The Walmart on Atlantic Boulevard in Canton is collecting food for employees who can’t afford Thanksgiving dinner. The company said this is proof that employees look out for one another. The group of employees who have held national strikes against the world’s largest retailer says the food drive is proof Walmart doesn’t pay associates enough to survive. The Organization United for Respect at Walmart, or OUR Walmart, is holding strikes against the chain at stores in Dayton and Cincinnati on Monday, Nov. 18. (courtesy of OUR Walmart)
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The storage containers are attractively displayed at the Walmart on Atlantic Boulevard in Canton. The bins are lined up in alternating colors of purple and orange. Some sit on tables covered with golden yellow tablecloths. Others peer out from under the tables.
This isn’t a merchandise display. It’s a food drive – not for the community, but for needy workers.
“Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner,” read signs affixed to the tablecloths.
The food drive tables are tucked away in an employees-only area. They are another element in the backdrop of the public debate about salaries for cashiers, stock clerks and other low-wage positions at Walmart, as workers in Cincinnati and Dayton are scheduled to go on strike Monday.
Is the food drive proof the retailer pays so little that many employees can’t afford Thanksgiving dinner?
Norma Mills of Canton, who lives near the store, saw the photo circulating showing the food drive bins, and felt both “outrage” and “anger.”
“Then I went through the emotion of compassion for the employees, working for the largest food chain in America, making low wages, and who can’t afford to provide their families with a good Thanksgiving holiday,” said Mills, an organizer with Stand Up for Ohio, which is active in foreclosure issues in Canton. “That Walmart would have the audacity to ask low-wage workers to donate food to other low-wage workers — to me, it is a moral outrage.”
Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesman, said the food drive is proof that employees care about each other.
“It is for associates who have had some hardships come up,” he said. “Maybe their spouse lost a job.
“This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships,” he said.
Lundberg said holding the food drive at the Canton Walmart was decided at the store level. However, the effort could be considered in line with what happens company-wide. The Associates in Critical Need Trust is funded by Walmart employee contributions that can be given through payroll deduction. He said employees can receive grants up to $1,500 to address hardships they may encounter, including homelessness, serious medical illnesses and major repairs to primary vehicles. Since 2001, grants totaling $80 million have been made.
But an employee at the Canton store wasn’t feeling that Walmart was looking out for her when she went to her locker more than two weeks ago and discovered the food drive containers. To her, the gesture was proof the company acknowledged many of its employees were struggling, but also proof it was not willing to substantively address their plight.
The employee said she didn’t want to use her name for fear of being fired. In a dozen years working at the company, she had never seen a food drive for employees, which she described as “demoralizing” and “kind of depressing”. The employee took photos of the bins, and sent them to the Organization United for Respect at Walmart, or OUR Walmart, the group of associates holding the strikes in Cincinnati and Dayton.
Vanessa Ferreira, an OUR Walmart organizer, said she “flipped out” when she first saw the photos taken by the Canton worker.
“Why would a company do that?” she said. “The company needs to stand up and give them their 40 hours and a living wage, so they don’t have to worry about whether they can afford Thanksgiving.”
The strikes against Walmart, which have been staged in the last several weeks across the country, including at stores in California, Florida and Illinois, are focusing on three issues: ensuring that no associate makes less than $25,000 a year, offering employees more full-time work and “ending illegal retaliation” against employees who speak out against pay and working conditions.
The first strike occurred last Black Friday at Walmart stores throughout the country. Though most associates remained on the job, many credit the event with being the public launch of
the low-wage workers’ movement. Efforts to raise the minimum wage would follow, including a bill pending before Congress to raise the federal hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. (The minimum wage in Ohio is $7.85.) In the time since, fast-food workers also have staged strikes, demanding the minimum wage be raised.
OUR Walmart won’t say what is planned for this Black Friday, but the group has a news conference scheduled Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Joseph Hansen, international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, are scheduled to announce organized labor’s commitment to Black Friday efforts.
Lundberg said taken in this context, OUR Walmart had incentive to first misinterpret and then blow out of proportion the food drive at the Canton store as fodder for the campaign.
How do you think Walmart could better support their employees during the holiday season? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Erica Reed, an associate at the Canton store, agrees. She said food drives have been going on at the store for a few years, so she questions why they are becoming an issue now. Reed said past food drives helped her cope with her own problems, not caused by low wages but because of losing $500 a month in child support when the father of her four children went to jail. She declined to give her salary.
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“It took a burden off me. I didn’t have to worry about how I was getting my turkey to feed them Thanksgiving dinner,” she said.
Reed said it was “ignorant” to question efforts to help people in need or blame Walmart for the economic realities of the labor force nationally.
“You can’t find a decent job anywhere,” she said.
Scott Stringer, a Dayton associate who said he intends to go on strike, said Walmart bears blame because of its dominance. He makes $9.30 an hour after five years with the company.
“Walmart sets the precedent for everybody, so if they make changes, everyone would follow suit,” he said. “The economy and the United States, in general, would be a better place.”
A question of salariesLundberg said nationally that associates make $12.87 an hour. The company considers those working at least 34 hours to be full time. He said the average full-time employee works 37 to 38 hours a week. That comes to an annual salary of about $25,000.
OUR Walmart places the average salary at between $8 and $10 an hour, based on glassdoor.com and other websites that compile salaries, often without company participation. Based on that range,
th
e average associate’s salary is roughly between $15,000 and $20,000 a year.
For example, after about a dozen years on the job, the Canton employee who took the photos makes nearly $12 any hour. But the hourly rate is misleading, she said. Though officially a full-time worker, the associate said she only made about $17,000 last year because the company has had a common practice in recent years of cutting hours.
Lundberg said this isn’t true and that the company is committed to having full-time employees. For example, he said company-wide, 35,000 associates are scheduled to be promoted from part time to full time between September and January.
