The Rhode Island Manufacturers Association met last week with U.S. Sen. Jack Reed for a round-table discussion focused on manufacturing from a national perspective.
The meeting, hosted by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Portsmouth, served as a platform for local business owners to express their concerns about the future of manufacturing in the state and for them to hear Reed’s views on the subject.
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“The bottom line is that manufacturing matters, it matters certainly for local companies, but it also matters tremendously to our country,” Reed said during the roundtable on June 13.
Participants included representatives from various local companies including Andon Electronics Corp., Electric Boat General Dynamics and North Safety Products as well as Raytheon representatives.
According to Reed, Rhode Island manufacturers are now facing many issues, including job loss, increasing health care costs, energy costs, lack of funds to support research and development initiatives, and a diminishing budget to provide employee training in an ever-changing high-tech industry.
On an international level, Reed said U.S. manufacturing companies are facing a problem with protecting intellectual property rights for products licensed for production overseas.
Reed also said that more of an emphasis needs to be placed on employee training and education programs.
RIMA Chairman Al Lubrano, who is also president of Lincoln-based Technical Materials Inc., encouraged those present at the meeting to continue their support for the association, something he said is vital for the future of manufacturing in the state.
“People are still asking the question, ‘Why should we join this organization, what is it trying to do?’ And really RIMA is here to promote the growth and resurgence of manufacturing here in the sate,” he said, noting that the focus has to remain on the local front.
He said that in the last seven years RIMA, which he said was created as part of a grassroots effort by local manufacturers, has grown to include about 300 companies that employ more than 40,000 people in the state.
RIMA will hold its 2005 Annual Meeting on Thursday, June 30, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Crossings in Warwick. For more information, contact Executive Director John J. Grady at 751-0160 or visit the association’s Web site at www.rimanufacturers.com.
