What does “MADE IN USA” mean?

There is so much discussion these days around the MADE IN USA label.  What does it take to use the label “Made in USA” and can you trust it when you see it? 

This article will tell you everything you need to know.

Read more

Becoming a Lean Enterprise is Critical to Rebuilding American Manufacturing

When I wrote the chapter on what manufacturers can do to save themselves for my first book, Can American Manufacturing be Saved? Why we should and how we can, published in 2009, one of my top recommendations was to begin the Lean journey to become a Lean manufacturer.

Read more

Inventors’ Rights Must Be Restored

Ever since the Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) was passed in 2011, there have been bills introduced in Congress with the purported purpose of restoring inventors’ rights and fixing some of the problems generated by that Act. None of these bills were passed by both the House and Senate, and most didn’t even get out of committee for a vote. A few of these bills would have actually made matters worse, so it was a good thing they didn’t pass.

Besides changing our patent system from a “first to invent” to a “first to file,” the “America Invents Act” also created the Patent Trial and Review Board (PTAB) which has nearly destroyed inventors’ rights.  According to the U S Inventors end of the year report, “The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has canceled claims in 84% of the 2,500+ patents reviewed since 2011 and most inventors do not have a half a million dollars necessary to fund a legal defense.”

Read more

The Made in America Movement Grows by 200% with Merger of Made in America Co.

ATLANTA (PRWEB) AUGUST 28, 2019

The Made in America Movement announces the acquisition of Made in America Co. expanding its ability to tell the stories of 20,000 American sourced companies and help millions of consumers find the Made in USA products they are looking for every day.

Read more

Apple, IBM, and Google No Longer Require College Degrees for Employees

Senators Urge Fines Against Nectar Sleep, Sandpiper/PiperGear USA, and Patriot Puck for Fraudulently Affixing Made in the USA Labels

9/11 Anniversary: America Remembers One of its Darkest Days

Today, on the 9/11 anniversary, bells will toll and tears will flow as the nation marks a dark day in sorrowful yet hopeful ceremonies.

President Trump Invites The Made in America Movement to the White House

More Proof That American Manufacturing Is Making A Comeback

New orders for U.S.-made goods increased for a second straight month in January, suggesting the manufacturing sector recovery was gaining momentum as rising prices for commodities spur demand for machinery. Read more

2017 Human Resources & Recruiting Report

The Made in America Movement reached out to 25,000+ HR professionals and 17,000+ executives for our 2017 HR and Recruiting Survey. Thank you to all recruiters, HR professionals and executives that participated in our 2017 survey. We could not provide such an incredible resource without your continued support.

2017 HR and Recruiting Report - download pdfMAM created this year’s survey to find out how much productivity and financial waste was occurring due to traditional interviewing processes. The 2017 report dives deeply into the questions and facts organizations need to ask to hire the best efficiently.

If you participated in the survey, you should receive an email with the report summary at no charge. If you are just finding out about the report, please click here to download the 2017 HR and Recruiting Report summary.


Thank you to our partner TopPick, the New Digital Interview Kit, for supporting the 2017 survey. This year’s effort was a huge undertaking for the MAM team. We reached out to more than 42,000 professionals at thousands of companies across America. These companies included high-growth 30 person teams to companies with 2,000+ employees from industries including B2B Services, B2B SAAS, hospitality, consulting and more. It’s great to see the next generation of technology not supporting MAM but also being built in Atlanta.

Trump: Here Is What He Wants To Do In His First 100 Day

At the end of October, Donald Trump spoke in Gettysburg, Pa., and released a plan for his first 100 days in office. Read more

What Mike Rowe, Kurt Uhlir, John Ratzenberger and Toby Keith say about Made in America

We were blessed to be included in the 2016 USA Today Manufacturing & Skills in America Campaign, reaching 750,000 print readers across USA Today, FABTECH 2016 and Manufacturing Day as well as 3M+ readers online. Below are links to some of the articles. Thanks for sharing.

Kurt Uhlir

Patriotic Spending Has a Bigger Impact Than You Realize

Many Americans love the idea of buying products and technology made in America over imports. But buying American made products may be more than a feel-good choice.

by KURT UHLIR, CHAIRMAN, THE MADE IN AMERICA MOVEMENT

Mike Rowe

Mike Rowe Debunks the Myth of a Modern Manufacturing Job

The former host of “Dirty Jobs” and “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” weighs in on the education and career paths Americans often overlook and, too often, do not travel, let alone encourage.
by MIKE ROWE, MIKEROWEWORKS FOUNDATION

john_ratzenberger

Why the Trades Matter Now More Than Ever

The educational elite got it wrong: eliminating shop classes has had an epic effect on the economy, industry, crime and our children’s futures.
by JOHN RATZENBERGER, ACTOR, DIRECTOR, CHIEF ADVISOR INDUSTRIALIZATION, ELITE AVIATION PRODUCTS

toby_keith

Toby Keith on Looking Past the “Made in America” Label

Country music icon Toby Keith breaks down what he believes in and what he fights for: American products, made in America.
by ADAM SASS

rockwell_automation_logo

Why America Needs More Skilled Manufacturing Workers

Augmented reality isn’t only reserved for video-game players, like the millions searching to capture Pokémon creatures on their cell phones.
by BLAKE MORET, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ROCKWELL AUTOMATION

national-association-of-manufacturers

How to Fix America’s Manufacturing Skills-Gap

According to political candidates, America needs more good-paying jobs. Fortunately, manufacturing is creating them. Now we need the skilled workers to take up the challenge.
by Jennifer McNelly, Executive Director, The Manufacturing Institute and Jay Timmons President and CEO, National Association of Manufacturers

Special thanks to Mediaplanet and USA Today for their continued support of The Made in America Movement and thousands of American Made companies.

TPP Trade Deal Being Sold With Bogus Economic Models

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal is terrible even apart from its quantifiable economic effects, as it threatens our environment, our health, our democracy, our sovereignty, our security and many other things. But it is also a lousy deal on the pure economics, which is why it is currently being sold to the American people and Congress using bogus economic analysis. Read more

U.S Manufacturing: U.S. Production Costs Catching Up With China

Picture

Manufacturing in the U.S. has become more competitive over the past decade compared with rivals such as China and Russia. Shown here at workers in an American Apparel garment dye factory in Southgate in 2012. (GARY FRIEDMAN / Los Angeles Times / April 3, 2012)
Another win for The Made in America Movement!  A new report found that U.S. manufacturing in the past decade has become much more competitive compared with low-cost manufacturing rivals.

U.S. factories can make goods at the same cost or even cheaper than those made in Eastern Europe, according to a Boston Consulting Group report on Friday. And it is now less than 5% cheaper to make goods in China compared with the U.S.

Global shifts in manufacturing costs can be seen beyond America’s borders, the report said. Manufacturing in Mexico is more cost effective than in China, for example, while Brazil has become one of the most expensive manufacturing centers in the world.

These kinds of changes have prompted American businesses to rethink their supply chains in the aftermath of the global recession. Faced with rising wages in China and high oil prices, many are reconsidering the appeal of manufacturing close to home.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Apple Inc. are just some of the companies that have committed to manufacturing some of their products in the U.S.

But Hal Sirkin, a coauthor of the BCG report, said many firms are still making production decisions “on the basis of a decades-old worldview that is sorely out of date.”

“They still see North America and western Europe as high cost and Latin America, Eastern Europe and most of Asia — especially China, as low cost,” he said in a Friday statement. “In reality, there are now high- and low-cost countries in nearly every region of the world.”