Ricki Hahn, a Dayton associate who intends to strike Monday, said poor working conditions — and not money — motivated her to speak out. She said supervisors consistently berating employees — often in public — is part of Walmart’s culture. So is failing to address unsafe working conditions, such as unsecured shelving in a stock room that could fall on employees, she said.
The company says it has good working conditions, in terms of safety and employee relations.
Hahn, who makes $11.70 an hour after 7½ years, describes her salary as “pretty good” since she knows it is hard for her to get credit for experience in her industry, and she would be back earning near minimum wage should she take a similar job at another retailer. Hahn said she is realistic about the salaries low-skilled workers should make. For example, she supports the federal bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10, but believes the fast-food workers demand of $15 is too high.
While the Walmart strike isn’t just about wages, it always seems to come back to money. Hahn is constantly reminded of this during the work day.
“Personally, it is difficult for me to stock groceries that I can’t afford at the end of the day,” she said.
Symbols both in food drive and strikeWhile Walmart officials and many employees see the food drive bins as a symbol of generosity, others see it differently.
“That captures Walmart right there,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University’s labor school. “Walmart is setting up bins because its employees don’t make enough to feed themselves and their families.”
Mills, the Canton community activist, said the issue of the food drive drew her in because for her it represented another case of corporations behaving irresponsibly and then leaving the less fortunate to “clean up the mess.” She said if employees can’t afford Thanksgiving, then Walmart should pay for turkey dinners “with all the fixings and all the sides.”
Mills successfully worked toward getting Canton to pass a law requiring banks and other financial institutions to put up bonds so the city wouldn’t be left paying to maintain the homes on which these institutions foreclosed. Many of these foreclosures were the result of subprime and predatory loans, she said.
“I call it the reverse Robin Hood effect,” she said.
Walmart sees the strikes as a symbol without substance. For example, during the highly publicized strikes in Los Angeles earlier this month, the company said no more than 20 associates participated, though there were about 275 demonstrators.
Bronfenbrenner said the company is misinterpreting the low numbers of workers on strike.
“There were many work places, that when the striking workers returned, many workers inside stood up and clapped,” she said.
Both Dayton strikers Hahn and Stringer say they have strong support, even if fellow workers won’t join them on the picket line.
“A lot of friends of mine at work want to go out on strike, but they fear that they won’t be able to support their families if something happens,” Hahn said.
That something could mean losing a job, said Ferreira, the OUR Walmart organizer. She said she got fired after participating in the 2012 Black Friday strikes. Ferreira was terminated some time after the strike on trumped up charges of staying on break too long, she said.
Lundberg said Walmart has a very strong anti-retaliation policy.
Hahn and Stringer see themselves at the beginning of a movement that they believe will mushroom.
“We’ll be speaking out for other areas, like Cleveland, that aren’t striking,” Hahn said. “Just because they aren’t striking Monday, doesn’t mean it can’t happen there soon.”
US Fundraising Mittens Made in China
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamThe red-white-and-blue mittens it’s selling to raise funds for winter athletes were produced in China.
It says so right on the tag on the inside.
The USOC is charging $14 a pair for the blue hand-warmers that have the word “Go” embroidered in red on the left mitten and “USA” on the right. Also part of that left mitten is the tag, which says the gloves are “100% acrylic,” ”One Size Fits Most” and “Made in China.”
USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said the “official” mittens being worn by the athletes at the opening ceremony are made in the USA. They’re also available to the public for $98 a pair on the Ralph Lauren website, which proudly proclaims its products are “Made in America” almost everywhere you look on the page for its official Team USA collection.
But the federation, which receives no government funding and is always trying to find new ways to raise money for its athletes, was going for a lower price point for its fundraiser. With the games more than a month away, it has raised $500,000 from the mitten sales.
“We wanted to create a fundraising opportunity where almost anyone could support Team USA,” Sandusky said.
The foreign-made mittens are available at the USOC’s official online shop of the U.S. Olympic Team.
The mittens are an American spin on an idea that started in Canada at the last Winter Games. The host country produced “Go Canada” mittens that turned out to be the hot item of the Olympics, raising more than $14 million for the Canadian team. Those mittens, which sold for $10 a pair, were made in China, too.
The USOC, meanwhile, has tried to be extra careful about where its goods are manufactured since running into trouble when news broke that its 2012 team uniforms were produced in China.
Congressmen from both parties piled onto the PR gaffe, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., saying, “I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again.”
Shortly after that, the USOC said all future team uniforms would be made in the United States and, true to its word, the 2014 versions are.
Fans can buy almost all components of the uniforms — among them, pullover sweaters, the same boots the athletes will wear at the opening ceremony and, of course, the $98 “Go for gold TEAM USA” mittens that also say “Go USA.” Some of the proceeds from those sales go to the U.S. team, per terms of licensing agreements with Ralph Lauren.
“We want to provide a variety of things for people to purchase,” Sandusky said. “A good number of those items are made in the USA and some items are made from around the globe, like most sporting goods. But we wanted to make an effort to make sure people have a chance to buy the official team mittens, which are made in the USA.”
Top 4 Manufacturing Issues in America – Part 1 of 2
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamClosing the Manufacturing Skills Gap
Manufacturing has evolved far beyond the days of the moving assembly line when thousands of factory workers labored side by side in repetitive motion. The “Skills Gap” is one of the most talked about manufacturing issues in America, with most of the major news outlets covering the issue over the last year in great detail.
Today, manufacturing is highly technical and requires understanding and proficiency in a wide variety of competencies. However, this demand for highly skilled workers comes at a time when the industry is facing the retirement of a large percentage of its workforce and an incoming generation of workers who lack the skills and technical knowledge needed for U.S. manufacturing. The oldest baby boomers turned 65 on Jan. 1, 2011, and every day thereafter for about the next 19 years, some 10,000 more will reach the traditional retirement age, according to the Pew Research Center. Many manufacturers are seeing an advantage to “reshore” their production back to North America, but they can only do this if they have access to skilled workers.
