National Crisis Affects Mass.

Sidebars:
Mfr. Execs Meet With Romney

Finding a Home in Massachusetts for New Manufacturing

The United States is losing its engine of economic growth-manufacturing. "Why?" These jobs have been migrating out of America to foreign countries at an accelerating pace since the 1980s. Today, out of 135 million working Americans, only 16.5 million are working in the manufacturing sector-the lowest level in 41 years.
		A worker at Cranston Print Works.

The loss of manufacturing jobs "has reached crisis proportions" warned Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, in the Jan. 15 Manufacturing News.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics appears to agree. It says factory job losses have totaled nearly 2.5 million since April, 1998, with many of those losses occurring since the recession began in March, 2001.

The monthly decline continued in March 2003, with 36,000 more factory jobs reported to be lost.

"Since last July, factory job losses have averaged about 50,000 per month," said the head of statistics in the U.S. Labor Department last month.

"In March, the losses were again widespread. In fact, there were no significant employment gains in any of the component manufacturing industries. The most notable job decrease occurred in industrial machinery (8,000 jobs were lost), where losses have totaled nearly 100,000 in the past year and more than 330,000 since the recession started 2 years ago," said Commissioner Kathleen P. Utgoff, Bureau of Labor Statistics, in an April 4 statement.

In perverse contrast, "From March 2001, when the recession began, to February 2003, the government sector has added an average of 26,000 jobs a month," said Comm. Utgoff.

Despite all this, "There is a lack of strong federal policy to preserve our manufacturing base in the United States," said Senators Susan Collins R-Maine and Jack Reed D-RI, in the Jan. 2 Manufacturing News.

The U.S. Senate and House are only now beginning to revive manufacturing task forces at the urging of industry representatives, who are also urging the White House to appoint a blue-ribbon commission.

The AFL-CIO says on its national website, "The roots of the crisis include flawed trade policies, unfair trade practices, an overvalued dollar and tax policies that put U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage, drive up the trade deficit and encourage American firms to move factories and jobs offshore."

Some blame the promoters of free trade and globalization, who said we shouldn't worry about losing millions of dirty, blue-collar factory jobs, because higher paying, knowledge jobs would keep the U.S. in the drivers seat.

But now, a new wave of globalization is capitalizing on the oversupply of college graduates in low-wage nations, outsourcing to foreigners a variety of American white-collar jobs including software writing, chip design, architecture and accounting.

"Until now, the adverse impact of free trade has been confined largely to blue-collar workers. But if more politically powerful middle-class Americans take a hit as white-collar jobs move offshore, opposition to free trade could broaden," says the Feb. 3 Business Week.

It could get worse if the "Free Trade Area of the Americas" program is implemented by the target date of January, 2005. It will expand NAFTA to include all countries in this hemisphere except Cuba.

"Our government has set it up so that it is unprofitable to manufacture in the U.S.," said Bob Davis, general manager of Indiana's Modern Die Systems Inc. in the March 10 New American magazine.

He noted the tremendous disincentives to production posed by taxes, regulations, employee medical insurance and labor union obstruction. Much of his business and many area employers have gone to Mexico.

Sidebar:
Mfr. Execs Meet With Romney

A delegation of executives from more than 20 manufacturing companies met privately with Governor Mitt Romney and his economic leadership team in February.

At the meeting, the Governor expressed his strong support for the three- percent investment tax credit for manufacturers. Legislative action is required to extend the credit, which is scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

Mass Insight Corporation's "Made in Massachusetts" report says finding suitable manufacturing sites in Massachusetts can be a challenge.

Limitations include lack of new land in older developed areas, obsolescence of existing, older buildings, zoning and permitting restrictions and development competition from "higher and better" uses.

In urban areas there are re-use limitations, land parcels that are too small, complicated approval and permitting processes and the effect of environmental contamination.

Mass Insight says there is a pressing need for "pre-permitted manufacturing sites," because one of the most crucial elements in a relocation decision is the time it takes to permit and build a facility.