Free Republic

Kevin Plank, the founder and CEO of Under Armour, has announced that he is stepping down from the White House American Manufacturing Council. Plank had initially sent out a statement on Charlottesville earlier today: Under Armour‏Verified account @UnderArmour We are saddened by #Charlottesville. There is no place for racism or discrimination in this world. We choose love & unity. - CEO Kevin Plank 7:34 AM - 14 Aug 2017 Following the departure of Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier from the very same council (which led to President Trump criticizing him on Twitter), there were questions about who would drop out next.

Middletown, Iowa — Starting next year, the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant will begin producing new high velocity training rounds. U.S. Army Contracting Command in Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, awarded a $63.9 million contract for multi-year production of the M918E1 40mm high velocity training rounds. The contract was awarded to American Ordinance, which produces ammunition through the IAAP. American Ordinance is a subsidiary of Day & Zimmerman, which provides construction, engineering, staffing and defense for corporations and governments around the world. American Ordinance faced competition from several domestic and international companies that were also engineering the round. The round, known as...

Merck & Co Inc Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier resigned from U.S. President Donald Trump's American Manufacturing Council on Monday, saying he was taking a stand against intolerance and extremism.

The structure of North America's manufacturing networks will be on the line when the first round of negotiations to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement begins here this week. The central showdown is expected to revolve around the amount of regional content products must contain to qualify for duty-free status, the so-called rules of origin. How that contest plays out will have profound implications for the auto industry. Administration officials have pointed to stricter rules of origin as one way to address reducing the $60 billion bilateral trade deficit with Mexico and shifting more production to U.S. factories. In...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.wltx.com/news/local/trane-expands-create-700-new-jobs-in-richland-county/463343580

On Wednesday afternoon, a Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner took off from Seattle on a test flight. Flight tracking apps show the Dreamliner followed a flight path over the United States that draws an outline of the Dreamliner. It set the internet abuzz, likely one of the goals. But the Dreamliner was actually conducting a flight test of its new Rolls Royce engine "to prove to regulators that the airplane can safely operate on one engine for an extended period of time," according to Flightradar24, a flight-tracking app.

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and rival Mazda Motor Corp are expected to announce plans on Friday to build a $1.6 billion U.S assembly plant as part of a new joint venture, a person briefed on the matter said. The plant will be capable of producing 300,000 vehicles a year, with production divided between the two automakers, and employ about 4,000 people when it opens in 2021, the person said on Thursday. A new auto plant would be a major boost to U.S. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on promises to boost manufacturing and expand employment for American...

ANALYSIS/OPINION: As a 21-year autoworker in Michigan, and a forced dues-paying member of the United Auto Workers for 19 of those years, I have watched union officials waste millions of dollars attempting to organize manufacturing facilities in the South. It has done so as workers in those factories have clearly rejected their efforts, time and again. *** This time, the target is the 6,400-plus workers at Nissan’s facility in Canton, Mississippi, who will have a secret-ballot election August 3-4. Those workers should proceed with caution and pay heed to the long-term consequences of their decision. *** Organizers will make many...

Revitalizing American manufacturing has been a hot topic for some time, gaining prominence as a talking point in last year’s election. Donald Trump’s victory led many to speculate about the future of manufacturing in the U.S., particularly whether it’s possible to bring manufacturing back to America. The latest piece of advice on this topic comes from a rather surprising source: Walmart. The retail giant recently convened a meeting of representatives from governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to present a Policy Roadmap to Renew U.S. Manufacturing. “As we’ve worked over the last four years alongside our suppliers toward our goal...

HUBBARD, Ohio – An Ohio factory owner said Saturday that though she has blue-collar jobs available at her company, she struggles to fill positions because so many candidates fail drug tests. Regina Mitchell, a co-owner of Warren Fabricating & Machining in Hubbard, Ohio, told The New York Times this week that four out of 10 applicants otherwise qualified to be welders, machinists and crane operators will fail a routine drug test. In an interview Saturday with CNN’s Michael Smerconish, Mitchell said that her requirements for prospective workers were simple. “I need employees who are engaged in their work while here,...

Desktop Metal – remember the name. This Massachussetts company is preparing to turn manufacturing on its head, with a 3D metal printing system that's so much faster, safer and cheaper than existing systems that it's going to compete with traditional mass manufacturing processes. We've been hearing for years now about 3D printing and how it's going to revolutionize manufacturing. As yet, though, it's still on the periphery. Plenty of design studios and even home users run desktop printers, but the only affordable printing materials are cheap ABS plastics. And at the other end of the market, while organizations like NASA...

