Earlier this year, heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. chose Athens, GA, as the site for a new factory to assemble small tractors and excavators. The company will be reshoring some 1,400 jobs to the new facility from an existing plant in Japan.
There are a lot of ideas floating around Washington these days regarding the health and importance of U.S. manufacturing and what should be done about it.
Last September, Otis Elevator Co. announced that it was moving production from its factory in Nogales, Mexico, to a new, $40 million assembly plant in Florence, SC.
Last September, solar panel manufacturer Solyndra filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers. The moves came just two years after the company received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration. Republicans have rightly criticized the administration over the loan, alleging that the Energy Department overlooked warning signs of Solyndra’s pending collapse.
In October, three class-action lawsuits were filed against several major automotive suppliers, alleging the companies engaged in a “massive, decade-long conspiracy to unlawfully fix and artificially raise the price” of wire harnesses. As shocking and disappointing as the allegations are, I can’t say I’m surprised.
Although Memphis ranks third in the
United States in violent crime and second in property crime, the federal
government is seemingly more worried about the wood Gibson guitars uses in its
products.
In a recent editorial, I decried the unsafe conditions at some Chinese assembly plants. I had thought everyone could get behind such a stand, but I was wrong.