American manufacturing is doing better and production is moving on-shore from off-shore, but problems remain. The topic was addressed Monday night at a town hall style meeting held in downtown Buffalo. It was an unusual partnership between the United Steelworkers and the Alliance for American Manufacturing at Asbury Hall. The discuss centered around rebuilding the country with American-made materials.
By all of measures, U.S. manufacturing is improving. It is not only because the economy is slowly improving, but the of quality issues in products made overseas.
Denny Wist is general manager of Dunkirk Specialty Steel. The facility produces leading edge stainless steel materials whose price is measured by the pound not the ton.
Wist tells WBFO News manufacturing uses a lot of automation and fewer people.
"At the same time, it's growing but it's grown so slowly over the past few years...yeah, we're not hiring a lot of people because when you invest in the facilities you do make them more efficient so your need for manpower goes down a bit. I know it seems like those are incongruous thoughts but it actually does work that way," said Wist.
Wist also noted that a big market is in the aerospace industry, with companies like Boeing and Bell Helicopter.
John Shinn is district director of the United Steelworkers of American District 4. It boost 50,000 union members in the Northeast.
Shinn and Wist said there aren't enough skilled workers coming into the job market for manufacturing.
"We need to get the business, labor community, the government and also the academic community to get their heads together. Cause, there are skills needs out there in manufacturing. We got a lot of employers that are looking for electricians, instrument technicians, welders, pipe fitters and they can't find them because nobody is learning those skills anymore. These are still good jobs, that are living wage jobs," said Shinn.
Shinn said it's not hard to make $70,000 a year in skilled manufacturing positions and they are needed.