Walmart Inc. (WMT) met with government and business leaders in Washington on Wednesday to unveil a plan to spur growth in domestic manufacturing efforts that company executives say will create an estimated 1.5 million new jobs in the United States. The meeting included a discussion with key individuals on both sides of the aisle about the biggest challenges the U.S. manufacturing sector currently faces. Using an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group and Walmart sourcing data, the company crafted a 10-point plan to “recapture” an estimated $300 billion in imported consumer goods, stoking job growth in the process. “As we’ve...

President Trump says he’s finally gotten somewhere in his years-long crusade to get Apple to build more products in the US. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal today, Trump said that Apple CEO Tim Cook called him and committed to build “three big plants, beautiful plants” in the United States. For now, there’s no detail beyond that. Apple declined to comment to the Journal and hasn’t responded to our own request for comment. If Trump’s statement is correct, that’d be a big investment on Apple’s behalf and a significant change of pace. Right now, Apple only has Mac...

LANSING — Taiwanese electronics maker Foxconn’s plan to build a display panel factory in the U.S. has sparked a flurry of lobbying by states vying to land what some economic development officials say is a once-in-a-generation prize. It’s not just jobs that are up for grabs — possibly 5,000 alone at the plant and potentially thousands more at other unspecified U.S. operations the company intends to launch. Luring Foxconn to build the country’s first liquid-crystal display factory would signal that the Midwest, which has hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs in recent decades, can diversify into again producing high-tech consumer gadgets often assembled...

General Motors has put six of its cars under review, including its once breakthrough Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, and is evaluating whether to cancel them in the coming years, according to a report from Reuters. The news comes as sales of cars continue to plummet in the U.S. and as consumers increasingly turn to SUVs and pickups. Besides the Chevrolet Volt hybrid, other vehicles believed to be under consideration for elimination iinclude the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala and Chevrolet Sonic, according to Reuters. GM spokesman Jim Cain declined to comment on the report. UAW President Dennis...

Some people say capitalism and alligators have much in common — both eat their young. While the rich get richer (and will get richer still if the #FakePresident has his way), ordinary schlubs who are working one, two, or sometimes three jobs to make ends meet are finding they can no longer afford to buy average new cars. That’s according to a new study by Bankrate.com. It finds that people living in 24 of the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the US cannot afford the average price of new cars, which was $33,000 in May according to Kelly Blue Book....

Shares of Harley-Davidson (HOG) dropped 10% in the morning after the company reported second-quarter earnings and were down nearly 6% at the end of the day. Almost everything was bad. Retail sales by its dealers in the US fell 9.3% in Q2, compared to a year ago, to 49,668 motorcycles. They were “down more than we anticipated,” the company said. And with “soft sales across most markets,” sales by its dealers globally fell 6.7%. “Industry new motorcycle sales deterioration continued,” the company said in its presentation, lamenting “weak industry sales on soft used bike prices.” In addition to the industry...

FORT WORTH — Lockheed Martin will be interviewing at least 2,000 people for jobs next week — with some people being offered employment “on the spot” — as part of the buildup of F-35 production at its Fort Worth plant. Lockheed already has cleared about 1,900 applicants who pre-registered through social media for interviews, but anyone who thinks they may be qualified for one of the jobs, especially in manufacturing, can come to the Sheraton Fort Worth Downtown Hotel on Tuesday. The event opens at 7 a.m. “We’re really ramping up the activity to do this hiring. This is new...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said a recent order for 100 new aircraft placed by an Indian airline will create thousands of American jobs, referring to SpiceJet’s decision to buy planes from Boeing. SpiceJet had announced an order worth $22 billion with the US aircraft maker in January. The order is expected to create 1.32 lakh high-skilled jobs in America. “I was pleased to learn about an Indian airlines’ recent order of 100 new American planes, one of the largest orders of its kind, which will support thousands and thousands of American jobs,” Mr. Trump said alongside Prime Minister...

A promise made before Christmas is fizzling before the Fourth of July. In December, then-President-elect Trump told hundreds of workers at the Carrier manufacturing plant that he had worked out a deal to save their jobs. But it's not working out that way. A steady downpour today did little to wash away the fact that the jobs of 600 union employees are going south. "They're going to Monterrey, Mexico," said Robert James, president of the local union. Reynolds said he felt betrayed, since Mr. Trump told workers during his December visit to the plant that 1,100 jobs would be saved....