SOURCE:  LA Times

Dam Shame: Hoover’s Workforce Nears Retirement – Gov’t Scrambles To Fill Jobs

WASHINGTON –  More than 80 years ago, during the Great Depression, thousands of unemployed Americans traveled from far and wide to the border of Arizona and Nevada, hoping to land a precious job building and operating one of the nation’s great engineering wonders, the Hoover Dam.
Today, however — even with millions of Americans unable to find a job — that lasting symbol of worker pride and strength no longer is attracting the attention of America’s skilled workforce.

A wave of retirements is about to hit Hoover. Two-fifths of the dam’s current employees will be eligible for retirement in the next five years, leaving the government scrambling to fill 40 upcoming vacancies.

The Interior Department agency that oversees Hoover is moving to fast-track hiring for its department-wide openings. But the dam’s aging workforce, mostly baby boomers closing in on retirement age, are part of a specialized group of hydroelectric engineers and electricians with a skill set not widely taught or available across much of the country, spokeswoman Rose Davis told FoxNews.com.

“It’s an interesting choreography at the dam,” she said, noting the next batch of workers will have to ditch their high-tech training tools and approach fixes using classic engineering techniques.

“It’s hands-on training,” said Davis, with the department’s Bureau of Reclamation. “We teach mechanics and hydro electricians how the dam works. If the signals go off, this is what it means. Do you hear something funny? Do you smell something funny? We teach them to fix generators from the 1930s.”

Hiring at the massive dam-turned-tourist attraction has slowed significantly in recent years, with the biggest blows coming during last year’s partial government shutdown and the sequester — a series of automatic budget cuts that went into effect on March 1, 2013.

The Hoover Dam, located 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, was constructed in the 1930s and is considered one of the country’s finest engineering and architectural achievements. Located on the border of two states, the structure harnesses the power of the Colorado while creating America’s largest reservoir. It provides billions of kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power to residents of Nevada, Arizona and California — and the lake supplies water to those states.

Towering at 726 feet high and 1,244 feet long, the dam was one of the largest man-made structures in the world when it was constructed. Contractors were given seven years to construct the 6.6 million-ton barrier. They finished it in five, with a total workforce of 21,000.

But the folks tasked with keeping the site operational today are dwindling – a stark reminder not lost on Interior Secretary Sally Jewell when she visited the area in December.

During a tour of the control center for the Hoover, Parker and Davis dams, Jewell, 58, noticed it was being run by two men – the younger being her age.

“I’d like to say that was a good thing, but it really isn’t very good,” The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported her saying.

Instead, engineers who have retired are now being rehired as consultants to teach a new generation of workers how to handle turbine generators and other equipment crucial to the day-to-day operation.

“The older (worker) had retired and was brought back as what we call a returning annuitant,” Jewell said. “Lives in Alabama. Flies back once a week to take his turn running Hoover Dam.”

At Rowan University in New Jersey, which houses a popular engineering program, spokesman Joe Cardona explained that the Nevada site is “a very niche industry.”

“You are not going to find someone teaching 1930s technology so what’s happening at the Hoover Dam is that they are partnering with local universities in Arizona and Utah to find fits for these spots,” he said.

It’s not to say that the Hoover Dam hasn’t received any upgrades. It has.

Most recently, the government commissioned a new wide-head turbine for the dam’s N8 unit which almost immediately produced a 2 percent efficiency gain. Other improvements include replacing old cast-steel wicket gates with new stainless steel ones that open wider to allow more water in with more force.

Six of the dam’s 17 turbine generators have gotten upgrades since 2005.

But another problem plaguing the Reclamation department is retention.

As of December, 140 of the 800 employees working in the Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Region were eligible to retire in less than five years.

“The millennials are hardest to keep,” Davis said. “We lose a lot of people to the private sector. This includes everyone from human resources to engineers, who may think, ‘I might need to move to the private sector to get my next raise.’”

Some of the engineering jobs — including those in the mechanical, civil and electrical fields — listed under the Bureau of Reclamation on USAJOBS.gov offer salaries exceeding $90,000 for workers with more experience. The jobs, though, can pay as low as roughly $40,000 for those with less experience, depending on the position and location.

Still, Davis said finding workers for the Hoover location – a national landmark only a short drive from Las Vegas – is much easier than filling spots in more remote areas. Next door in California, state officials have been struggling to fill posts and retain workers for the vast State Water Project, a massive water and power system.

Chris McManes, a spokesman for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, told FoxNews.com that making sure specialized jobs like the ones at Hoover are backfilled is pivotal.

“When it comes to hydroelectric power generation and power engineering in general, IEEE-USA is concerned that we have an adequate supply of younger electrical engineers ready to fill the jobs of people who are retiring,” he said.


SOURCE:  Fox News

WikiLeaks Reveals Secret Obama Deal – #TPP

November 13, 2013
WASHINGTON — WikiLeaks on Wednesday published a critical chapter of an international trade deal the United States is currently negotiating with 11 Pacific nations.
The document confirms what some public health experts and Internet freedom advocates had long feared: The Obama administration is aggressively pursuing terms that would increase the cost of medicines and hamper an open Internet.

“The U.S. is refusing to back down from dangerous provisions that will impede timely access to affordable medicines,” said Judit Rius Sanjuan, U.S. manager of the Access Campaign at Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000.

Most major provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership document, which is dated at Aug. 30, are nearly identical to previous leaks that drew criticism from tech activists and consumer groups. But the public disclosure of which countries support or object to which terms, is new. The U.S. government considers the draft text to be classified, a status which has stymied access for congressional aides, and prevented some lawmakers from airing their complaints.

“The Obama administration’s proposals are the worst –- the most damaging for health we have seen in a U.S. trade agreement to date,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s global access to medicines program.

Countries that violate the terms of trade agreements can be sued in international courts.

The TPP deal would explicitly empower corporations to directly challenge government laws and regulations, a political power that World Trade Organization treaties have reserved for other sovereign nations. The U.S. has endorsed such corporate political powers in previous trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement. Companies including Exxon Mobil, Dow Chemical and Eli Lilly have attempted to invoke NAFTA to overrule Canadian regulations on offshore oil drilling, fracking, pesticides, drug patents and other issues.

“With both copyright and patent, the really alarming thing is, there’s talk about major systemic changes that could be made in the next couple of years,” said Parker Higgins, spokesman for the internet freedom group Electronic Frontier Foundation. “The last thing we want to do is crystallize current U.S. law in a trade agreement that we would have to renegotiate.”

The administration, however, rejected criticism that it is pursuing an unhealthy deal.

“We are working with Congress, stakeholders, and our TPP negotiating partners to reach an outcome that promotes high-paying jobs in innovative American industries and reflects our values, including by seeking strong and balanced copyright protections, as well as advancing access to medicines while incentivizing the development of new, lifesaving drugs,” said Carol Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The leaked document shows U.S. negotiators pursuing a host of policies that could drive up medical costs by extending drug companies’ and other corporations’ monopolies on their products beyond the normal 20-year patent term. These provisions include standards to lengthen patent terms, expand the criteria for which countries must grant drug patents, require countries to issue new patents on minor alterations to a drug, and establish barriers on the use of pharmaceutical test data, all of which prevent market competition from generic drugs.

A coalition of five nations consistently offered alternatives to the U.S. language, including New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, Chile and Malaysia. The only language mitigating this effort to drive up drug prices is a vague exemption for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria drugs.

“The obligations of this Chapter do not and should not prevent a Party from taking measures to protect public health by promoting access to medicines for all, in particular concerning cases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, [US oppose: chagas] and other epidemics as well as circumstances of extreme urgency or national emergency,” the document reads.

Prior WTO agreements have included similar protections, but the U.S. has repeatedly brought political pressure against countries that attempted to grant access to generic AIDS drugs. The U.S. has had several recent disputes with India over the country’s decision to issue a $157 generic cancer drug for which Bayer had charged more than $5,000 a month.

