Biden's Message Stresses Vital Role of Manufacturing

Thursday, May 17, 2012

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Business and labor leaders attending Vice President Joe Biden's speech Wednesday say they're encouraged by the message the Obama campaign has for Ohio.

"The vice president talked about the importance of industry coming together and really working with the schools and communities to let them know what their needs are," said Jessica Borza, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition. "That's what the coalition is all about."

Several times during his speech at M-7 Technologies (CLICK TO READ EXCERPTS), Biden referred to the work the coalition is doing to generate interest in the manufacturing by attracting a new generation of skilled employees. States such as Ohio face a huge shortage of skilled labor, which stands to hurt producers in the region.

"It was great to hear him recognize the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition," she said. "It was nice to hear those words coming from the podium to recognize some of the work that we've been doing."

She noted that leaders from both parties should rally around the importance of manufacturing as a core component of the economy. "It’s important for all our political leaders to recognize the importance of manufacturing as an economic driver,” she said, “and also the importance of the critical workforce shortages that we've been talking about."

Biden is on a two-day "Made in America" tour through Ohio to support President Barack Obama's bid for re-election. Throughout his 40-minute speech, the vice president trumpeted the administration's accomplishments while simultaneously attacking the policies of the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney.

The campaign selected M-7 Technologies, a company that has successfully made the transition from an old-fashioned machine shop and forge to a sophisticated operation that uses advanced technology to measure and machine components for major industries.

M-7 President Michael Garvey described himself as "honored" to host the vice president visit -- a visit he says underscores the importance of cultivating a manufacturing economy.

"Our family's business has been around since 1918," Garvey said, "through world wars, depressions, and technological, economic and social change. But through it all, we survived and we've adapted."

The key was to staying faithful to the tenets of manufacturing, Garvey said: jobs that pay workers a good wage, selling products around the world, and adopting technologies that make operations more efficient and products better.

Biden and the Obama administration, he continued, represent the core values of "who we are as a country," as the vice president emphasized the quality and sophistication of American companies, workers and products.

"Hard work, fair play, American products made by American workers," Garvey added. "In Youngstown, we make things people use, because that's what we do."

During his speech, Biden focused on Obama's rescue of the auto industry, which he said saved thousands of jobs across Ohio, perhaps millions across the country. “The secret to a long-term, healthy economy is a strong manufacturing base,” Biden stated, “not an economy that's driven by Wall Street plutocrats trading in instruments such as credit default swaps.

"That's not how you build and economy," Biden told a crowd of more than 650 inside the M-7 plant. "You build an economy by making things." Since June 2010, he said, 480,000 new manufacturing jobs were created in the United States, noting it's the fastest growth in this sector since the 1990s. In Ohio, 40,000 more manufacturing jobs were created.

"We've added 200,000 manufacturing jobs in the auto industry," he stated.

Dave Green, president of Local 1714 of the United Auto Workers union, which represents more than 1,000 workers at General Motors Co.'s Lordstown West plant, said it’s important for the public to realize how close GM came to going under in 2008. Were it not for the Obama administration, the plant wouldn't be turning out the Chevrolet Cruze and employing roughly 5,000.

"It was really because of the president and the vice president's bold stance to support us," he said. "We continue to get recognized by the administration, and we're going to make sure we continue to support the people who supported us."

In sharp contrast, Biden then pointed to the actions of the private equity firm Bain Capital and its former CEO, Mitt Romney (CLICK TO READ STORY).

During the 1990s, Bain Capital acquired a steel concern in Kansas City, Mo., that had been in operation since 1888. Eight years after Bain acquired the mill, the company went bankrupt, crushed by the massive debt incurred under Romney's tenure.

"The top 30 executives walked away with $9 million. And Romney and his partners walked away with at least $12 million," Biden told an enthusiastic crowd.

The campaign event also featured Randy Johnson, a former worker at American Paper & Pad Co., or Ampad. Johnson worked at its plant in Marion, Ind., which Bain acquired in 1992.

Shortly afterward, Johnson said, Bain slashed wages, jobs and benefits, leaving the workers no alternative but to strike. After union workers walked out, Bain shut the plant down.

"I thought the Bain Capital stories were compelling," said Gregg Strollo, president of Strollo Architects, Youngstown. "These are stories that are now starting to come out and it's going to hurt Romney."

If the economy continues to turn around, Strollo said, and Americans become more aware of Romney's financial dealings, the brighter Obama's prospects look in November.

Former Gov. Ted Strickland, who is accompanying the vice president on his tour, said he's pleased about how the campaign is unfolding and its effort to curry business support for the president.

"I think there's a lot of energy. I think that there's a good structural organization in place and resources are being made available here in Ohio," he said. "The president is trying to emphasize that his policies are the best for economic growth and business development."

Romney's policies, Strickland added, would be “counterproductive” for manufacturers across the country.

"Mr. Romney's agenda is focused primarily on the financial sector of our economy. He doesn't seem to care a whole lot about manufacturing," Strickland said.

However, Strickland noted, some businesspeople have taken a more ideological than pragmatic approach to the election. "If you look back over the last two or three decades, businesses have done better under Democratic leadership than Republican leadership," he observed.