A key component has been the development of the (National Association Of Manufacturers) NAM-Endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification System—a system of stackable credentials applicable to all sectors in the manufacturing industry.
Additionally, in June 2011, President Obama announced that the Skills Certification System was the national talent solution for closing the skills gap addressing this top of many manufacturing issues in America. In addition to supporting and advancing the Certification System, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation encourages youth to get involved in manufacturing technologies through STEM-related activities in the K–12 levels.
Reshoring/Insourcing Manufacturing to the United States for Increased Quality
Now in 2013, another major of the manufacturing issues is reshoring and insourcing. More companies are moving their services and manufacturing operations back to the United States. Caterpillar moved operations from China to Mexico and the US. Dell moved its customer support from India to the US. K’Nex Brands moved manufacturing from outsourcing in China to the US. K’Nex said, ‘by moving production closer to the US retailers, K’Nex can react faster to fickle shifts in toy demands and deliver what is needed faster’. It also has greater control over quality and materials, which is crucial to product safety.
The common factor of reshoring is quality. When you have lack of control or visibility of your suppliers, partners or the supply chain, you will end up with inferior products while suffering from reliability and safety issues. There needs to be consistent processes, a harmonized approach to safety and risk based management of issues, suppliers, standards and collaboration. Quality is touted as a competitive advantage – look at the number of TV commercials with the J.D. Power & Associates quality award, or Malcolm Baldridge Quality award. Number 2 in our top manufacturing issues blog, reshoring, is still an ongoing debate, and time will tell if this trend continues, or if offshoring will cycle back in the next 20 years.
Trends in Manufacturing Fuel: Oil vs. Natural Gas
Always one of the manufacturing issues manufacturing executives must consider is fuel and energy use. Oil has always, and currently still is, the most prevalent form of fuel and energy used in both the shipping of manufacturing products and in the process of manufacturing. Oil has also made the American manufacturing community, and thus the economy, quite dependent on foreign importing, thus driving up manufacturing costs.
However, with the recent advent of manufacturing natural gas from shale, such as from the Marcellus Formation in the Appalachian Basin, in Corpus Christi, and other parts of America, many manufacturers are finding alternative and cheaper ways to procure fuel for production and decrease transportation costs as the use of LNG (liquefied natural gas) motor carriers increase. Currently, the procedure to extract this natural gas is known as Fracking.
With this decrease on foreign oil dependence, and the increase in supply of natural gas, Economists foresee a potential rebirth of American manufacturing including such basic industries as steel and plastics that had gone overseas and that many Americans thought they would never see again.
General Electric Co. chief executive Jeff Immelt is one captain of industry who is convinced that American manufacturing can rise again, thanks to the natural gas shale revolution.
According to Immelt, “The availability of shale in the United States and around the world has to be one of the biggest game-changers I’ve seen in my career.” It is not doubt that fuel is a one of the top manufacturing issues on all American manufacturing leadership’s minds.
“Made In America” Is the New Black (Again)
Finally, in this first part of pressing manufacturing issues in American Manufacturing, we close with the Rise of Demand of “Made In USA” as of late. “Made in America” was seen with great prominence around the mid-1990s when the FTC updated it’s labeling requirements, originally in stated in 1938, and then with more stringent “Made In USA” rules amended in 1996.
American manufacturing in certain areas is on the rise thanks to increasing Chinese wages and crowdfunding fueled new production startups. Although there was some weak manufacturing data out just as recent as May of 2013, the demand for American made goods seems to be increasing. At least that is the case when it comes to goods with the “Made in America” or “Made in USA” labels and this is especially true in the apparel industry. Indeed, many consumers like the quality perception boost associated with
lab
els serving as certificates that these goods were in fact made in America. Strangely, American made items are also growing in popularity because our production costs are declining while Chinese labor is actually seeing wage increases and surprisingly in some cases U.S. shop owners couldn’t afford to go with the Chinese manufactured options.
We highly suggest you follow the Alliance for American Manufacturing on Twitter for information and news on the “Made In America” or “Made in USA” movement.
Make sure you read tomorrow as we cover the rest of our top manufacturing issues in American Manufacturing. What other trends would you add? Let us know your thoughts on these 4 trends as stated above in the comments below!
CERASIS Inc.
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5 Keys to American-Made Holiday Shopping
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamThe race to find holiday presents is underway, and there’s both good news and bad news for the shoppers out there.
But here’s the good news: Getting to the top of the gift-giving podium is as easy as spelling U.S.A.
When those three letters follow “Made in,” they instantly elevate your gift to the status of conversation piece. A simple shirt is transformed into a symbol of resilience. A simple toy becomes a statement about safe products. And a simple “thank you” becomes a conversation about American jobs and helping to put food on your fellow citizen’s table.
But wait, you thought. Buying American ignores costs and the realities of a globalized economy. We don’t make anything anymore.
Not so fast.
While it’s hard to argue that American consumers face a shortage of Chinese imports, it isn’t hard to argue that we face a shortage of jobs. So why not support more of them by purchasing from companies that make products here?
Doing so is easier than it seems. These days, shoppers have more Made in America options than they’ve had in years.
Toys? America has got you covered. Kitchenware? Lots of choices. Clothing? You bet. Electronics? Yes, we make those too.
From athletic footwear to flatscreen TVs, there are companies manufacturing in America today. And while you may expect to pay a premium for American-made quality, you’d be surprised at how easily those on tight budgets can find gifts at competitive prices.
So here’s a personal challenge to consider this season: Give just one more Made in America gift than you had planned.
Here are five tips to help you achieve (and surpass) that goal.
1. Web searches are your friend. Typing in key phrases like “Made in America” or “Made in USA” along with the gift you are searching for can narrow the field for you. Plus, many online stores like REI and Nordstrom let you search by “made in America” too.