“People die from cancer, too,” notes Sanjuan. “The public health challenges we see in the countries where we work are much broader than HIV, TB and malaria. Even if this is a sincere effort at a solution, it’s a fake solution and won’t really work.”

The draft’s copyright standards would require countries to adopt digital distribution rules similar to those the United States has had in place since the late 1990s. Those rules have come under fire for establishing a host of legal liabilities for normal internet functions. The rules have made tech start-ups targets of costs and legal threats from movie studios and record labels, and created conflicts over simple actions like linking to copyrighted content.

The U.S. has avoided some of the most damaging implications of its broad copyright definitions by relying on a robust set of exemptions, including fair use and other terms that permit using some copyrighted information without paying royalties. But the TPP draft would establish a narrow international standard for fair use, and thwart other types of exemptions. EFF and others have warned against exporting the U.S. copyright criteria without including U.S.-style exemptions.

WikiLeaks, the government transparency organization, released the document on the same day that 151 congressional Democrats sent a letter to President Barack Obama objecting to the “fast-track” process the president hopes to use to approve the TPP deal. Two separate letters from dozens of House Democrats and Republicans objecting to the same process were sent to Obama on Tuesday.


#TPP Talks Stir House Bipartisan Opposition

November 12, 2013
WASHINGTON — Separate groups of House Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday condemned the Obama administration’s proposed sweeping free trade agreement with 11 Pacific nations, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Strongly worded letters to President Barack Obama Tuesday were signed by hardline tea partiers, true-blue progressives, and moderate, corporate-friendly lawmakers in both parties, indicating political trouble for a trade deal the administration had hoped to seal by year end.

Critics of the Trans-Pacific deal have warned that it would undermine Internet freedom and consumer protections in the U.S. and abroad. But the letters take issue with the process for approving the deal, demanding greater congressional input, rather than singling out specific policy complaints. Because of their broad scope, trade deals often draw a variety of critics, who can choose to fight the deals on procedural grounds, rather than attempting to unite behind disparate policy issues. On some issues, however, a lack of congressional oversight can generate opposition, even from supporters of the Obama administration’s policy proposals.

“Under Fast Track, the executive branch is empowered to sign trade agreements before Congress has an opportunity to vote on them, and then unilaterally write legislation making the pacts’ terms U.S. federal law,” reads a letter from 22 House Republicans. “Fast Track allows the president to send these executive branch-authored bills directly to the floor for a vote under rules forbidding all floor amendments and limiting debate. … We do not agree to cede our constitutional authority to the executive.”

The GOP letter includes signatures from tea party stalwarts like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), along with moderate members whose tenure in Congress dates to the 1990s. A coalition of New Democrats and progressives — who typically take opposite positions on free-trade deals — pressed the same theme in a separate letter.

“Any new proposed Trade Promotion Authority must reflect the changing nature of international trade and ensure that Congress plays a more meaningful role in the negotiating process,” reads a letter from 12 Democrats, including progressives like Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), along with moderates Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Jim Himes (D-Conn.).

The letters come the day before liberal Democrats plan to voice concerns with the trade pact process in a press conference.

The proposed terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal are secret. The Obama administration, like many of its predecessors, has registered the trade platform as classified information, to the chagrin of lawmakers. Although several dozen corporate officials and a handful of public interest experts are given access to the negotiation information, they are not permitted to disclose it to the public or the press. Staffers for members of Congress also are denied access to the terms.

From leaked drafts, terms of the Trans-Pacific deal have come under fire for proposing to grant corporations the political power to directly challenge government regulations in international court. This sovereignty issue has long been a sticking point for both conservatives and progressive members of Congress, as the right to challenge government rules had been restricted to sovereign nations under World Trade Organization pacts and other deals.

But the U.S. government has pushed to include such language in trade agreements dating back to the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. In recent years,Exxon Mobil, Dow Chemical, Eli Lilly and others have attempted to challenge Canadian rules on offshore oil drilling, fracking, pesticides and drug patents through NAFTA’s corporate-empowered litigation system. Proponents of generic medications have also voiced concerns that the Trans-Pacific Partnership would undermine access to affordable, life-saving drugs.

American labor unions have complained that these systems encourage corporations to move jobs to locations with weak regulatory oversight.

Proponents of free trade deals defend the Trans-Pacific Partnership as an effort to reduce unnecessary rules and tariffs that interfere with productive commerce.

Consumer protection advocates, environmentalists and public health experts, have voiced opposition to leaked terms of the pact, which includes the U.S., Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Canada, Mexico and Japan. Several of these countries already have free trade agreements with the U.S. that have eliminated most tariffs. That suggests much of the deal’s appeal is tied to regulatory standards.


Buying Overseas Clothing, U.S. Flouts Its Own Advice

Picture

Clothing the American Government’s Employees: In many overseas factories producing garments for the United States government, conditions are harsh and pay is low. | Photo Credit: Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

 

WASHINGTON — One of the world’s biggest clothing buyers, the United States government spends more than $1.5 billion a year at factories overseas, acquiring everything from the royal blue shirts worn by airport security workers to the olive button-downs required for forest rangers and the camouflage pants sold to troops on military bases.

Picture

LABORING Clothing made at the Coast to Coast factory in Bangladesh is sold on American military bases. | Photo Credit: Tomas Munita for The New York Times

 

But even though the Obama administration has called on Western buyers to use their purchasing power to push for improved industry working conditions after several workplace disasters over the last 14 months, the American government has done little to adjust its own shopping habits.

Labor Department officials say that federal agencies have “zero tolerance” for using overseas plants that break local laws, but American government suppliers in countries including Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan and Vietnam show a pattern of legal violations and harsh working conditions, according to audits and interviews at factories. Among them: padlocked fire exits, buildings at risk of collapse, falsified wage records and repeated hand punctures from sewing needles when workers were pushed to hurry up.

In Bangladesh, shirts with Marine Corps logos sold in military stores were made at DK Knitwear, where child laborers made up a third of the work force, according to a 2010 audit that led some vendors to cut ties with the plant. Managers punched workers for missed production quotas, and the plant had no functioning alarm system despite previous fires, auditors said. Many of the problems remain, according to another audit this year and recent interviews with workers.

In Chiang Mai, Thailand, employees at the Georgie & Lou factory, which makes clothing sold by the Smithsonian Institution, said they were illegally docked over 5 percent of their roughly $10-per-day wage for any clothing item with a mistake. They also described physical harassment by factory managers and cameras monitoring workers even in bathrooms.

At Zongtex Garment Manufacturing in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which makes clothes sold by the Army and Air Force, an audit conducted this year found nearly two dozen under-age workers, some as young as 15. Several of them described in interviews with The New York Times how they were instructed to hide from inspectors.

“Sometimes people soil themselves at their sewing machines,” one worker said, because of restrictions on bathroom breaks.

Federal agencies rarely know what factories make their clothes, much less require audits of them, according to interviews with procurement officials and industry experts. The agencies, they added, exert less oversight of foreign suppliers than many retailers do. And there is no law prohibiting the federal government from buying clothes produced overseas under unsafe or abusive conditions.

“It doesn’t exist for the exact same reason that American consumers still buy from sweatshops,” said Daniel Gordon, a former top federal procurement official who now works at George Washington University Law School. “The government cares most about getting the best price.”

Frank Benenati, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees much of federal procurement policy, said the administration has made progress in improving oversight, including an executive order last year tightening rules against federal suppliers using factories that rely on debt bondage or other forms of forced labor.

“The administration is committed to ensuring that our government is doing business only with contractors who place a premium on integrity and good business ethics,” he said.

Labor and State Department officials have encouraged retailers to participate in strengthening rules on factory conditions in Bangladesh — home to one of the largest and most dangerous garment industries. But defense officials this month helped kill a legislative measure that would have required military stores, which last year made more than $485 million in profit, to comply with such rules because they said the $500,000 annual cost was too expensive.

