Manufacturers Coalition Seeks More Members

Saturday, February 18, 2012

CANFIELD, Ohio – The Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition held an informational session Friday to build its membership and enthusiasm for its mission. About 70 individuals attended the event – which was held at the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center -- including representatives of area manufacturers, local bankers, educators and state legislators.

The coalition was formed last year by area business leaders to address what its president, Brian Benyo, characterizes as an "acute skilled trades gap, not only locally but nationally," that represents "probably our most challenging issue" as business owners in the coming years.

"This is an industry-led coalition. This is not a coalition led by the education community, the workforce development community or the political community," said Benyo, president of Brilex Industries in Youngstown. "This is industry trying to help itself."

Jessica Borza, the coalition's executive director, told the audience that nearly every member has talked about expanding or adding business if able to attract additional skilled workers, and even turning down work because they can't find the skilled workers they need.

"If I lose an employee to a company that locates here related to oil and gas, if I can't replace that person because the labor pool doesn’t have sufficient depth in skilled employees in it, are we really creating a job?" Benyo questioned. "As we start to erode the labor pool and deplete it, we erode the diversity of the economy in this area."

According to Benyo, local manufacturers are already losing skilled workers to the oil and gas industry.

The education and workforce development communities are prepared to respond, Borza said, but they need "real feedback about the skills that are needed from the industry." The coalition's goals include identifying workforce needs; informing schools, students and the community about available opportunities in manufacturing; and influencing education, training and workforce programs to meet industry demands.

Borza highlighted the upcoming Oh-Penn Interstate Region's Manufacturing Workforce Summit, scheduled for April 12 at Youngstown State University. "We're inviting the community to participate," Borza said. "We see this as being a community issue. … We're inviting everyone to participate [and] bring their ideas."

Representatives of two area manufacturers who aren’t yet members of the coalition appeared receptive to its messengers.

"There's an absolute need for skilled people in our area. Right now you cannot find a person who is even familiar with a lot of the technology that we're using today," said Fred Coss, president of AmTech Tool & Machine Inc., a Boardman tooling, machining and fabricating shop. "We have openings for people to run [computer numerically controlled] machining centers, and I could be expanding and taking on more work but I'm at capacity with the workforce I have."

Coss said his company has been forced to turn down jobs because of workforce shortages.

"I'm very encouraged by what I hear," said Gregg Richley, plant engineer and health and safety manager at Ajax Tocco Magnethermic, Warren. The company manufactures induction heating and melting equipment. "We've got the problem at Ajax that we're having a hard time finding people and we're very encouraged to see that there's something like this being done to try to attract people to the [skilled] trades."

Although Ajax has not had to turn down work yet, "I can see that possibility," Richley said. Still, the skills-trade gap is acute locally, and the company's employees have had to work longer hours to meet demand.

Ajax Tocco Magnethermi, has five to 10 openings each in machining, welding, electrical assembly it can't fill right now, Richley reported.

Benyo and Borza were pleased with the response to Friday's event.

"It was awesome. What a great crowd. It exceeded our expectations," Borza remarked. "It was nice to see the level of interest and the level of energy in the room."

"We're really starting to get our message out, and with that we'll start to gain more traction and momentum," Benyo said.