8/12/2009 6:00:00 PM EDITORIAL/Manufacturing isn't dead
General Electric, for the first time in decades, is adding new operations and jobs at two of its U.S. manufacturing hubs, one in the Northeast and the other in the Southeast.
GE is building a plant in Schenectady, N.Y., to make high-density batteries that will turn many locomotives into diesel-electric hybrids. The plant will employ 350. And in Louisville, Ky., GE is building a factory to produce hybrid electric water heaters - heaters now made in China. That plant will employ 420 workers.
Jeffrey R. Immelt, GE's chief executive, said the two new operations are part of his campaign to get corporate America to strengthen and expand manufacturing in the United States.
Immelt, who has close ties to the Obama administration, is sounding "equal parts prophet, patriot and business executive," The New York Times reported last week.
"Immelt has in recent weeks voiced deep worries about America's sagging manufacturing base and huge trade deficit. He has chided America's policy makers and corporate leaders for thinking the country could prosper by forsaking manufacturing and focusing on financial services," the report in the Times said.
Neshoba County has certainly taken its hit from manufacturing, more than 1,100 jobs lost since 2001 or 60 percent.
The nation has lost about 30 percent of its manufacturing jobs this decade.
The hollowing out of the manufacturing sector in the U.S. over the last three decades has been damaging and is dangerous long-term. We need to reverse that process, so hopefully GE is the first among many.
Mostly it appears that union concessions led to the decision to build in the U.S., although Immelt admitted that GE had outsourced far too many operations in some areas. Hopefully, this is a good sign.
What should communities like ours be doing to compete for these jobs, especially when the U.S. economy comes roaring back - and we believe it will?
Gov. Haley R. Barbour, speaking to newspaper editors and reporters at The Neshoba County Fair, said that communities like ours in this downturn should be seeking to expand existing industries and investing in workforce training.
Communities should know their comparative advantages for industries that are "in the neighborhood," he said.
What is our comparative advantage?
There's never been a better time to encourage people to enter workforce training so that when the economy turns we will have the labor supply and our people who lost jobs will be more qualified to get better, higher-paying jobs like the ones GE is creating.