Federal spending on garments overseas does not reach that of Walmart, the world’s biggest merchandiser, which spends more than $1 billion a year just in Bangladesh, or Zara, the Spanish apparel seller, but it still is in a top tier that includes H & M, the trendy fashion business based in Sweden, Eddie Bauer and Lands’ End, sellers of outerwear and other clothing.

Picture

The garment factory in the Codevi industrial park in Haiti makes camouflage clothing for a military contractor. | Photo Credit: Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

 

Like most retail brands, American agencies typically do not order clothes directly from factories. They rely on contractors. This makes it challenging for agencies to track their global supply chain, with layers of middlemen, lax oversight by other governments, few of their own inspectors overseas and little means of policing factories that farm out work to other plants without the clients’ knowledge. When retailers, labor groups or others inspect these factories, the audits often understate problems because managers regularly coach workers and doctor records.

The United States government, though, faces special pressures. Its record on garment contracting demonstrates the tensions between its low-bid procurement practices and high-road policy objectives on labor and human rights issues.

The Obama administration, for example, has favored free-trade agreements to spur development in poor countries by cultivating low-skill, low-overhead jobs like those in the cut-and-sew industry. The removal of trade barriers has also driven prices down by making it easier for retailers to decamp from one country to the next in the hunt for cheap labor. Most economists say that these savings have directly benefited consumers, including institutional buyers like the American government. But free-trade zones often lack effective methods for ensuring compliance with local labor laws, and sometimes accelerate a race to the bottom in terms of wages.

Along a dirt road in Gazipur, about 25 miles north of the Bangladeshi capital, riot police fired tear gas shells, rubber bullets and sound grenades in a fierce clash with garment workers last month, sending scores to the hospital. The protesters demanding better conditions included some from a factory called V & R Fashions. In July, auditors rated that factory as “needs improvement” because workers’ pay was illegally docked for minor infractions and the building was unsafe, illegally constructed and not intended for industrial use.

Unsafe and Repressive

Like dozens of oth
er factor
ies in the area, V & R makes clothes for the American government, which is constantly prowling for the best deals. In interviews, workers at a half-dozen of these suppliers described the effect of such cost pressures.

At Manta Apparels, for example, which makes uniforms for the General Services Administration, employees said beatings are common and fire exits are kept chained except when auditors visit. The local press has described Manta as one of the most repressive factories in the country. A top labor advocate, Aminul Islam, was organizing there in 2010 when he was first arrested by the police and tortured. In April 2012, he was found dead, a hole drilled below his right knee and his ankles crushed.

Several miles from Manta, 40 women from another supplier, Coast to Coast, gathered late one night to avoid being seen publicly talking to a reporter. Dressed in burqas, the women said that prices of the clothing they make for sale on American military bases are now so cheap that managers try to save money by pushing them to speed up production. In the rush, workers routinely burn themselves with irons, they said, often requiring hospitalizations.

Work does not stop, they said, when it rain pours through a six-foot crack in the ceiling of the top floor of the factory — a repurposed apartment building with two extra floors added illegally to increase capacity. Even after the manager swipes their timecards, they say, he orders them to keep sewing.

While giving a tour of the plant, the manager described the building crack as inconsequential and too expensive to repair. He denied the workers’ other allegations. The owner of Manta declined to comment.

Conditions like those are possible partly because American government agencies usually do not know which factories supply their goods or are reluctant to reveal them. Soon after a fire killed at least 112 people at the Tazreen Fashions factory in Bangladesh in November 2012, several members of Congress asked various agencies for factory addresses. Of the seven agencies her office contacted, Representative Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, said only the Department of the Interior turned over its list.

Over the summer, military officials told Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, that order forms for apparel with Marine Corps logos had been discovered in Tazreen’s charred remains but that the corps had ties to no other Bangladeshi factories. Several weeks later, the officials said they were mistaken and had discovered a half-dozen or so other factories producing unauthorized Marine Corps apparel. On Sunday, the owners of Tazreen and 11 employees were charged with culpable homicide.

President Obama has long pushed for more transparency in procurement. As a senator, he sponsored legislation in 2006 creating the website USASpending.gov, which open-government advocates say has made it far easier to track federal contracting. However, procurement experts fault the website for requiring agencies to name their contractors, but not identifying the specific factories doing the work. Some states and cities already require companies to disclose that information before awarding them public contracts, said Bjorn Skorpen Claeson, senior policy analyst at the International Labor Rights Forum.

Federal officials still have to navigate a tangle of rules. Defense officials, for instance, who spend roughly $2 billion annually on military uniforms, are required by a World War II-era rule called the Berry Amendment to have most of them made in the United States. In recent years, Congress has pressured defense officials to cut costs on uniforms. Increasingly, the department has turned to federal prisons, where wages are under $2 per hour. Federal inmates this year stitched more than $100 million worth of military uniforms.

No sooner had the Transportation Security Administration, or T.S.A., signed a $50 million contract in February for new uniforms for its 50,000 airport security agents and other workers, than the agency was attacked from all sides.

Union officials, opposed to outsourcing work overseas, objected because the Mexican plant making the clothing, VF Imagewear Matamoros, was the same one that had treated uniforms with chemicals that caused rashes in hundreds of T.S.A. agents. Congress called an oversight hearing, where some lawmakers questioned why two-thirds of the uniforms would be made in foreign factories, saying the deal was a missed chance to stimulate domestic job growth. Other lawmakers faulted the agency for spending too much money on clothing, especially on the cusp of a federal budget crisis, no matter where the merchandise was made.

“Bottom line,” John W. Halinski, T.S.A. deputy administrator, told Congress, “we go for the lowest-cost uniform, sir.”

The hunt for lower costs and the expansion of free-trade pacts have meant that more of this work is being done abroad, often in poor countries where the Obama administration is trying to spur competition and development.

In Haiti, for instance, trucks loaded with camouflage pants, shirts and jackets, some of them destined for American military bases, idle in front of a factory called BKI.

Next year, BKI managers hope to double the amount of camouflage clothing made for the American government, part of a contract worth more than $30 million between a division of Propper International, a Missouri-based uniform company, and the General Services Administration, which outfits workers for more than a dozen federal agencies.

Three years ago, much of this camouflage clothing was made in Puerto Rico, where workers earned the minimum wage of about $7.25 an hour. By 2011, many of these jobs moved to a factory in the Dominican Republic called Suprema. Wages there were about 80 cents per hour and unpaid overtime was routine, according to workers in recent interviews and a 2010 audit. Since then, most of these jobs have migrated again, this time to BKI in a Haitian free-trade zone called Codevi. Average hourly wages at BKI are about 8 cents less per hour than those at Suprema, according to workers.

Standing near the factory entrance, several BKI workers said they were proud of the clothes they made for the American government. “We push hard because we know they expect better,” said Rodley Charles, 29, a quality inspector at the factory.

But there is basic math: the average pay of 72 cents per hour (which is illegal and below Haiti’s minimum wage) barely covers food and rent, said Mr. Charles, who has since quit, and two other BKI workers.

These wage pressures may soon intensify. Codevi will soon face new competition from another industrial park called Caracol, which is being built partly with money from the United States Agency for International Development as part of reconstruction efforts after the earthquake of 2010.

American officials predict that Caracol will eventually create 60,000 new jobs. Current wages there? About 57 cents per hour, or roughly 15 cents less than typical wages at Codevi.

Big Business

At a military store in Bethesda, Md., Tori Novo smiled as she looked over a pair of $19.99 children’s cargo pants made in Bangladesh that sell for $39 in most department stores. The best part of living on base, said Ms. Novo, a 31-year-old Navy recruiter, was “savings like these.”

