing. They know China is overtaking us, and they want the United States to be number one again.

"We are providing voters with a chance to ask their candidates directly, 'What are you going to do about restoring manufacturing and the millions of jobs we've lost to China,'" Paul said. "We've invited the candidates. Let's see if they'll face the voters."

The Town Hall meetings, which will include a panel of local business, labor, and civic leaders, as well as remarks by various federal and statewide elected officials and candidates, will focus on:
· The need to create good jobs for the 21st Century;
· The importance of fighting for manufacturing as the key to any economic recovery; and
· Leveling the playing field for American workers and businesses in the global marketplace.

"The voters get it," said Paul. "Will the candidates?"

Here is a Business News Daily story about the tour, Advocates of U.S. Manufacturing Prepare Pre-Election Tour,

Preparing for the elections, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a nonpartisan, nonprofit trade group, is launching its “Keep it Made in America” tour, a series of town hall meetings in 10 states where local business, labor and civic leaders will help voters question candidates on issues, particularly the state of manufacturing jobs in the United States.

... In each of the 12 cities, the group has scheduled a panel of local leaders and invited federal and statewide elected officials and candidates to discuss job creation, manufacturing’s importance in economic recovery and “leveling the playing field for American workers and businesses in the global marketplace.”

Here is the tour schedule. I will be joining from Jackson, Michigan on October 13, through Canton, Ohio on October 19.

- Oct. 12: Hartford, Conn., 6 p.m.
- Oct. 13: Jackson, Mich., 5:30 p.m.
- Oct. 14: Lorain, Ohio, 5 p.m.
- Oct. 15: Wheeling, W.Va., 5 p.m.
- Oct. 18: Erie, Pa., 5:30 p.m.
- Oct. 19: Canton, Ohio, 5 p.m.
- Oct. 20: Wayne, Pa., 6 p.m.
- Oct. 20: Merrillville, Ind., 5 p.m.
- Oct. 21: Asheville, N.C., 5 p.m.
- Oct. 27: St. Louis, 5 p.m.
- Oct. 28: Concord, N.H., 6 p.m.
- Oct. 29: Wausau, Wis., 5 p.m.

If you are going to be in one of those towns please come to the Town Hall. Please RSVP here.