2. Consider a curated list as your starting point. There are plenty to choose from. And with even more out there catering to crowds from union workers and do-it-yourselfers to hipsters and fashionistas, odds are you’ll find one to your liking.
3. Shop smartly at big box stores. Look in sections where you’re more likely to have success than those where you aren’t. For example: Plastic and rubber housewares, appliances, and perishables are better bets than buys in electronics and footwear.
4. Don’t discount the big brands. Some of them have a number of American-made options. New Balance, Whirlpool, KitchenAid, American Apparel, The Container Store,Brooks Brothers, and Nanette Lepore are just a few across a range of price points and product categories.
5. Go local. If the bigger names don’t appeal to you, consider purchasing your gift from a local artisan. Craft beer, artwork, food, jewelry, and wood toys are among the scores of options.
Bonus tip: Don’t drive yourself crazy. Trying to buy exclusively Made in America gifts is virtually impossible. Just think about doing a little better this year than you may have done in the past. Start with just one more gift.
And lastly: We’d be remiss if we didn’t remind you that giving American-made gifts can do something that Congress hasn’t been able to do for a few years: Help bring manufacturing jobs back to the States. America lost roughly a third of its middle-income factory jobs in the 2000s; and only about one in 11 of them have been added back since the end of the Great Recession.
But if each of us purchased one additional American-made gift this year, that alone would support somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 to 200,000 new jobs. We’d be able to tell Congress: If we can do it, you can pass policies to support American manufacturing too.
Made in America gifts that give more smiles, more jobs, and richer conversations. That’s how we’ll be giving this holiday season. How about you?
Scott Paul, President, Alliance for American Manufacturing
Alex Bogusky, Creative Advisor, Made Movement, formerly co-chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky
MADE IN THE USA… OR IS IT? INFOGRAPHIC
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamManufacturing Jobs Loss To Stop, Says Study
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamThe net loss of manufacturing jobs from the U.S. to China may have finally come to an end, according to a study by strategy and operations consultancy The Hackett Group. And because of changing conditions in the U.S. and Chinese labor markets, the net shift of jobs may move back to domestic facilities.
The reason manufacturing jobs moved to China from the U.S. in the first place was because of money. It simply cost less to make products there than here. Even though shipping goods back thousands of miles was expensive and there were the accompanying expenses of carrying the two months of inventory that would take 60 days or more to make the journey, lower costs of labor and materials more than made up the additional expenses.
The so-called “total landed costs” that take into account every expense occurred was lower for Chinese-manufactured goods. According to Hackett chief research officer Michel Janssen, products from China were 35 percent cheaper in 2005 than the American equivalent.
Times have changed. Because of domestic unrest and unfavorable publicity like the focus on labor conditions in Apple’s outsourced factories, salaries have risen in China. Rising oil prices have contributed to more expensive transportation costs. Some manufacturers have begun to bring jobs back to the U.S.
“For a long time we’ve been losing jobs,” Janssen says. “Now we’re reaching a point I call net zero.” That is, the number of manufacturing jobs returning has finally balanced the ones leaving.
A tipping point
“The expectations are that by 2013, [the difference in landed costs] will be 16 percent,” Janssen says. Coincidentally, 16 percent is the threshold at which U.S. companies say that they would consider moving manufacturing jobs out of China, according to a Hackett survey of major corporations. The chances are that within a few years, the U.S. could see a net gain in manufacturing jobs.
However, there are significant downsides to the news. One is that jobs won’t return in the same volume. U.S. manufacturers have continued to use technology to make factories more efficient and the jobs that return will likely be to highly automated facilities that don’t need as many people as they once might have.
Also, not all the jobs that are “reshored” will return. Many that depend on lower cost wages and other manufacturing expenses will move to other areas in Asia like Vietnam, South Asia locations like India, and even South America. Also, the move to the U.S. depends on the “implicit deflation in wages here,” Jenssen says. So even if jobs that were once well-paying with good benefits return, they may offer significantly less to workers.
Services still hurting
The change in manufacturing jobs has had no impact on the move of service jobs in accounting, IT, human resources, customer service, technical support, and similar areas. According to another Hackett study, the net number of general and administrative overhead service jobs moving out of the U.S. this year will likely hit 285,000, continuing a long-standing trend.
But by 2016, the number of service jobs that companies could outsource will have dropped to a million. “We’re not going to run out of labor arbitrage opportunities. We just run out of low cost jobs to move,” Jenssen says.
Family & Friends Event at Montauk Tackle Co. American Built Performance Apparel
in News/by MAM TeamAccording to The National Retail Federation, overall online retail sales this holiday season are expected to amount to $82 billion, which would be up as much as 15% from November and December in 2012. The National Retail Federation also estimates 140 million people will shop in stores or online during the four-day Thanksgiving Day weekend. The trade organization also forecasts that sales in November and December will increase 3.9% to $602.1 billion.
Utilizing social media to get the word out will be the course of action for MTC. Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest and specially selected bloggers are just a few of the outlets. “What better way to share with family and friends then through social media, no special code to enter into our website, just 20% off across the board for this great weekend. We just wanted to make it as simple as possible to enjoy the savings,” says Ron Cesark, President of Montauk Tackle Co.
Another recent National Retail Federation survey asked people whether they plan to shop either in stores or online Thanksgiving Day. Of those who plan to shop over the whole weekend — Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday — almost a fourth (23.5% or 33 million shoppers) said they’d shop on Thanksgiving.
About:
Montauk Tackle Company, Inc. is a technical performance apparel company that embodies the active outdoor coastal-living lifestyle. A privately held, family owned company founded in 2007 on Long Island, New York that is committed to resourcing and manufacturing in the U.S.A.
Montauk Tackle Company, Inc. is an active member of The Made in America Movement. Check out why it pays to be a MAM member. Member Benefits
Manufacturing’s Role in The U.S. Economy
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamI don’t know either, but I do know that accounting for the current value of manufacturing in terms of past offshoring and recent re-shoring is a difficult, if not impossible, task. Regardless, that’s exactly what many discussions on the state manufacturing in the U.S. are based.
