Michael Tamasi was called to the White House to share AccuRounds’ successes in building a partnership to re-employ local residents in the manufacturing industry. A number of organizations promoting the national expansion of sector partnerships were also in attendance, including National Skills Coalition, (National Fund for Workforce Solutions), and Business Leaders United for Workforce Partnerships. Other event participants included CEOs from national corporations such as Boeing Co., Bank of America and Ebay, small and medium-sized employers, foundations, and other local organizations working to help the long-term unemployed in a variety of ways.
Secretary of Labor Tom Perez and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker joined President Obama at the event to discuss a number of new efforts by the Obama Administration to bring attention to the long-term unemployed. President Obama announced he is dedicating $150 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Labor for “job-driven training partnerships,” also known as sector partnerships, to help the long-term unemployed get back to work, building on the successful models developed by such organizations as AccuRounds.
Prior to this event, President Obama, along with Vice-President Biden, Secretary Perez and Secretary Pritzker, convened twenty of the top CEO’s in the country to share best practices and strategize on how to collaborate in moving successful initiatives forward. Tamasi was one of only two small businesses to participate in this forum. This intimate roundtable discussion was productive, with Tamasi providing input from a small business perspective, asking the Fortune 100 CEO’s to include SME’s in future dialogue to assure that the entire supply chain has a voice.
“It was an honor to represent AccuRounds, and small businesses across the country, at the White House”, said Tamasi. “It’s encouraging that small business had a voice at the CEO roundtable, and that needs to continue. The skills gap is a serious issue and sector partnerships are the best opportunity to close that gap.” Later that afternoon, Tamasi was a guest on the Fox Business News show “After the Bell” further stressing the importance of sector partnerships in closing the huge skills gap in America.
AccuRounds, located in Avon, MA, is a contract manufacturer that machines and assembles precision turned components for industries including medical, aerospace, semiconductor and emerging technology. For more information, visit www.accurounds.com
Tag: President Obama
Darlene Miller, Chief Executive of Permac Industries in Burnsville Minnesota, was named last week to President Obama’s 22-person Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
The council was created by President Obama last month to advise him on economic issues, and is focused on jump starting employment recovery and other issues. Other members of the panel include the heads of American Express, Intel, DuPont, and leaders from labor unions, economists, and others.
In her comments to the President and the Council, Miller focused on the need for talent and skills, not mere labor- “The biggest challenge, even though there is huge unemployment, is that we don’t find skilled labor. In our shops we need people with talent and skills. We really don’t have any unskilled labor jobs.”
Miller’s comments were picked up by national media including the Washington Post, and the Minneapolis StarTribune.
Her comment about the need for skilled talent resonated with the committee and the President who mentioned the need for skilled talent in his remarks.
Miller also discussed the especially heavy burdens that regulations place on small businesses like her precision machining shop, which produces precision machined components for almost all industries including medical, aerospace, food service equipment and many more.
Ms. Miller has been an active member of the PMPA since 1997, where she has been a member of the board and served on several committees and currently chairs the Statistical and Financial Resources Committee.
PMPA is proud that our member was selected to serve on this important council and is confident that Ms. Miller will carry the message from Main Street to the White House that “Small and medium enterprises are the key to job creation and economic recovery. Identifying and acting on issues that prevent smaller companies from operating effectively will be positive for both job creation and economic recovery.”
Permac Industries
Small Business of the Year
The WTO just handed China a 460 page ruling regarding how the country handles American books, movies, and music. Here is a 9-page .pdf of the conclusions and findings.
Dispute DS363 (here’s a summary) has at its core how the Chinese distribute and ‘protect’ from piracy American creative works in that country. So why should precision machine products manufacturers care about how the Chinese “distribute Hollywood movies, books, and music?”
“Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim – when he defends himself – as a criminal.”- John Frederick Bastiat
Reason 1: Intellectual property rights are at the root of every bit of legitimate commerce. It isn’t just Hollywood movies being pirated across the pacific. Industrial designs, machined parts, counterfeit products are legion from the country whose premier, Hu Jintao, Mr. Obama will soon host.
Reason 2: This is the portent of the authentic test of President Obama: his dealings with Hu Jintao next month at the G 20 Summit in Pittsburgh Sept 24-25, 2009. Will he execute the appropriate remedial actions against the Chinese violations recognized and confirmed by due process via the WTO, and ITC, protecting American jobs and interests?
Before that Pittsburgh meeting, the administration must rule on a recommendation by the US International Trade Commission to impose up to a 55% tariff on Chinese Tires. We’ve been following the Cheap Chinese Tires deaths cases since our ethics class at Walsh University in July of 2007. These issues have been around for a long time… the current cheap tire row is a suit filed by the USW who charged that the flood of cheap Chinese tires had resulted in massive loss of jobs.
Is Obama as wise as Solomon? Will he stand up for American interests? How will he, as one of the world’s leading debtor executives- respond to his legal responsibilities to enforce the trade laws with China, perhaps his largest creditor?
Will he deliver the remedy won by the USW against Chinese dumping, in light of his need for cooperation from China, a leading purchaser of US Treasuries? Or will he acquiesce, complicit in the plunder of American intellectual property rights and jobs?
After 8 years of nonfeasance on the China Currency Issue out of Washington D.C., we’re wondering.
Could this be a Change?
“The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.” John Frederic Bastiat
Watch these China cases for a glimpse of our industry’s future. And an understanding of what the current administration thinks of manufacturing.
