Manufacturing success story

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Updated: January 1, 2012 8:08AM

Your recent story on manufacturing jobs leaving Cook County told an accurate story at the expense of a deeper truth [Nov. 27]. Yes, the total number of jobs in Cook County is smaller, but that’s over a 10-year period. For the past two years, manufacturing all over the country is rebounding like it hasn’t in decades. There is a whole new face of manufacturing in 2011. That’s why manufacturing is now leading this country’s economic turnaround.

What’s more, as American manufacturers embrace innovation, automation and the value proposition, they’ve become the most efficient in the world. And that’s why in 2010, despite a 4.4 percent reduction in labor costs, they realized a remarkable 6.7 percent spike in productivity. In other words, these days American manufacturing is growing, and doing so with new demand for highly paid skilled workers. Some 20 percent of all manufactured goods worldwide are made in the U.S.A. This is a market share that has held steady for decades.

If you want to write a trend story, please write one that’s timely. Write about how many good manufacturing jobs continue to go unfilled in this country, even with 9 percent of our workers unemployed, because so few unemployed U.S. men and women are trained to do them. Write about how manufacturers who are producing “offshore” are facing escalating costs, long shipping lead times, detrimental quality and security concerns, are now starting to “re-shore” many facilities back to America. Write about how, thanks in large part to lean, forward-thinking Illinois-based companies like Caterpillar, and the millions they’ve invested in lean state-of-the-art plants, manufacturing is actually stronger in many states, including our own, than it’s been in years.

Perry Sainati, Belden Universal
Manufacturing Co.

Broadview

Sears cries poor again

Taxpayers should remember this is not the first time that Sears Holdings has cried poor. Twenty years ago they received tax breaks and a toll-free tollway exit when they scurried away from the city. The huge profits they made in the ’90s went right in their pockets as Wal-Mart, Target, et al. became the new giants of retail. They were slow to adopt new technology and find themselves in every “Top 10 Iconic American Brands Doomed to Fail” article. Sears was a great 19th century story in the history of Chicago. If they want to be part of the state’s 21st century, they should do it by ingenuity, not more taxpayer support.

Steve Mend, North Park