A more dependable estimate of the value of manufacturing to the U.S. economy is data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which recently released some new data from its 2011 County Business Patterns and Survey of Manufacturers projects.
The average annual salary of a U.S. manufacturing worker was $52,300 in 2012—27 percent higher than the average U.S. worker’s salary in 2011 (which was $41,211 in 2011, according to the Social Security Administration).
Considering the importance of exports to the economy, it’s notable that manufacturing still accounts for more than half of our export dollars—6 in 10 of U.S. export dollars were generated by manufacturing in 2011.
Of course, exporting is only half the economic equation, with consumption being the other half. According to the 2011 Annual Survey of Manufacturers, U.S. manufacturers spent $3.2 trillion on materials in addition to spending $147 billion on capital expenditures.
Sectors of the manufacturing industry that are performing the best, in terms of shipment value, are: petroleum and coal products ($837 billion), chemical ($777 billion), food ($710 billion), and transportation equipment ($690 billion). From there, the size of the industry sectors, in terms of shipments, are considerably smaller, with the next category—machinery—clocking in with $366 billion in shipments, about half of the shipment value total of the equipment sector.
In terms of energy management, data from the 2011 Annual Survey of Manufacturers shows that manufacturers—the largest industrial consumers of energy—are getting more savvy about generating power and making money from it. According to the survey, manufacturers generated 119 billion kilowatt hours of energy and sold nearly 35 billion kilowatt hours of energy.
All in all, it seems like the increasing focus put on U.S. manufacturing over the past several years by both entrepreneurs and government looks to be paying off.
David Greenfield has been covering industrial technologies, ranging from software and hardware to embedded systems, for more than 20 years. His principal areas of coverage for Automation World focus on technologies deployed for factory and process automation. Contact David at dgreenfield@automationworld.com or follow him on Twitter @DJGreenfield.
Effort Afoot To Make Blue Laces a Symbol of Support For U.S. Goods
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamAccording to the press materials sent our way — including a video of a fellow pulling a 13,000-pound truck with a pair — these aren’t going to be your run-of-the-mill laces.
“[T]o do it, we’ve partnered with one of the last shoelace manufacturers left in America,” Bronstein says in the announcement. “We challenged them to develop the very best product they’ve ever created. They came back with a lace unlike any we’d seen — a braided, high density, waxed canvas piece tipped in aluminum.
“This is about more than re-setting expectations and supporting an American factory on the ropes,” the announcement continues. “It’s about giving American manufacturing its own yellow ribbon: a wearable way to show support for the war they’re waging daily. A symbol that retailers can see that lets them know that if they start stocking the right domestically produced product, their customers will care. It’s time to support each other again. It’s time to try harder again.”
According to the Bluelace Project page at Kickstarter.com, the funds from each $5 pledge will be allocated as follows:
“$1 goes to Processing fees (10% of all money received is paid directly to New York City-based Kickstarter and Amazon for processing the transaction)
$2 goes directly to our shoelace factory in Portsmouth, Ohio, for manufacturing the laces using American materials and shipping them to our warehouse.
$1 covers shipping, this includes the stamps purchased from USPS and the envelope bought in bulk from our Texas-based manufacturer.
$1 is paid to our Henderson, Nevada, warehouse for packing each individual order (likely a set of BLUELACES plus whatever additional goodies we decide to throw in the pouch).”
We must get 100 emails a month pitching a new made-in-the-U.S. product, project, Web clearinghouse or the like – and even more that tout the latest in crowd-funded fashion. But what really appeals to us about this (apart from the fact that it combines both) is the sheer simplicity and straightforwardness of the item and the symbolism behind it.
Yes, a $5 pledge gets you a pair of high-quality, eye-catching laces. It also sends a message that you’ve, in one small way, very visibly voted with your feet.
And if these blue shoelaces manage to lift the enthusiasm for buying American-manufactured goods — even the tiniest bit? Well, we’d consider that a far more impressive feat of strength than pulling a 13,000-pound truck.
As of this writing it appears that Bornstein might be well on his way to tying this one up in a big shoelace-appropriate bow — the first four hours of the campaign generated 1,120 backers pledging $16,387 toward the $25,000 goal.
At this rate, we won’t be surprised if The Bluelace Project is fully funded in time to tie one on for happy hour.
Walmart Collecting Food For Employees Who Can't Afford Thanksgiving Dinner.
in Uncategorized/by MAM Team“Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner,” read signs affixed to the tablecloths.
The food drive tables are tucked away in an employees-only area. They are another element in the backdrop of the public debate about salaries for cashiers, stock clerks and other low-wage positions at Walmart, as workers in Cincinnati and Dayton are scheduled to go on strike Monday.
Is the food drive proof the retailer pays so little that many employees can’t afford Thanksgiving dinner?
Norma Mills of Canton, who lives near the store, saw the photo circulating showing the food drive bins, and felt both “outrage” and “anger.”
“Then I went through the emotion of compassion for the employees, working for the largest food chain in America, making low wages, and who can’t afford to provide their families with a good Thanksgiving holiday,” said Mills, an organizer with Stand Up for Ohio, which is active in foreclosure issues in Canton. “That Walmart would have the audacity to ask low-wage workers to donate food to other low-wage workers — to me, it is a moral outrage.”
Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesman, said the food drive is proof that employees care about each other.
“It is for associates who have had some hardships come up,” he said. “Maybe their spouse lost a job.
“This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships,” he said.
Lundberg said holding the food drive at the Canton Walmart was decided at the store level. However, the effort could be considered in line with what happens company-wide. The Associates in Critical Need Trust is funded by Walmart employee contributions that can be given through payroll deduction. He said employees can receive grants up to $1,500 to address hardships they may encounter, including homelessness, serious medical illnesses and major repairs to primary vehicles. Since 2001, grants totaling $80 million have been made.