Known as exchanges, these big-box stores on military bases around the world offer a guarantee: to beat or match any price from rivals. That promise puts the exchanges in direct competition with the deep discounts offered by stores like Gap and Target. It also adds to already intense pressure to lower costs by using the cheapest factories, industry analysts say.

These stores, run by the Defense Department, do big business, selling more than $1 billion a year in apparel alone. Exempt from the Berry Amendment, the exchanges get more than 90 percent of their clothes from factories outside the United States, according to industry estimates. The profits from these tax-free stores mostly go toward entertainment services like golf courses, gyms and bowling alleys on bases.
Though the Government Accountability Office criticized the exchanges over a decade ago for exerting less oversight than private retailers and for failing to independently monitor their overseas suppliers, little has improved.

The Marine Corps and Navy still do not require audits of these factories. The Air Force and Army exchanges do, but the audits can come from retailers, and defense officials fail to do routine spot checks to confirm their accuracy.

For example, Citadel Apparels, a factory in a seven-story building in Gazipur, has cut, stitched and shipped more than 11 metric tons of cotton boys’ T-shirts and other clothes for sale at exchanges on Army and Air Force bases in recent months. This summer, lawmakers in Congress asked the Defense Department for proof that Citadel was safe. Defense officials produced an audit conducted for Walmart, another client of the factory, showing that it had an “orange” risk ranking in July 2012, the same high level of alarm that Walmart had given the Tazreen factory before the fatal fire there last year.

While allowing the factory to stay open, the audit offered an alarming statistical snapshot.

Sixty-five percent: number of workers barefoot, some on the building’s roof. Fifty percent: workers without legally required masks to protect against cotton dust. Sixteen percent: workers missing time-sheets, a common sign of forced overtime. Most serious infractions: cracks in the walls that could compromise the building, and partly blocked exit routes and stairwells.

By January, Citadel’s auditors concluded that most of these dangers had been fixed. However, a half-dozen Citadel workers offered a starkly different picture. Virtually none of the original problems had ever been corrected, they said in interviews last month with The Times.

“We aren’t sewing machines,” one worker said. “Our lives are worth more.”

For now, Bangladesh’s garment sector continues to grow, as do purchases from one of its bulk buyers. In the year since Tazreen burned down, American military stores have shipped even more clothes from Bangladesh.

Ian Urbina reported from Bangladesh and Washington. Research was contributed by Susan Beachy in New York, Poypiti Amatatham in Bangkok, Karla Zabludovsky in Mexico City, Malavika Vyawahare in New Delhi and Meridith Kohut in Ouanaminthe, Haiti.


SOURCE:  New York Times

Bangladeshi Factory Owners Charged in Fire That Killed 112

Picture

Delowar Hossain, owner of Tazreen Fashions Ltd. He has said that just three stories of his garment plant were legal. | Photo Credit: Andrew Biraj/Reuters
NEW DELHI — The police in Bangladesh charged the owners of a garment factory and 11 of their employees with culpable homicide in the deaths of 112 workers in a fire last year that came to symbolize the appalling working conditions in the country’s dominant textile industry.
The case is the first time the authorities have sought to prosecute factory owners in Bangladesh’s garment industry, so powerful that the state has long sought to protect owners from unionization efforts by workers and from international scrutiny of working conditions.

The fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory on Nov. 24, 2012, was later eclipsed by a building collapse in April that cost the lives of 1,100 workers and brought global attention to the unsafe working conditions and low wages at many garment factories in Bangladesh, the No. 2 exporter of apparel after China. The fire also revealed the poor controls that top retailers had throughout their supply chain, since retailers like Walmart said they were unaware that their apparel was being made in such factories.

Among those charged on Sunday were the factory’s owners, Delowar Hossain and his wife, Mahmuda Akther, as well as M. Mahbubul Morshed, an engineer, and Abdur Razzaq, the factory manager, according to local news reports.

Bangladeshi officials have been under intense domestic and international pressure to file charges against those deemed responsible for last year’s deaths. Fires have been a persistent problem in the country’s garment industry for more than a decade, with hundreds of workers killed over the years.

Bangladesh has more than 4,500 garment factories, which employ over four million workers, many of them young women. The industry is crucial to the national economy as a source of employment and foreign currency. Garments constitute about four-fifths of the country’s manufacturing exports, and the industry is expected to grow rapidly.

On the night of the fire, more than 1,150 people were inside the eight-story building, working overtime shifts to fill orders for various international brands. Fire officials say the blaze broke out in the open-air ground floor, where large mounds of fabric and yarn were illegally stored.

But on some floors, managers ordered the employees to ignore a fire alarm and continue to work. Precious minutes were lost. Then, as smoke and fire spread throughout the building, many workers were trapped, unable to descend the smoke-filled staircases, and they were blocked from escape by iron grilles on many windows. Desperate workers managed to break open some windows and leap to safety on the roof of a building nearby. Others simply jumped from upper floors to the ground.


SOURCE:  New York Times

Family & Friends Event at Montauk Tackle Co. American Built Performance Apparel

This Thanksgiving Weekend, Montauk Tackle Co., American Built Performance Apparel, Announces its Family and Friends Event.  It’s a family and friends kind-of-weekend with Montauk Tackle’s performance apparel.
Most retailers offer a family and friends promotion to a select group of customers for savings. But this Thanksgiving weekend, Montauk Tackle Company, makers of American built performance apparel, is offering its family and friends savings to every one’s family and friends. The main course: 20% off everything plus free shipping for orders over $50.00.

According to The National Retail Federation, overall online retail sales this holiday season are expected to amount to $82 billion, which would be up as much as 15% from November and December in 2012. The National Retail Federation also estimates 140 million people will shop in stores or online during the four-day Thanksgiving Day weekend. The trade organization also forecasts that sales in November and December will increase 3.9% to $602.1 billion.

Utilizing social media to get the word out will be the course of action for MTC. Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest and specially selected bloggers are just a few of the outlets. “What better way to share with family and friends then through social media, no special code to enter into our website, just 20% off across the board for this great weekend. We just wanted to make it as simple as possible to enjoy the savings,” says Ron Cesark, President of Montauk Tackle Co.

Another recent National Retail Federation survey asked people whether they plan to shop either in stores or online Thanksgiving Day. Of those who plan to shop over the whole weekend — Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday — almost a fourth (23.5% or 33 million shoppers) said they’d shop on Thanksgiving.

“What better way to share with family and friends than through social media.”

Montauk Tackle Company is an American Made technical performance apparel company with clean classic functional American design. Designed to help you stay cool, dry and protected from the sun, all of our performance apparel have 50UPF, Moisture Wicking, Stain Release and Anti Microbial technologies built into them. While other performance apparel company’s design their stuff to fall apart over time, our performance apparel is built to last. Made In The U.S.A. and built for performance and comfort in Men’s, Women’s and youth styles. MTC’s fabrics are milled in California and Cut-N-Sewn in The Garment District of New York City.

About: 
Montauk Tackle Company, Inc. is a technical performance apparel company that embodies the active outdoor coastal-living lifestyle. A privately held, family owned company founded in 2007 on Long Island, New York that is committed to resourcing and manufacturing in the U.S.A.

Montauk Tackle Company, Inc. is an active member of The Made in America Movement.  Check out why it pays to be a MAM member.  Member Benefits

John Ratzenberger’s American Made TV Show Kicks off Campaign in FundAnything

Picture

John Ratzenberger (best known for playing the mailman Cliff Clavin on Cheers) has launched a crowd source campaign with FundAnything for his brand new television series, ‘John Ratzenberger’s American Made.’

A video release on the show and campaign

“From the things we need, to the things we want, to the things we dream about— we’re going to show you the best of our country’s home grown products,” says Ratzenberger. “But more importantly, we’ll highlight the remarkable men and women who use their skills and ingenuity to create goods they can proudly call made in the USA.”

