Factory Rebirth Fizzles in U.S. as Work Shipped Overseas

[Purveyor]

By Thomas Black - Sep 13, 2013

Randy Webb sees scant evidence of a U.S. manufacturing rebound in the Ohio plant where he’s fixed aircraft electronics for 25 years. Honeywell International Inc. (HON) is closing the shop in 2014 as it expands such work overseas.

Webb is among 80 employees poised to lose their jobs in Strongsville, Ohio, outside Cleveland, near where General Electric Co. (GE) will shut a lighting factory in favor of production in Hungary. Delphi Automotive Plc (DLPH) is sending parts assembly to Mexico from Flint, Michigan, and Eaton Corp. (ETN) will make extra-large hydraulic cylinders in the Netherlands, not Alabama.

“Manufacturing is clearly on the downswing,” said Webb, 49, who was told in April that the Strongsville Service Center would close. “Everybody I know is jumping to the service industry or taking some other kind of job.”

The U.S. industrial comeback, an idea embraced by President Barack Obama and some economists as 12 years of factory-job losses gave way to three annual gains, is now sputtering. Even with nonfarm payrolls up 1.1 percent in 2013 to 136.1 million, manufacturing has stagnated at less than 12 million. Factories added more than 500,000 positions after falling in February 2010 to the lowest since 1941.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-13/factory-rebirth-fizzles-in-u-s-as-work-shipped-overseas.html

[Mopar151]

1. More evidence of American management's fascination with cheap help

Evin when it is counter to their own best interest. The trouble is, that cutting labor cost goes to the bottom line instantly, while preserving a reputation, capabilities, and a quality-oriented culture pay out over a much longer time.

[winter is coming]

3. When I was in college, people who couldn't cut the mustard in their original major

changed their majors to Political Science or Business. Looks like we're reaping that harvest.

[KansDem]

2. This scenario should have been a major part of the "trickle down" sell...

But then, if it had been included, the Reaganites would never have been able to sell "trickle down."

[hunter]

4. I once spent a summer making a little clip used in passenger airliners.

I was paid $8.00 an hour for that slightly skilled labor. (Gasoline was still hovering around a dollar a gallon then, usually a bit less.)

Today the same sort of part is probably made in China, or by robots, or by someone in the U.S.A. who is still getting paid $8.00 an hour, works part-time, supports a family, and is collecting Food Stamps.

When I was doing the job it was "entry level" work for a high school graduate.

We really ought to be creating an economy where our kids can graduate from high school and expect to find a decent job even if they choose not to go to college right away.