But an employee at the Canton store wasn’t feeling that Walmart was looking out for her when she went to her locker more than two weeks ago and discovered the food drive containers. To her, the gesture was proof the company acknowledged many of its employees were struggling, but also proof it was not willing to substantively address their plight.
The employee said she didn’t want to use her name for fear of being fired. In a dozen years working at the company, she had never seen a food drive for employees, which she described as “demoralizing” and “kind of depressing”. The employee took photos of the bins, and sent them to the Organization United for Respect at Walmart, or OUR Walmart, the group of associates holding the strikes in Cincinnati and Dayton.
Vanessa Ferreira, an OUR Walmart organizer, said she “flipped out” when she first saw the photos taken by the Canton worker.
“Why would a company do that?” she said. “The company needs to stand up and give them their 40 hours and a living wage, so they don’t have to worry about whether they can afford Thanksgiving.”
The strikes against Walmart, which have been staged in the last several weeks across the country, including at stores in California, Florida and Illinois, are focusing on three issues: ensuring that no associate makes less than $25,000 a year, offering employees more full-time work and “ending illegal retaliation” against employees who speak out against pay and working conditions.
The first strike occurred last Black Friday at Walmart stores throughout the country. Though most associates remained on the job, many credit the event with being the public launch of the low-wage workers’ movement. Efforts to raise the minimum wage would follow, including a bill pending before Congress to raise the federal hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. (The minimum wage in Ohio is $7.85.) In the time since, fast-food workers also have staged strikes, demanding the minimum wage be raised.
OUR Walmart won’t say what is planned for this Black Friday, but the group has a news conference scheduled Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Joseph Hansen, international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, are scheduled to announce organized labor’s commitment to Black Friday efforts.
Lundberg said taken in this context, OUR Walmart had incentive to first misinterpret and then blow out of proportion the food drive at the Canton store as fodder for the campaign.
Reed said it was “ignorant” to question efforts to help people in need or blame Walmart for the economic realities of the labor force nationally.
“You can’t find a decent job anywhere,” she said.
Scott Stringer, a Dayton associate who said he intends to go on strike, said Walmart bears blame because of its dominance. He makes $9.30 an hour after five years with the company.
“Walmart sets the precedent for everybody, so if they make changes, everyone would follow suit,” he said. “The economy and the United States, in general, would be a better place.”
A question of salaries
Lundberg said nationally that associates make $12.87 an hour. The company considers those working at least 34 hours to be full time. He said the average full-time employee works 37 to 38 hours a week. That comes to an annual salary of about $25,000.
OUR Walmart places the average salary at between $8 and $10 an hour, based on glassdoor.com and other websites that compile salaries, often without company participation. Based on that range,
th
e average associate’s salary is roughly between $15,000 and $20,000 a year.
For example, after about a dozen years on the job, the Canton employee who took the photos makes nearly $12 any hour. But the hourly rate is misleading, she said. Though officially a full-time worker, the associate said she only made about $17,000 last year because the company has had a common practice in recent years of cutting hours.
Lundberg said this isn’t true and that the company is committed to having full-time employees. For example, he said company-wide, 35,000 associates are scheduled to be promoted from part time to full time between September and January.
Ricki Hahn, a Dayton associate who intends to strike Monday, said poor working conditions — and not money — motivated her to speak out. She said supervisors consistently berating employees — often in public — is part of Walmart’s culture. So is failing to address unsafe working conditions, such as unsecured shelving in a stock room that could fall on employees, she said.
The company says it has good working conditions, in terms of safety and employee relations.
Hahn, who makes $11.70 an hour after 7½ years, describes her salary as “pretty good” since she knows it is hard for her to get credit for experience in her industry, and she would be back earning near minimum wage should she take a similar job at another retailer. Hahn said she is realistic about the salaries low-skilled workers should make. For example, she supports the federal bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10, but believes the fast-food workers demand of $15 is too high.
While the Walmart strike isn’t just about wages, it always seems to come back to money. Hahn is constantly reminded of this during the work day.
“Personally, it is difficult for me to stock groceries that I can’t afford at the end of the day,” she said.
Symbols both in food drive and strike
While Walmart officials and many employees see the food drive bins as a symbol of generosity, others see it differently.
“That captures Walmart right there,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University’s labor school. “Walmart is setting up bins because its employees don’t make enough to feed themselves and their families.”
Mills, the Canton community activist, said the issue of the food drive drew her in because for her it represented another case of corporations behaving irresponsibly and then leaving the less fortunate to “clean up the mess.” She said if employees can’t afford Thanksgiving, then Walmart should pay for turkey dinners “with all the fixings and all the sides.”
Mills successfully worked toward getting Canton to pass a law requiring banks and other financial institutions to put up bonds so the city wouldn’t be left paying to maintain the homes on which these institutions foreclosed. Many of these foreclosures were the result of subprime and predatory loans, she said.
“I call it the reverse Robin Hood effect,” she said.
Walmart sees the strikes as a symbol without substance. For example, during the highly publicized strikes in Los Angeles earlier this month, the company said no more than 20 associates participated, though there were about 275 demonstrators.
Bronfenbrenner said the company is misinterpreting the low numbers of workers on strike.
“There were many work places, that when the striking workers returned, many workers inside stood up and clapped,” she said.
Both Dayton strikers Hahn and Stringer say they have strong support, even if fellow workers won’t join them on the picket line.
“A lot of friends of mine at work want to go out on strike, but they fear that they won’t be able to support their families if something happens,” Hahn said.
That something could mean losing a job, said Ferreira, the OUR Walmart organizer. She said she got fired after participating in the 2012 Black Friday strikes. Ferreira was terminated some time after the strike on trumped up charges of staying on break too long, she said.
Lundberg said Walmart has a very strong anti-retaliation policy.