The show will also empower viewers with a direct and easy path on where to buy the products profiled. The series will be produced with RealityTVStar.com, which Ratzenberger co-founded.

“We chose to crowd fund the initial few episodes for strategic reasons,” said RealityTVStar.com CEO, Jeffrey Solomon. “Crowd funding is an excellent way to mobilize fans and promote our American made corporate partners before the show launches. It’s also an excellent way to allow the public to be a part of the show before its release on TV.”

Crowd funding has grown into an extremely successful method to fund creative projects without the bureaucracy of corporate mandates. Ratzenberger’s campaign will give donors a chance to be on the show; join John at a VIP events; receive products profiled, and many more opportunities only available to donors. He has already signed on 30+ American-made companies and industry groups.

Those interested in participating in John’s FundAnything campaign can visit http://www.Fundanything.com/americanmade for more details. Individuals can also see these companies/industry groups on the TV series Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/americanmadewithjohn.

Ratzenberger’s career includes 40 feature films and dozens of television shows including the highly successful ‘John Ratzenberger’s Made in America,’ which ran 5 seasons on the Travel Channel from 2004 to 2008. John is currently a regular on FX’s ‘Legit,’ and has recently appeared on Fox’s ‘Bones,’ CBS’s ‘CSI,’ Lifetime’s ‘Drop Dead Diva,’ and TNT’s ‘Franklin & Bash.’ He is also in production for the newest Pixar film ‘Inside Out.’

About Reality TV Star 
RealityTVStar.com is a reality TV production company that uses technology to improve the process of developing, casting and producing reality TV shows. RealityTVStar.com offers fans the ability to upload “slice of life,” casting, and “home” video clips, for the chance to be discovered by the RealityTVStar.com team of producers.


Disclosure: The Made in America Movement is a Marketing Partner with Realty TV Star.  The Made in America Movement will be featured in an episode of John Ratzenberger’s American Made. For information, email us at: info@themadeinamericamovement.com.

Finding the Finest Products Made in the USA Becomes Simpler

Now patriotic Americans looking to support the “Buy American” movement can shop a wide variety of products made in the USA from NoCargo, a new ecommerce business with the goal of supporting the American economy.
New York, NY, September 12, 2013 — Buying products made in the USA is becoming more and more popular as Americans recognize the importance of supporting national businesses in order to help create more jobs and stimulate the US economy. President Obama recently acknowledged this fact in his speech on July 24, 2013 when he said “Now, over the past four years, for the first time since the 1990s, the number of American manufacturing jobs has actually gone up instead of down.” He also spoke about his focus on strategies, like tax code rewards, to ensure that US companies are insourcing “to help more manufacturers bring more jobs back to the United States.”

Now patriotic Americans looking to support the “Buy American” movement can shop a wide variety of products made in the USA from NoCargo, a new ecommerce business with the goal of supporting the American economy. NoCargo’s ecommerce web site, ShopNoCargo.com, is fast becoming the “go to” online marketplace for shoppers to buy cool, hip and high quality American made products all in one place.

Inspired by a World News segment about how the news team fulfilled a college freshman’s wish to decorate her dorm room with all American made products after her search for such products came up empty, Jamie Levine founded NoCargo as a one stop online destination for high quality products made in the USA. What she learned along the way, she found simply refreshing.

“The beauty of American made products is in the craftsmanship,” Jamie affirms. “While researching American brands, I learned a lot about manufacturing. It amazed me to see the artistry and brilliance in the details. From the meticulous selection of the components like wood for a piece of furniture to French seams (which hide the edges for a neat finish) on a garment, the fine points are actually what make the USA made products that we carry so special.”

When you buy products made in the USA, you know you are getting the highest quality because manufacturers adhere to the USA’s high-level environmental standards. The American government also doesn’t tolerate child labor or unsafe working conditions. Plus, avoiding overseas shipments reduces our global carbon footprint for a healthier environment. (The connotation behind NoCargo‘s brand name.)

Surprisingly, the World News report tracked the college freshman’s purchases compared with her roommates, whose side of the room was decorated with products from abroad and found there was actually $100 in total savings in buying the products made in the USA versus the products made abroad.

Jamie points out that “economists say that if every one of us just spent an extra $3.33 on American made products every year, it would create nearly 10,000 new jobs in America. Think what it would do if you were to spend that little every month. Not only would you be helping the commonwealth, you would also be enjoying the benefits of a superior made product.”

Just like NoCargo‘s tagline says, “American makes pretty neat stuff.”


NoCargo is an active member of The Made in America Movement.  To learn more about becoming a MAM member, email us directly at info@TheMadeInAmericaMovement.com

For more information, contact Jamie Levine at jamie@shopnocargo.com.

Visit NoCargo:
Website: www.shopnocargo.com
Facebook:  NoCargo
Pinterest: NoCargo
Twitter: @ShopNoCargo

Age Gap Revealed in Made-in-USA

An April Gallup poll suggests Millennials don’t value the “Made in America” movement as much as some might hope. Out of 1,000 people, 45% claim to put special effort into buying American-made products versus 55% who do not. The results, discussed at length in WWD, indicate a large age gap between those who care the most about buying U.S.-produced goods: 61% of those 65 and older make it a priority, while only 20% of those 18 to 29 do the same.

Reposted from Refinery29:

This could be worrisome for domestically-produced apparel brands that target Millennials and charge more accordingly. Will this generation, accustomed to fast fashion and a global mentality, be willing to spend the extra few bucks for a “Made in the USA” tag? Once again, the unavoidable quality versus quantity debate surfaces — as does another: Are younger Americans simply less inclined to see the link between patronage and patriotism? And does it really matter?

“Older people tend to be more patriotic,” Gallup managing editor Jeffrey Jones told WWD. “Could it be that older Americans have witnessed the erosion of the U.S. manufacturing base and are paying more attention to questions about country of origin? Perhaps.”

On a positive note, while “patriotism” isn’t necessarily everyone’s motivation for buying stateside-manufactured goods, 64% of those interviewed for the April Gallup poll still say they’d be willing to pay more for American items — even those who don’t currently make a special effort to do so. Additionally, when you bring e-commerce into the equation, the numbers are more optimistic: Over 60% in a WWD/American Giant survey say they use the Internet to find and purchase American-made merchandise.

Ultimately, none of these figures definitively mean that young people don’t care about where or how their purchases are made. Locavore and eco-conscious consumption movements — largely youth-fueled — continue to steadily grow. In fact, green fashion now generates over $5 billion in revenue a year — up 1000% from a decade ago. Generational shifts in attitude towards commerce and country are bound to evolve, but it seems whether or not we were born pre or post 1980, we’re mostly on the same page when it comes down to doing the responsible thing. (WWD)


SOURCE:  Refinery29

All American Clothing Invites Shoppers to Make It an American-Made School Year

Picture

Each pair of jeans from the All American Clothing Co. comes with a Certificate of Authenticity to showcase that it was made with USA materials by USA workers.

People around the country are getting prepared for the upcoming school year with ‘back to school’ sales popping up in almost every corner. Whether shopping for friends or family the All American Clothing Co. would like to remind consumers that an American Made ‘back to school’ purchase can make a BIG difference.
It`s ‘Back to School’ season! Should consumers look to buy American-made items to help create American jobs, boost the economy, and provide a tax base that supports local communities? ABC World News last reported in December of 2012 that if each American spent just $64 a year on American-made products it will create over 200,000 new jobs (http://abcnews.go.com/WN/mailform?id=14998335). Think about it. People can help create over 200,000 new jobs for American workers with just a few made in America purchases during this ‘Back to School’ season.

“Shopping American Made is not always easy. But when it is… it`s 
All American.”

More specifically, if all Americans purchased primarily USA made clothing items this school season, it would support American jobs in a clothing industry that has lost -84 percent of its labor force since 1990. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the American clothing industry totaled 938.6 thousand jobs in 1990. Today, there are 148 thousand jobs in the U.S. clothing industry.

