Olympia Business Watch

President's State of Union speech didn't address economic growth to create jobs or excessive regulations costing jobs

The fallout from Tuesday's State of the Union address continues. Tom Dononhue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the Fox Business channel it was a political speech "full of taxes and taxes, regulations and regulations, stimulus and stimulus. It doesn't address the two fundamental questions at hand and that is how do we drive growth into the United States to the extent that, number two, it creates jobs?"

"I heard a lot about how we were going to regulate things, how we were going to constrain things, how we were going to tax issues. But I didn't hear anybody say 'and here's what we're going to do to move forward, to liberate the free enterprise system in this country to put people back to work.' It was all about what government was going to do and what the president was going to do with the arm of government to see what he could do to put people back to work. But that's not gonna help," Donohue concluded.

Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, responded: "The President deserves credit for highlighting manufacturing on a national stage, but presidential leadership requires more than speeches. President Obama had a chance to set a bold manufacturing agenda in motion, and he missed it."

"On regulations, for example, the President touted his Administration’s efforts to rein in some regulatory excesses and costs—$10 billion in savings over the next five years. But, Boiler MACT, Utility MACT, Cement MACT and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, to name just a few of this Administration’s rules, would impose costs that dwarf the savings highlighted by the President.

"And on labor, the President never mentioned the aggressive actions that the National Labor Relations Board took in the past year. If President Obama wants manufacturing to lead the economy, federal agencies cannot swoop in and tell manufacturers where they can do business."

Timmons concluded: "It’s 20 percent more expensive to manufacture in the United States than it is among our major trading partners — even after excluding the cost of labor. The best way to create an environment to increase manufacturing employment in America is to lower the cost of doing business through pro-growth tax rates, sensible legal policy, reasonable regulations and affordable and secure energy supplies."

The Association of Washington Business is Washington's state chamber of commerce and manufacturing and technology association as recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, respectively.

Brunell: Buying American products creates American jobs

With continued high unemployment, growing deficits and a sluggish economy, it's easy to think that a solution is out of reach.

But that's not the case, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his weekly column. By choosing to "Buy American," individual consumers can make a real difference.

Buying American is not anti-trade, but rather about consumer choice, Brunell says. He notes the case of Anders Lewendal, a Bozeman, Mont. contractor profiled by ABC News for building a home using only American-made materials.

Lewendal says that using just 5 percent more American products in construction projects would create 220,000 jobs. And yet the cost of his "all American" home was just 1 percent higher than homes built with materials manufactured offshore.

Former Cheers actor John Ratzenberger has become the face of the Buy American movement, and he's sounding the alarm about the shortage of skilled American laborers and craft workers that results from buying products from overseas.

It's not too late to turn things around. The Buy American movement shows that opportunities abound, Brunell writes. Even in the most dire situations.

AWB pays tribute to Washington's top manufacturing companies

Sure, the housing market is lousy, but that hasn't stopped Monroe's Canyon Creek Cabinet Company from figuring out how to strengthen itself as a company -- and continue contributing to the community.

The company, named AWB's 2011 Manufacturer of the Year, has expanded into new product lines, including closet and storage products, continued its emphasis on green manfucaturing, and donated time and money to Snohomish County during the last few years.

All this at a time when the depressed housing market has forced other manufacturers to exit the industry.

Canyon Creek was recognized Tuesday during an awards ceremony in Spokane, along with six other manfacturing companies from around the state: Hobart Machined Products; Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging, Inc.; HOTSTART, Inc.; Spectralux Avionics; Sonderen Packaging, Inc.; and The Bogert Group.

The awards presentation was done in conjunction with the first-ever Inland Manufacturing Expo, sponsored by Greater Spokane Incorporated. McGladrey and UPS joined AWB as sponsors of this year's awards program.

More on the winners:

Thinking BIG about manufacturing and the economy

Don't you wish you had one of these for the drive home on I-5?

 

The team at Lampson International was kind enough to let AWB's Gary Chandler, Kris Johnson and Amy Johnson kick the tires of this crawler for a 3,000-ton capacity crane this morning.