Hahn and Stringer see themselves at the beginning of a movement that they believe will mushroom.
“We’ll be speaking out for other areas, like Cleveland, that aren’t striking,” Hahn said. “Just because they aren’t striking Monday, doesn’t mean it can’t happen there soon.”
Chinese Labor Camp Inmate Tells of True Horror of Halloween 'SOS'
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamSECRET LETTER FOUND INSIDE HALLOWEEN TOY
“I feel obligated to use them every year now because I feel they need to have some worth,” said Keith, 43, who lives here with her husband and their two young children. “I am sad for the people who have to endure torture to make these silly decorations.”
The decorations came in a $29 “Totally Ghoul” toy set that Keith purchased in a local Kmart store in 2011. When she opened the package before Halloween last year, a letter fell out.
In broken English mixed with Chinese, the author cried for help: “If you occasionally (sic) buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here… will thank and remember you forever.”
The letter went on to detail grueling hours, verbal and physical abuses as well as torture that inmates making the products had to endure — all in a place called Masanjia Labor Camp in China.
“It was surprising at first and I didn’t know if it was a hoax,” recalled Keith, a program manager at a company that runs a chain of thrift stores and donation centers. “Once I read the letter and researched on the Internet, I realized that this may be the real deal.
“I knew there are labor camps in China, but this slammed me in the face. I had no idea if this person was still alive or dead or in the camp — it’s extraordinary that it was able to come all the way from China.”
Keith heeded the writer’s call by reaching out to human rights groups but received no response. She then posted the letter on Facebook, which prompted the local Oregonian newspaper to run a front-page article.
As word of Keith’s unusual Halloween discovery spread, her story turned into international news, throwing a spotlight on one of China’s most notorious labor camps — and the controversial system behind them.
Strange discovery
Then one morning recently, some 6,000 miles away from Damascus, a bespectacled middle-aged Chinese man walked into the CNN office in Beijing to talk to us about this strange discovery half a world away. His voice was soft and calm but from time to time it would betray a hint of both agony and force.
“I saw the packaging and figured the products were bound for some English-speaking countries,” he said. “I knew about Christmas but we were making skulls and the like — I really didn’t know much about Halloween.
After months of searching, through a trusted source and with some good luck, CNN found the man who says he wrote the letter that Keith found in her Halloween decorations. Released from the labor camp but afraid to be sent back, he agreed to his first television interview on the condition that CNN concealed his identity.
“Mr. Zhang” — as he would be called — is a follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, branded by the Chinese government as an evil cult and outlawed since 1999. He claims he was detained by police several months before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and sentenced to two and a half years in the Masanjia labor camp in northeastern China.
Zhang recounted the systematic use of beatings, sleep deprivation and torture, especially targeting those like him who refused to repent. Some gruesome details are too specific to him to be reported.
“Making products turned out to be an escape from the horrible violence,” he said. “We thought we could protect ourselves, and avoid verbal and physical assaults as long as we worked and did the job well.”
Moving forward with his plan to expose the horror in the camp, he secretly tore off pages from exercise books meant for political indoctrination sessions as inmates were barred from having paper. He also befriended a minor criminal from his hometown — a monitor for the guards — who managed to get him another banned item: a ball pen refill.
“I hid it in a hollow space in the bed stand — and only got time to write late at night when everyone else had fallen asleep,” he recalled. “The lights were always on in the camp and there was a man on duty in every room to keep an eye on us.”
Demonstrating his awkward position in bed, he continued: “I lay on my side with my face toward the wall so he could only see my back. I placed the paper on my pillow and wrote on it slowly.”
A college graduate, he said it took him two or three days to finish a single letter through this risky and painstaking process. “I tried to fill as much space as possible on each sheet,” he said. “Every letter was slightly different because I had to improvise — I remember writing SOS in some but not in others.
“Writing in English was very hard for me. I had studied the language but had never practiced speaking or writing much. That’s why I included some Chinese words to make sure the message would not be misunderstood because of my English mistakes.”
He slipped 20 letters into Halloween decoration packaging in 2008 and at least one, against all odds, got out and made headlines four years later.
In late October, the autumn colors were fading fast in Masanjia Township as temperatures plunged to barely above freezing overnight. Driving towards town, the landscape was a mixture of barren farmland and mothballed factories with banners advertising cheap rent.
The town itself sits outside Shenyang, the provincial capital of Liaoning and an industrial base of eight million residents. If not for the labor camp infamy, it would be just another backwater in China’s northeastern rust belt.
A national emblem and two signs adorned an unguarded entrance in the center of town. One displayed “Liaoning Province Masanjia Labor” with the final word of “Camp” missing; the other read “Liaoning Province Ideological Education School.”
Inside the complex, which seemed to be closed — though officials would not confirm this — fields covered with haystacks and dried corn separated three clusters of low-rise buildings. Administrative offices were painted white, female inmates’ quarters mostly red and male’s largely beige. High blue concrete walls or green fences glinted with barbwire surrounding the inmate areas, as guard towers loomed above each corner.
As the van carrying her and the CNN crew stopped near the women’s quarters, powerful memories rushed back to this 50-year-old farmer from a nearby village.
“I was confined in that building — Room 209,” she said while standing outside the fence. “We had the 4:15 a.m. wake-up call, worked from 6 a.m. to noon, got a 30-minute lunch and bathroom break, and resumed working until 5:30 p.m. Sometimes we had to stay up until midnight if there was too much work — and if you couldn’t finish your work, you would be punished.”
Liu only dared to return here after hearing that authorities had released the last group of inmates in mid-September — an apparent step toward shutting the facility down.
She had landed in Masanjia twice for petitioning against local officials over what she calls illegal land grabs. In total, she spent two and a half years in the labor camp. Her first stint overlapped with Zhang’s, but the two only met after both were released. Unlike Zhang, Liu didn’t see work as an escape. Remembering making down jackets bound for Italy and shirts sold to South Korea, she still shivers at the heavy workload that almost ruined her health.