The trend of losing American jobs in the clothing industry will continue if consumers are not buying American. Roger Simmermaker of WND reported in March of 2013 that 97 percent of the clothing purchased in the United States is foreign made (http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/getting-apparel-from-that-important-3/). This school season is a perfect time to be mindful of shopping habits. Not everything purchased should be American made in those shopping carts but a few items will certainly help create jobs.

About All American Clothing Co.

At the All American Clothing Co. shoppers can actually trace items back to the American workers they are supporting with the All American Clothing Co. That`s right, consumers can trace All American-made jeans back to the American farmer who grew the cotton with an interactive feature called traceability technology. One purchase falling under traceability technology can ultimately support over 12,000 American farmers who grew the cotton used in their USA made jeans according to the All American Clothing Co.

The company was founded in 2002 when Lawson Nickol made a shocking discovery. To his surprise, his previous blue jean employer began to outsource. After he confirmed this with ownership, Nickol quickly turned in his resignation and started the All American Clothing Co. just a few weeks later with his son BJ. Since, the All American Clothing Co. has become a household name as they only carry USA made clothing items.

American Made products may seem difficult to shop for. They are often hard to find and afford. With this being said, the All American Clothing Co. has always been dedicated to making the American-made shopping experience easy and affordable.

“Sometimes shopping American made is not always easy. But when it is…it`s All American.”


All American Clothing is a proud Corporate Member of The Made in America Movement.

Apple’s Supplier, Pegatron Group, Violates Workers’ Rights

Picture

Today (07/29/13), China Labor Watch (CLW) published an investigative report detailing the labor violations of three factories of Pegatron Group, a major supplier to Apple. In 2013, Apple has increased its orders to these factories, which have benefited from and relied upon labor violations to increase their competitive edge.
CLW’s investigations revealed at least 86 labor rights violations, including 36 legal violations and 50 ethical violations. The violations fall into 15 categories: dispatch labor abuse, hiring discrimination, women’s rights violations, underage labor, contract violations, insufficient worker training, excessive working hours, insufficient wages, poor working conditions, poor living conditions, difficulty in taking leave, labor health and safety concerns, ineffective grievance channels, abuse by management, and environmental pollution.

In short, the Pegatron factories are violating a great number of international and Chinese laws and standards as well as the standards of Apple’s own social responsibility code of conduct.

In May 2013, Apple heralded that its suppliers had achieved 99 percent compliance with Apple’s 60-hour workweek rule, this despite the fact that 60 hours is a direct violation of China’s 49-hour statutory limit.  This “accomplishment” is further discredited by the fact that average weekly working hours in the three factories probed by CLW are approximately 66 hours, 67 hours, and 69 hours, respectively. For instance, in Pegatron Shanghai, our investigation uncovered that workers were forced to sign forms indicating that their overtime hours were less than the actual levels.

Indeed, a number of Apple’s social responsibility promises are being broken, including those related to worker safety, protecting the environment, and more. None of the Pegatron factories investigated here, for example, provide sufficient safety training to workers. At Riteng and AVY, waste water is disposed of directly into the sewage system, polluting the local water source.

Conditions at these factories are so poor that most workers refuse to continue working for long. In a period of two weeks, 30 of 110 new recruits at AVY left.

Apple continues to source from Pegatron factories despite serious labor rights violations. That Apple has made promises on the conduct of its suppliers means that Apple is complicit in the persistence of violations at these factories.

Apple has zero tolerance for lapses in the quality of its products. If a quality issue arises, Apple will do everything it can to have it corrected immediately. But a lower level of urgency apparently applies in responding to labor rights abuses. Despite its professed high standards for the treatment of Apple workers, serious labor violations have persisted year after year. Apple must prioritize its efforts into halting the abuse of the workers making Apple products.

CLW executive director Li Qiang said, “Our investigations have shown that labor conditions at Pegatron factories are even worse than those at Foxconn factories. Apple has not lived up to its own standards. This will lead to Apple’s suppliers abusing labor in order to strengthen their position for receiving orders. In this way, Apple is worsening conditions for workers, not improving them.”

The report brings this issue into sharp relief by comparing 17 social promises that Apple has made with 17 corresponding realities uncovered during CLW’s investigation.

From March to July 2013, CLW sent investigators into the three Pegatron Group factories to carry out undercover investigations and conduct nearly 200 interviews with workers outside the factories. The factories included Pegatron Shanghai (producing the iPhone), Riteng (a Pegatron subsidiary in Shanghai producing Apple computers), and AVY (a Pegatron subsidiary in Suzhou producing iPad parts). Together, these three Pegatron factories have more than 70,000 employees.

A PDF file of the full report can be downloaded here.

Check out this short film produced by China Labor Watch.

Consumer Sentiment in U.S. Unexpectedly Declined in July

Consumer confidence unexpectedly cooled in July as Americans became less optimistic about the outlook for the economy.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment decreased to 83.9 in July from 84.1 the month prior, today’s report showed. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a gain to 84.7. The gauge reached an almost six-year high of 84.5 in May.

The recent increases in mortgage rates and prices at the gas pump may have restrained consumers’ views on the economy in the next six months. At the same time, the group’s gauge of current conditions jumped to a six-year high as stock prices approached a record after falling in the middle of June.

“It’s a slip in confidence from recent highs rather than the start of a new downward,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, a strategist at TD Securities Inc. in New York. “As we get later in the year and the economy improves, consumers will start to see better numbers and they’ll notice that.”

Forecasts of the 66 economists for sentiment in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 80 to 88. The index averaged 64.2 during the recession that ended in June 2009, and 89 in the five years prior.

The Michigan survey compares with the weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, which climbed to minus 27.3 in the week ended July 7, the highest level in more than five years, from minus 27.5. The figures showed Americans were more upbeat about their finances than at any time since April 2008, while a gauge of the buying climate increased to a nine-week high.

Producer Prices
Other figures today showed prices paid to producers rose 0.8 percent in June, more than projected and the most since September.

The Michigan survey’s measure of current conditions, which takes stock of Americans’ views of their personal finance, increased to 99.7 in July from 93.8 at the end of last month.

The gauge of expectations six months from now fell to 73.8 from 77.8.

Mortgage rates this week climbed to the highest level in two years. The average 30-year fixed rate was 4.51 percent in the week ended yesterday, according to data from Freddie Mac. In November, it fell to a record low of 3.51 percent.

Gasoline prices have also increased this week. The average cost of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. was $3.55 yesterday, up from $3.47 at the end of last week, according to figures from AAA, the nation’s largest motoring organization.

Job Growth
At the same time, job and income growth is helping drive consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Labor Department data last week showed employers added 195,000 workers for a second month in June. The figures also showed hourly earnings in the 12 months to June rose by the most since July 2011.

Retail sales rose 0.6 percent in May, the biggest increase in three months and propelled by a jump in motor vehicle purchases, Commerce Department figures showed last month.

Cars and light trucks sold at a 15.89 annualized rate in June, the strongest since November 2007, according to data from Ward’s Automotive Group.

General Motors Co. said June sales were up 6.5 percent from the same month last year, marking the Detroit-based company’s best sales month since September 2008.

“We’re in an economy that gets a little bit stronger each and every month,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales and service, speaking during a July 2 earnings call. “The fact that the jobs data is finally trending positive, the stable fuel prices, consumer sentiment and confidence showing positive signs, we think that’s finally unlocking the American families coming in to our showrooms.”

Consumers surveyed for today’s confidence report expect an inflation rate of 3.3 percent over the next 12 months, up from the June forecast of 3 percent, today’s report showed. Over the next five years, Americans expect a 2.9 percent rate of inflation, matching the previous three months.