Staff from AWB are in the Tri-Cities today to meet with manufacturers like Lampson (featured here in the spring 2011 edition of Washington Business magazine), Areva and The Bogert Group to hear what they think are the biggest barriers to job growth, expansion and innovation in our state.

Attendees also discussed workforce development and training issues, regulatory concerns and of course, the current state of the economy. The group met at the Port of Pasco's new Osprey Pointe Business Park.

As we've previously noted in this blog, manufacturing is still one of the better paying industries in the state and nation, though it has not been immune to the Great Recession and other economic fluctuations. Still, as Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, pointed out this summer,  "manufacturers want to create jobs."

Today's meeting is a continuation of a manufacturing listening tour started in August with a stop in Moses Lake. Tomorrow, we'll be meeting with other manufacturing businesses in Vancouver. Future meetings are also set for Everett and Mount Vernon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brunell: Boeing's prospects are bright ... for now

Amid all the bad economic news of late, Boeing has supplied some welcome good news, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his weekly column.

The company has completed flights tests of its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner, and despite the delays the 787 remains in strong demand. Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Jim Albaugh says there are 830 orders for the 787 from 52 customers, and the plane is sold out through 2019.

Boeing is adding workers and Arun Raha, the state's chief economist, expects hiring to continue for the next couple of years.

So, thing are looking up -- but all that could change, Brunell says.

He cites the National Labor Relations Board claims against Boeing over its decision to build a second production line right-to-work South Carolina, and competition from manufacturers in China, Brazil and Canada -- in addition to rival Airbus -- as notable challenges facing Boeing.

"To survive in this aggressive global marketplace, Boeing needs certainty and stability at home, with its workforce and with government regulators," Brunell writes. "Without it, Boeing's future prospects are uncertain."

 

Timmons: 'Manufacturers want to create jobs'

Manufacturing in the United States continues to offer some of the best-paying jobs, but increasing regulatory burdens and skyrocketing business costs are rapidly threatening to erode the industry and our nation's competitiveness according to Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Timmons was at Suncadia in Cle Elum Sunday to address members of the Conference of State Manufacturing Associations. AWB, the state chamber of commerce and manufacturing association, hosted the event; AWB President Don Brunell is the current chair of COSMA.

In an interview, Timmons shared his optimism about the industry, but was pragmatic about the challenges facing manufacturing and the country's businesses as a whole. While keeping one eye on the other Washington and the debt crisis ("it's a perfect example of the mess in Washington [D.C.]"), Timmons was frank about the vulnerability of our country's manufacturing industry.

"Other countries are salivating at the prospect of taking away our mantle of economic leadership, so they’re offering incentives, they’re making the regulatory regimes in their countries less burdensome, they’re lowering taxes –- they’re doing everything right while we’re doing everything wrong."

Both Democrats and Republicans in current and previous administrations and sessions of Congress share in the blame, in Timmons' eyes, for the state of the nation's competitiveness climate. Continued increases in corporate taxes, energy and regulatory costs have made it 18 percent more expensive to do business in the United States than in other parts of the world, and that's after you take out the costs of labor, he added.

"But those other costs that we can impact from Washington [D.C.] and the states are the things that are driving up costs of doing business and making manufacturers make decisions they don’t want to make.They’re patriotic Americans. They want to create jobs here in this country, they want to manufacture products here in this country, but unfortunately, they’re being forced by our own federal government to look elsewhere in order to be competitive."

Boeing's Glover helps AWB honor 12 companies for Environmental Excellence

Green business is good business.

That was the message carried forward today by AWB's Environmental Excellence Awards, presented at Spokane's Davenport Hotel in conjunction with the association's Spring Meeting.Twelve AWB-member companies were honored for their initiative, innovation and outstanding achievements in environmental compliance, protection and conservation.

Bill Glover, the Boeing Co.'s vice president of environment and aviation policy integration, served as the luncheon's keynote speaker, sharing his company's achievements in improving its environmental performance.

"We believe that being aggressive in reducing our environmental footprint goes along with good performance," said Glover. "An environmental footprint indicates waste, and waste costs money."