“I had to do everything from matching fabrics to sorting materials and cutting loose threads,” she said. “Every day, I had to repeat seven work steps — for about 2,400 steps in total.”
Suffering from high blood pressure and malnutrition, Liu said she once fainted on the job but was denied medical care. For her defiant attitude, she said guards also ordered fellow inmates to beat her twice — their assaults with plastic stools and basins so vicious that she lost consciousness. “But I still had to work after I regained consciousness,” she added. “This place was Hell on Earth.”
Horror exposed
Last April, Masanjia’s fear-striking reputation was cemented when Lens, a Chinese magazine, published a lengthy article about the horrors inside its walls. Based on interviews with a dozen former female inmates including Liu, the story — titled “Leaving Masanjia” — detailed appalling working and living environments as well as frequent use of torture in the camp.
The Chinese journalists also spoke to two former officials at the camp who said Masanjia housed more than 5,000 inmates as free laborers at its peak and created annual revenues of nearly 100 million yuan ($16 million) — including those generated from exports.
The story mentioned the discovery of an accusatory letter about Masanjia in a Halloween decoration package in the United States — and that the news caused a big stir in the labor camp. When asked, one official confirmed the letter indeed came from the Masanjia men’s camp.
The article’s publication surprised many observers, as domestic Chinese media — all state-run — had long shunned the sensitive subject.
Less than two weeks after the issue hit newsstands, the official state news agency, Xinhua, ran a response from the local autho
rit
ies. Calling the article “seriously inaccurate,” provincial officials in Liaoning said their thorough investigation at Masanjia turned up no evidence of any torture or mistreatment of the interviewed inmates during their confinement.
Lens magazine suspended publication for several months after its Masanjia issue.
Despite CNN’s repeated efforts, officials with Liaoning’s police department and press office declined to comment for this story.
By all accounts, Masanjia is but one of hundreds of labor camps in China borne under the laojiao — or “re-education through labor” — scheme.
Set up in 1957, the system allows the police to detain petty offenders — such as thieves, prostitutes and drug addicts — in labor camps for up to four years without a trial. China’s judicial process itself is already controlled by the ruling Communists in a one-party regime. In a 2009 report to a United Nations human rights forum, the Chinese government acknowledged 320 such facilities nationwide holding 190,000 people. Other estimates have put the number of inmates much higher.
Critics have long accused of the authorities of misusing the camps to silence so-called trouble makers, including political dissidents, rights activists and Falun Gong members.
“The continued existence of laojiao signifies China remains a police state,” said Pu Zhiqiang, a prominent Beijing-based lawyer known for defending government critics in court and a vocal opponent of the labor camp system. “It’s against China’s own constitution and laws, as well as international conventions it has signed.
Two of Pu’s cases last year generated a massive backlash against laojiao, forcing the government to re-examine the thorny issue. In one case, a mother was sentenced to one and a half years in a labor camp for “disrupting social order” after she repeatedly petitioned officials to execute men convicted of raping her 11-year-old daughter. In another case, a young village official was sent to a labor camp for two years for retweeting posts deemed seditious.
Since the change of top leadership a year ago and despite mixed signals, the government may finally be ready to scrap the controversial system.
Li Keqiang, the new premier, said in his first press conference as head of the government that officials were “working intensively to formulate a plan” to reform the laojiao system and it may be announced before the year’s end. A senior Chinese diplomat repeated Li’s statement recently when addressing a U.N.-organized human rights forum.
While some activists have expressed concerns over the official term of “reform” instead of “abolition,” Pu, the lawyer, feels the strong tide of public opinions against the laojiao system has forced the government’s hands.
Already, provinces around China — including Liaoning — seem to be preparing for the inevitable. State media has cited examples of officials stopping accepting new inmates, changing camp names to drug rehabilitation centers and reducing staff on site.
And an empty Masanjia seems to be the ultimate testimony there is no going back.
Back in Oregon, Julie Keith is still awaiting the next move from her government. She contacted U.S. customs officials after finding the letter, as federal law prohibits the import of goods made by forced labor. She said officials admitted there was little they could do other than adding her report to their file. She hasn’t heard from them since.
Contacted by CNN, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) declined to confirm the existence or status of an investigation.
“These allegations are very serious and are an investigative priority for ICE,” she said. “These activities not only negatively impact the competitiveness of American businesses, but put vulnerable workers at risk.”
Supplying the West
Sears, the company that owns Kmart, also responded when asked how products in a labor camp in China ended up on its store shelves. “We found no evidence that production was subcontracted to a labor camp during our investigation,” it said, but added it no longer sources from this company.
Keith believes Sears “must know” but “would rather this be swept under the rug.”
Her skepticism is shared by human rights activists who have long called for stricter supervision of supply chains by multinational corporations. “A lot of these camps are run like businesses and, if you look online, there are a lot of them advertising,” said Maya Wang, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. “One would question how they get in touch with Western companies and whether or not Western companies have done due diligence when they procure services.”
For consumers, though, Wang says the only sure bet to avoid forced labor products from China is to push for legislation in their own countries and ensure strict implantation by their governments.
Even if China abolishes the labor camp system, experts like Wang and Pu point out that convicted criminals often work under similar labor conditions in prisons.
Freed from Masanjia but still haunted by the nightmare, Zhang has lived quietly in Beijing. When his long-forgotten letter was discovered by Keith and made news last year, he was as surprised as everyone else. He sent a new letter to Keith through a friend, thanking her profusely for her “righteous action that helped people in desperation achieve a good ending,” while reminding her that “China is like a big labor camp” under the Communist Party’s rule.
“It is quite ironic that it was a bloody graveyard kit that I purchased — knowing that the people who made these kits were desperate and bloody themselves,” Keith reflected.
“Now I check the labels and try not to buy things I don’t necessarily need, especially if it is made in China,” she added.