Manufacturing Employment Revitalization a Potential Boost to Area Economy

Former Governor Engler Now Heads National Association of Manufacturers

November 4, 2004
By: Dave Rogers

      Where is Bay County, and the mid-Michigan area, as vast changes loom for America in the global economy?

      Because of an outstanding workforce and a tradition of industrial innovation, we hope at the forefront of prosperity.

      With a pro-business majority in control of both houses of Congress, it would seem that the potential exists for a revitalization of mid-Michigan's industrial employment base.


      The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is nowheaded by John Engler, former three-term Michigan governor, and the organization was a major player in the recent Presidential election. Engler grew up in Beal City, graduated from Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, and represented the area in the state house and senate for nearly 20 years.

      The main goal of the NAM is to reduce a 22 percent "structural" cost disadvantage that U.S. manufacturers face against foreign competition, Gov. Engler noted in a C-SPAN television broadcast Nov. 3.

      In a post-election press conference, Gov. Engler and a panel of NAM officials outlined the pro-business agenda that will be pursued in the 109th Congress, including:

Lower health care costs;

More andlower cost energy sources, especially natural gas;

Litigation reform, especially involving asbestos;

Tax reduction; and

Favorable trade policies.

      The NAM's Prosperity Project, an Internet-based informational program that has encouraged employers to communicate with their employees to advance the pro-business agenda, was cited as a powerful force in the recent Presidential election.

      Officials noted that more than 800,000 voter registrations were achieved through applications downloaded on the Internet from the project.

      And members communicated millions of pro-business, non-partisan messages to employees across the country during the campaign.

      The power of the Internet and the Prosperity Project was shown in the week before the election when 350,000 persons "visited" the Internet sites of both President Bush and Senator Kerry while 850,000 visited the Prosperity Project site. This is obviously an extremely powerful force in American politics that is far below the radar screen of widespread public awareness.

      The NAM stresses that the employer is the single most credible source of information for employees and that a greater percentage are being reached with pro-business messages through the Prosperity Project.

      The Prosperity Project was given greater impetus after a survey showed that 23 million people had written a Member of Congress on various issues yet had failed to vote in the 2000 Presidential election.

      NAM surveys also showed that about 70 percent of voters identified themselves as investors, who therefore would have a stake in the advancement of the pro-business agenda.

      Pundits trying to sort out the demographic changes wracking the political landscape will no doubt find that fact instructive.

      Millions of previous non-voters have been reached through the Internet and the results have an obvious good omen for business, especially manufacturing. Local leaders in both business and labor may take heart that our traditional industrial base will no doubt benefit from a continuation of this initiative.

      Favorable negotiations on foreign trade policies also will help agriculture, a vital part of the mid-Michigan economy, a fact of which Gov. Engler is well aware.

      It would seem that the interests of business and of working families in mid-Michigan are coming together in the global economy as perhaps never before.###