Manufacturing executives bite down, move forward

story by Michael Tilley

Later this year, members of the Fort Smith Area Manufacturing Executives Association will celebrate a 35th anniversary. Former MEA chairman and notable area business leaders like Don Flanders, Dick Udouj and Bud Jackson are expected to have a part in the festivities.

Chuck Cramer, an executive at Fort Smith-based Baldor Electric and part-time executive director of the MEA, is working to pull the event together. He became noticeably excited when asked about the planning.

“This is really neat, to bring together these guys,” Cramer said of the past MEA chairmen. “These were the hometown leaders.”

The MEA was founded in 1974 by area manufacturing leaders “to provide its members an opportunity for the exchange of ideas and information, to improve their local community and foster a favorable business climate for its member companies as well as prospective manufacturing companies considering the Fort Smith region as a plant location,” according to the MEA Web site.

MANUFACTURING DECLINE
And while the past heroes of the heyday of manufacturing in the Fort Smith area are being recognized, it is up to the new flock of leaders to ensure that the manufacturing community in the region remains vibrant, or, at the least, relevant.

The MEA once boasted more than 55 members who employed up to 30,000 in the region. Today, the organization has about 45 members who employ about 12,500.

Between 1990 and December 2008, manufacturing employment in the Fort Smith area peaked at a monthly average of 31,700 in 1999, and fell to 23,300 as of December 2008 — a 26.4% dip. The most recent year was especially tough on manufacturing, with employment in the sector falling from 25,600 in January 2008 to 23,300 by December.

The decline in manufacturing employment in Arkansas is down 28.2% from a high of 245,000 in 1995 to 175,900 in December 2008.

FORWARD FOCUS
Such declines are what they are, according to MEA President Michael Barr (pictured below, at right), who is vice president of operations at Harry G. Barr Co. in Fort Smith. He’s by no means discounting the struggle of manufacturers.

“There are a lot of things we can do to help our members now with the issues they are facing now. I don’t think a lot about (the regional decline in manufacturing employment),” Barr said in a recent interview with The City Wire.

Barr is joined in the effort to keep MEA vital by MEA Vice President Chris Hahn (pictured at left in photo), with T.J. Smith Box Co., and MEA Secretary/Treasurer Mark Rickard, with Temple Inland. It’s a relatively young group, with Baldor veteran Cramer providing the institutional memory.

“Everyone was excited to get us young guys involved, but you have to have that history,” Barr said of pulling Cramer in as the part-time executive director.

Part of the MEA history is that of a silent-but-effective organization. A search of newspaper and other media archives will uncover little of MEA involvement in public issues. The most high-profile effort of the MEA was to support creation of the Employers Health Coalition that gave area manufacturers a collective bargaining platform, so to speak, with area health-care providers. The EHC has been relatively effective in controlling health-care costs, but it’s power to bargain with a large number of employers is not always viewed favorably by area physicians and hospital networks.

LOW-KEY CULTURE
The quiet stance is not likely to change even with the younger stable of leadership.

“That (low-key) culture was right from the beginning,” Barr said. “We don’t want to be an outgoing, dynamic organization. … There are some issues that could be divisive. There is not always a clean ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ for our members on every issue.”

Take the “Card Check” issue for example. Federal legislation has been proposed that would make it easier for unions to be formed. A controversial part of the legislation, known as the Employer Free Choice Act, would remove the private ballot from the voting process for unionization.

The MEA has not taken a position on Card Check because some MEA members have a union workforce.

“But a subset of the MEA membership is lobbying against it,” Barr explained.

There are issues on which the MEA took a stand. The group is on record supporting the effort to investigate the funding and construction of a regional intermodal facility. The MEA is on record supporting the funding and construction of Interstate 49.

More recently, the MEA shed part of its low-profile demeanor to encourage the Fort Smith Board of Directors to sell water to municipalities east of Fort Smith. A few city board members, citing their concerns with future water supplies, held up a request to sell the water. The MEA argued publicly that water is a key component of regional economic growth and that the city of Fort Smith had established itself as the regional water provider when it expanded Lake Fort Smith. The MEA support helped move the vote, and the water sale was approved.

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
Lobbying for more membership is the primary lobbying goal of the MEA these days. It’s Cramer’s top task.

What he is selling is membership to an organization that is well-connected to state and local elected officials, school officials, university officials and other manufacturers.

More specifically:
The EHC “has provided tremendous benefit to all our members for years,” Cramer said.

Many of the worker training programs at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith were created through collaboration with the MEA. “The leadership courses they (UAFS) offer was part of (an MEA push) and has strengthened” the quality of the workforce, Barr said. The MEA also helped secure state funding for workforce training tuition.

Lobbying at the state and federal level is an activity the MEA hopes to boost. Recent efforts to reduce the sales tax on utility costs has been pushed by the MEA. “That’s an example of an issue we can galvanize our members around,” Barr said.

The networking opportunities are priceless, Cramer said. “We can be a key link to education, to Dr. Beran at UAFS. We can be a key link for our members to the city. We can be a key link to the chamber,” he explained.

Membership also means being part of a group that supports economic development, Cramer said. He said MEA members often meet with executives from companies considering locating an operation in Fort Smith or expanding an existing operation. “As the MEA, we have an obligation to help do that, to help bring in new jobs,” Cramer said.

‘COMMUNITY OF LEADERS’
Preserving existing manufacturing jobs remains top of mind for most MEA members, Hahn admitted. He said most MEA members he visits with are “just trying to stay positive. They are trying to get through this (recession).”

Cramer (pictured at right) said the “big concern” of smaller MEA members is the future of Whirlpool. “Many of them are tied to that plant,” he explained.

But as serious as conditions are for manufacturers, Cramer retains a good measure of enthusiasm for the past, present and future of the MEA. It seemed in the interview he could barely contain plans for the MEAs 35th anniversary. And despite what could be the biggest post-World War II dip for U.S. manufacturers, Cramer is confident the MEA will be around for at least another 35 years.

“We feel that we’re another important spoke to the community wheel. We do stay out of the limelight, but we are used, we do step up when (the MEA) is needed,” Cramer said. “It’s still a community of leaders.”