Effort Needs Uniting (Jeff Hankins Commentary)

With all the talk during the past couple of years about the perfect site for an automotive plant in Arkansas, I finally had to see it for myself.

Sure enough, there’s a beautiful 2,000-acre piece of land in Marion that’s ripe for supersite development. It’s right across the street from the 160-acre site where Hino Manufacturing U.S.A. is building a 400,000-SF, $160 million auto parts manufacturing facility.

Leaders in West Memphis and Marion know they have an ideal site with a centralized location, attractive infrastructure elements and a competitive financial incentives package available from the state. At the same time, they express some concern about the state’s ability to coordinate and fund efforts for work force training in the region, and they are clearly frustrated.

During a recent gathering in Michigan attended by northeast Arkansas delegates and representatives of Hino, Gov. Jennifer Granholm made clear that she would fight hard to land the next plant Toyota builds in the United States. She said Michigan had a better and more qualified work force than Arkansas could produce.

Glen Fenter, president of Mid-South Community College in West Memphis, describes a situation where if we don’t meet the needs of Hino, we’ll face an uphill battle landing Toyota. Alternatively, if we impress Hino, then that would assist recruitment efforts.

Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association in Canada, has taken shots at Southern states and their work forces. He claims Nissan and Honda have had trouble reaching full production at plants in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained and illiterate work force.

A study conducted for the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce, which is involved in promoting the Marion site, showed the region’s labor force lacks the skills, education and motivation necessary for recruiting large companies. It’s clearly issue No. 1.

So far, Arkansas has had a few fumbles with Hino. Three or four state agencies have approached the company offering similar services, and that’s caused bureaucratic confusion that local leaders have had to take on delicately. One might even say there is an uncomfortable disconnect between local and state efforts that needs intervention and uniting by Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Mid-South and three other community colleges in the region — East Arkansas Community College in Forrest City, Arkansas Northeast College in Blytheville and Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas in Helena — have formed the Arkansas Delta Training & Education Consortium. It’s had some success as a group in securing federal funds for work force training in the Delta but has had minimal state support.

With construction of a Technology Training Center nearing completion at the West Memphis campus, Fenter and others will be part of the state delegation to Japan that will tour a Hino manufacturing plant and training school. Information will be gathered to develop curriculum for the training center.

These two-year colleges are best positioned to take the lead in training for the growing automotive jobs industry. The state needs to redirect and commit its resources accordingly so we can properly accommodate Hino’s needs while proving that Arkansas is also a viable option for the likes of Toyota.

We have to prioritize and invest in effective training and education to have any hope of lifting the Delta’s economy and attracting the jobs.

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I have been watching television coverage of Hurricane Katrina’s impact on the Gulf Coast, and it’s downright frightening to see what’s happened to lives, homes and businesses.

I can’t imagine being a hospital, emergency services, police or nursing home worker who is trying to keep working yet has his or her own personal situation to deal with.

I can’t imagine trying to figure out how to prioritize the rebuilding of the devastated cities. Basic utilities of water, sewer and electricity have to be re-established before anything else can happen, and that could take months.

I can’t imagine the economic impact this will have on those families, businesses, cities and states.

This hurricane hit close to home for Arkansans because many of us visit Gulf Coast cities like New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., and have friends there.

(Jeff Hankins is president and publisher of Arkansas Business Publishing Group. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].)