Boeing is moving ahead with numerous environmental initiatives, including using energy saving natural lighting in its giant Everett plant, cleaning up old sites that became contaminated due to lower standards of decades past and aggressively pursuing recycling at all levels of the company.

Glover noted that Boeing's commitment to recycling can be seen in the airplane assembly process where the protective coating used during the installation of airplane flooring is now recyclable, reducing waste tremendously.

And these environmental initiatives are no small effort. Fully 70 percent of all Boeing investment includes some environmental improvement.

Perhaps Boeing's most significant green initiative is reducing the carbon footprint of its airplanes. Aviation demand grows by 5 percent per year, Glover said, and the company is working hard to make sure greenhouse gases do not grow with that increase in air travel. Boeing's airline customers have also  pledged their desire and intention to be carbon neutral by 2020.

"We try to use our name and reputation to leverage other people in a positive direction," said Glover.

Brunell: NLRB decision on Boeing plant is a dangerous precedent

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama promised organized labor that he would support their agenda. Now that he's failed to get the agenda through Congress, Obama has turned to regulation, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his weekly column.

The latest evidence of that is the National Labor Relations Board's move to shut down Boeing's non-union South Carolina production facility. The board, a supposedly neutral body that is in fact stacked with former union lawyers, claims that Boeing chose to locate a plant there out of "anti-union amicus" and that the decision violates federal law.

In truth, the move to South Carolina was a reasonable business decision that has created mor than 1,000 jobs and generated roughly $2 billion worth of investments, Brunell writes. And Boeing still has a strong presence in the Puget Sound, where its workers are among the best paid in America.

"Allowing the government or unions to dictate investment decisions and plant locations is a ery bad precedent to set," Brunell writes, "whether it be Congress, the president or regulators like the NLRB."

Chicken-and-egg bill has farmers crying foul

Rep. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, has filed an amendment to a proposed hen care bill that is -- apologies -- ruffling some feathers in Olympia.

The underlying legislation, Substitute Senate Bill 5487, aims to promote the humane treatment of egg-laying hens by upping the requirements for obtaining an egg handler or egg dealer license.

Specifically, the bill would require egg handler and egg dealer license applicants who installed a new cage system after Aug. 1, 2011 to prove to the state Department of Agriculture that the cages either meet a certain standard spelled out by the American Humane Association, or are convertible to the standard.

The bill would also require not only that people who handle eggs obtain a license, but also those who handle egg products -- including certain dried, frozen or liquid eggs.

Nothing too alarming about that. The Washington Farm Bureau called it a “good bill” in the action alert email it sent out earlier this week.

But Rolfe’s amendment is another matter entirely. According to the email, the amendment threatens to unravel the state’s tax code by imposing a sales tax on baby chicks and pullets used in egg production -- if certain care standards were not met.

In other words, use the right cages or we'll tax your birds.

Boeing gets Pentagon nod

It's the decision the state has been anticipating for months, and at about 2 p.m. today, the word finally came down from the other Washington: It's Boeing.   

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Defense today announced they've awarded The Boeing Company a $35 billion contract to produce 179 aerial refueling tankers. The tanker will be built primarily in Everett and Wichita, Kan., and will mean 50,000 jobs. Boeing's bid won out over a competing bid by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, or EADS, parent company of Airbus.

Recent analyst speculation indicated the bid tilting in EADS' favor. Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, speaking at noon today before AWB's Lobby Lunch guests, indicated he and the governor were anxious about today's decision. But in the end, Boeing got the nod.

AWB continues to support Boeing’s NewGen Tanker effort. EADS could still block the Boeing contract in Congress. So the battle is not over as yet, but as AWB President Don Brunell said today, "this is a giant step forward."

Congratulations to one of AWB's longtime member companies on this important decision for the company, its employees, their families and the state of Washington.

Read more about local reaction to the decision here: 

• Statement by Gov. Gregoire: "a great day for The Boeing Company"
• Washingon Aerospace Partnership: "a victory for the aerospace industry in Washington state"