SOURCE:  Bloomberg

Benefits of Reshoring-Bringing Manufacturing Back to the USA

When manufacturing jobs move overseas we wondered if total landed costs are considered and if there is now an argument for bringing manufacturing back to the USA. This logistics practice is known commonly as “reshoring.” Our theme for the month of July is the United States or for all of you Bruce Springsteen fans – “Born in the USA.”  Although Mindspot Research is a Global research company, we are based in the United States in Orlando, Florida.

We conduct research for clients across multiple verticals (consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, fashion, restaurants, healthcare, etc…) and as a result of that broad base of clients we are able to gain perspectives on the economy, industries, and social and market trends.

One topic that is in the news often is outsourcing labor-intensive jobs and manufacturing particularly to countries in the Asia-Pacific region. With the recent news of buildings collapsing and workers tragically losing their lives or being injured or trapped due to lack of building safety standards, or any loss of life is a call for consideration. As a result Wal-Mart and some other large companies have implemented their own safety standards and continued outsourcing.

Recently a businessman from Florida was held captive for 6 days because Chinese employees feared losing their jobs and did not feel they were adequately compensated. These workers did something extreme to have their voice heard. The question to ask not only on a cost basis but on an ethical basis: Is it worth it? Perhaps, there is an ethical argument for bringing jobs back to the United States in addition to the cost argument about to be presented.

The risk analysis for manufacturing in the United States is far more straight forward than using an offshore source. At one extreme, having your company name associated with tragedy may lead to catastrophe & national infamy, but at a minimum uncertain raw materials, process stability, and quality standards will exact unknown (and unexpected) costs, not to mention sleepless nights. The expanse of US regulations from watchdog organizations, industry designed and self-promoted, and government based, provide for many layers of product protection stripped away from manufacturing that is taken offshore.

Mindspot Research has a long-term manufacturing client who has been in business for 25 years.  ASH Industries, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, offers a range of engineering services and manufacturing processes. ASH addresses client needs from rapid prototyping to final assembly & custom packaging. Among ASH’s customers that cover the gamut of US Industry, from defense to medical and electronics to industrial, there is considerable pressure to outsource manufacturing work to places like Mexico and China.

Over recent years, Hartie Spence CEO of ASH Industries tells us that “While competing with China on a piece part basis is not possible, more and more observant customers do appreciate the impact that a knowledgeable US based manufacturer can have on reducing total product cost, increasing reliability, and shortening the timeline between concept to completion.”

Mr. Spence acknowledges that the argument for getting products from China because “it is so much cheaper” may, in fact, be limited to a range of products for which unit cost consideration far exceeds quality, manufacturing consistency, and communication needs. However, if the total landed cost is calculated along with manufacturing difficulties and inconsistencies, then the argument for “offshore” does start to disintegrate.

Additionally, consider that the number of defects per million parts will vary by the type of manufacturing. For example, if soldering parts is involved that is typically what causes the majority of the defects. If no soldering is involved it will be something else (i.e. pick and pack). Using a Six Sigma process improvement methodology the acceptable defects per million (DPMO) is 3.4. It is widely commented on that other countries have a higher defect per million number than the United States. Recent examples include solar panels manufactured in China with defect rates ranging from 5%-22% according to the New York Times. Perhaps that doesn’t seem like a lot. However, if we apply this to something that we are all used to like medical prescriptions; consider that 99% quality (3.8 sigma) and 99.9997% quality (6 sigma) is the difference between 200,000 wrong drug prescriptions a year and 68 wrong drug prescriptions a year.

Here are 15 potential hard cost benefits associated with “reshoring,” which is bringing manufacturing back to the USA from another country:

• Shorter delivery times/Faster
• Lower transportation costs
• Fewer defects
• Shipments not held at customs
• Reduces exchange rate risks
• Political stability
• Economic stability
• Established worker safety compliance (building, working conditions, # of hours worked)
• Established materials safety compliance (contamination)
• Stamp it “Made in the USA
• Supports the U.S. economy by employing U.S. workers
• Reduces risk of being associated with negative events/PR
• U.S. plants are more established/higher number of years in business
• More world-class manufacturers in the United States
• Customer Service

At the end of the day, whether it’s the 4th of July or another day, it’s the total landed cost that matters to the bottom line.


Made in USA: Journey Behind the Label

New documentary follows one man’s journey to live off only products “Made in USA.”  
After a manufacturing plant closed down in his hometown of Ravenswood, W.Va., resulting in 650 people losing their jobs, Josh Miller began to wonder what was really made in America anymore.

He decided to set out on a 30-day road trip across the United States in search of answers for how to revive American manufacturing – all the while trying to survive on only goods and products stamped with “Made in USA.”

“I really thought that I could take this opportunity to give the Made in America movement and these folks a voice,” said Miller, who documented his trip in a film, “Made in the USA: The 30 Day Journey.”

Read the rest of the interview and watch the video clip here: Yahoo News


Made in the USA Films, LLC” presents a unique insight into the world of American made products. Josh Miller traveled the United States for 30 days living off of only USA made products. Can it be done? Josh and his film crew interviewed politicians, businessmen, historians, and economists to discover what has caused the rise and decline of USA made products. They also interviewed locals as they travel to find out if “Made in USA” really means anything anymore. 

Made in USA Documentary Shows Power Behind Patriotic Production

The slogan “Made in the U.S.A.” is far more than a patriotic platitude. It’s a rallying cry for the rejuvenation of the middle class.So argues filmmaker Josh Miller in Made in the U.S.A.: The 30-Day Journey, a new documentary now available via streaming as well as DVD.

Miller, a true Everyman, traveled across the country for 30 days to learn why buying and making goods locally matters. He met with passionate U.S.-based entrepreneurs and economists to absorb the cold realities facing the modern American worker.

It’s a global economy we live in, and even a wizened tailor who specializes in hand-crafted suits relies on materials produced overseas.

Read the rest of the article here —>  Breibart Big Hollywood


Follow Josh Miller and his team.  Please show your support by purchasing an American Made DVD.
Facebook:  Made in The USA: The 30 Day Journey
Youtube:  Josh Miller

Twitter: @USA30DAYS
Google:  Josh Miller

The Made in America Movement All American Made Father’s Day Giveaway

Picture

Hello Everyone!

We are giving away 13 awesome prizes.  $860 worth of American made products will go to ONE lucky dad this weekend.  Will it be yours?

All prizes have been generously donated by our Made in America Movement Members and Sponsors.  (MAM Members)

Rules for entry:

(1) Enter via Rafflecopter widget below.
It may seem overwhelming, but it’s really quite easy.

(2) Comment at the bottom of this BLOG

(3) SHARE blog link on your wall (via Facebook)
The more you share this link, the better your chances are to win.

Giveaway begins Friday, 06/14 at 7PM EST.  It will run for 48hrs ending Sunday, 06/16 at 7pm EST.  One winner will be chosen at random.  Winner’s name will be posted at 8pm EST. Email will be sent.  Winner will have 24hrs to get in touch with us, otherwise prize will go to runner up.

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

How to Enter via Rafflecopterwidget below: 

We want to keep our giveaways flexible and allow our readers to enter in whatever ways they are most comfortable. There are a LOT of entry options below, but don’t be overwhelmed. The FACEBOOK likes are required and so are the Newsletter subscriptions.  The Twitter follows are not… however, the more entry options you complete, the more chances you’ll have to win. 

This giveaway will close at 7pm EST on 06/16. The winner will be randomly selected, verified for correct entry participation, and notified by email.  Winner will have 24hrs to respond.  If winner does not respond, a runner up will be chosen at random.

Enter to win

All American 
Father’s Day Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway
THANK YOU FOR ENTERING OUR ALL AMERICAN MADE FATHER’S DAY GIVEAWAY.
GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!