Manufacturers seek new image

That was the message from speakers at the third annual Southwest Area Manufacturers Summit, held April 21 at University Plaza in Springfield.

Manufacturers’ greatest challenge is competition with other U.S. industries, not foreign companies, according to keynote speaker Al Frink. Frink is the U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for manufacturing and services; he’s also known as the “manufacturing czar.”

“We have a marketing issue – we don’t market the opportunities in manufacturing,” he said. “(Manufacturing jobs) are high-paying jobs, and I expect them to go higher in the future. The parents are often not encouraging kids to venture into that field, because they themselves have a negative view of it.”

SAMA Executive Director Rita Needham said that her group at one time had a program to tout the positives of jobs in the manufacturing sector in area schools, though that program was discontinued a few years ago when manufacturers slashed jobs.

She added that the association hopes to reinstate the program, possibly as early as next spring. The goal: to overcome the perception that manufacturing is “dark, dirty and dangerous,” she said.

Frink, co-founder of California-based luxury carpet manufacturer Fabrica International and the first to hold the position created by President Bush in 2004, also laid out the reasons why area manufacturers should consider themselves lucky.

“I think you have passionate leadership looking to represent your interests,” Frink said. “And that’s at both the government level and through your association.”

SAMA members say the industry association serves a strong purpose.

“It gets our name out there in the industry,” said Mike Miller, an executive with SAMA founding member Polyfab Plastics & Supply. “We’ve gotten a lot of good leads through SAMA – people looking for tanks, materials, leads on jobs and things like that.”

On the agenda

Legislators provided updates on the status of several agenda items:

• Rep. Jay Wasson, of Nixa, is sponsoring House Bill 1827, which would allow additional small businesses to join larger health care groups.

• Rep. Ron Richards, R-Joplin, shared progress – or lack thereof – of several legislative items, particularly minimum wage increases.

“Minimum wage has no chance in Missouri,” Richards said. “What you’re seeing in other states – I do business in Arkansas, and last week Gov. (Mike) Huckabee signed the minimum wage bill – that will not happen in the state of Missouri.”

He added that the legislature also is working on improved benefits for enhanced enterprise zones and an expansion of the Quality Jobs initiative to include smaller companies.

It was a mostly Republican group of legislators – 9 of 10 General Assembly members on hand were Republican, along with representatives of Republican U.S. Sens. Kit Bond and Jim Talent and Republican U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt.

Rep. Sara Lampe, of Springfield, the lone Democrat at the meeting, said manufacturers tend to support Republicans because of a difference in general philosophy between the two parties: Republicans feel that stronger business can lead to better benefits for the public, while Democrats feel that more benefits for the public lead to stronger business.

“I want business in Missouri, but I also want healthy workers who are paid well so that everyone benefits, not just the people who own large corporations who come to Missouri and walk away with huge CEO salaries,” Lampe said.

No political bias

SAMA’s Needham said that while many of the Republican viewpoints match those of the association, SAMA is not a proponent of one political party.

“SAMA doesn’t do political contributions – we don’t have a (political action committee), even though some people say we should,” she said. “My notion is that we need to be able to work with whoever is in office, whether they be Republican, Democrat or Independent.”

She added that the sheer size of the organization carries enough influence to be persuasive without monetary campaign contributions.

“I’m always talking about the approximate number of companies and the employees they represent,” she said. “When I say our 130 companies represent 12,000 employees, that’s 12,000 voters. That’s how it translates to a politician.”

Lampe said the problem comes not when people choose people over profits, or vice versa; the real problem is when people think they can’t have both.

“Democrats are often perceived as being anti-business,” she said. “We’re not anti-business. It’s just that business survives when people survive. My mother used to say, ‘You know you’ve been successful when the people around you are successful, too.’”

SAMA Summit Awards

At its annual summit April 21, the Southwest Area Manufacturers Association handed out the first SAMA Summit Awards. The awards are given to member companies that have been in business at least 20 years and are celebrating a significant anniversary. The 12 companies have a combined 660 years of manufacturing experience.

This year’s recipients:

Beehler Corp., Mountain Grove – 120 years

Snyder Equipment Co. Inc., Nixa – 70 years

Loren Cook Co., Springfield – 65 years

Foster Manufacturing Co. Inc., Springfield – 60 years

Hammons Products Co., Stockton – 60 years

Yarbrough’s Machine Shop Inc. – 60 years

Boyd Aluminum Manufacturing Co., Springfield – 45 years

Journagan Construction & Aggregates, Springfield – 45 years

Positronic Industries Inc., Springfield – 40 years

Polyfab Plastics & Supply Inc., Springfield – 35 years

Country Flame Technologies, Marshfield – 30 years

Osage Canoes LLC, Lebanon – 30 years

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