Labor & Employment Law

Restoring U.S. Manufacturing Vital to National Security

By James Parks

The days when the United States could mobilize hundreds of factories and trainable workers to quickly produce what the nation needs to fight a war are gone. Thousands of factories are sitting idle and the workers who make our ammunition, GPS systems and build our planes are nearly all overseas.

Testifying today before a House subcommittee, several experts called for an immediate rethinking of our national economic policies so as to regain our global lead in manufacturing before it is too late. As manufacturing goes abroad, so do the skills workers need to produce today?s computer-driven, advanced technology weapons and the research and development that support them, they warned.

It?s time to make the ?Made in America? label really mean something again, Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs. We must stop importing most of what we consume and begin to manufacture more of it here, he said.

We have already lost our lead in some critical defense-related industries such as semiconductors, printed circuit boards, machine tools, advanced materials and aerospace, Baugh said.  The closure of the Avondale and Ingalls shipyards would cripple our ability to make ships.

Michael Wessel, a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, told the panel the situation is so bad that we no longer have the domestic capacity to produce enough ammunition to supply our troops and law enforcement. There are waiting lists to fill the police departments here at home, he said.

Baugh and Jeff Faux, distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said the U.S. government must craft an industrial policy to rebuild our manufacturing. Its key elements should include taking away incentives for companies to move jobs overseas, reducing the huge U.S. trade deficit, pushing harder to force China to end its currency manipulation and using government procurement to encourage domestic production.

The time is ripe for an industrial policy, Faux said. Polls show that majority of American think we need to rebuild manufacturing. And business leaders are starting to speak out in support of industrial revitalization.

Or, as Baugh said in his testimony:

While the economic crisis that began in 2007 has done massive damage to our country, the truth is our problems run far deeper and none is more fundamental than catastrophic decline of U.S. manufacturing.  The health of the economy and our national security are inextricably tied to a vibrant and innovative manufacturing sector. We must revive U.S. manufacturing as a clear centerpiece of our nation?s economic and security strategy.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on September 22, 2010 (boomark / email).