Posts for April 29, 2011

UMA MEMBER COMPANIES IN THE NEWS:

KENNECOTT UTAH COPPER RELEASES 2010 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT REPORT
Daily Pulse

Kennecott Utah Copper is idling less and doing more to protect its employees, the community and the environment as detailed in Kennecott Utah Copper's 2010 Sustainable Development Report.
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WORKERS COMPENSATION FUND OPEN HOUSE AT CENTRAL UTAH OFFICE IN OREM
Daily Pulse

Workers Compensation Fund will be opening its doors to guests as part of their new central Utah office open house event to be held on Monday, May 2. The new Orem office is located at 580 South State Street.
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POLICY EXPERT CHIP YOST JOINS THE NAM AS VICE PRESIDENT FOR ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

National Association of Manufacturers
Chip Yost, founder of the Homeport Group and former chief of staff to Senator Robert F. Bennett (R-UT), has joined the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) as vice president for energy and natural resources policy.

“Chip’s expertise in the energy sector is valuable to manufacturers and the NAM. In addition to his public policy experience, Chip also delivers results for his clients in the private sector,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons. “Energy policy and production are vitally important as manufacturers use one-third of the nation’s energy supply. It is critical that policies are in place to support access to affordable, reliable and secure energy sources. I am confident Chip will play an integral role in implementing the NAM’s energy policy agenda,” said Timmons.

As the founder and managing partner of the Homeport Group, Mr. Yost developed strong ties on both sides of the aisle in Congress, working on high profile issues such as tax and the environment. Additionally, he focused on several other areas in the private sector, including health care, pharmaceuticals, media relations and crisis communications.

Mr. Yost has a diverse background in public service. He served in Senator Bennett’s office for 13 years, and prior to joining Senator Bennett’s staff, he worked at the Department of the Treasury as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of economic policy. Mr. Yost also gained valuable insight serving in the House of Representatives as the primary staff liaison for several members of Congress to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs as well as the Energy and Commerce Committee. Mr. Yost holds an M.P.A. in public policy from George Mason University and a B.A. in organizational communications from Brigham Young University.

‘THE PRECEDENT THAT THE NLRB IS ATTEMPTING TO ESTABLISH IS FUNDAMENTALLY UNSOUND, TROUBLESOME, AND CANNOT BE IGNORED’

U.S. Chamber Expresses Grave Concern over NLRB’s Complaint against Boeing
WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President for Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits, Randy Johnson, issued the following statement expressing grave concern over a recent complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against The Boeing Company based on a decision to build a new airplane manufacturing plant in Charleston, South Carolina. Boeing’s plant is nearing completion and will create thousands of new American jobs. Existing construction alone has already created more than 1,000 jobs in South Carolina. The NLRB has alleged that Boeing violated the National Labor Relations Act in discriminating against the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers by not instituting this new manufacturing in Puget Sound, Washington, and has demanded that the work that is, and will be done in Charleston, be ended.“We would rarely comment on the merits of a case still in its earliest stages. However, the precedent that the NLRB is attempting to establish here is so fundamentally unsound and troublesome that it cannot be ignored. The company here made a decision to begin new operations and a new production line for a wide variety of legitimate business-related reasons allowing it to meet the demands of its customers and therefore, to remain competitive. Boeing and its employees across the country, whether in Charleston or Puget Sound, will benefit. The company’s actions were well within the bounds of the National Labor Relations Act, and the Board appears to be simply attempting to create new rules which would put unions on a pedestal above all other entities in the United States to insulate them from the economic pressures which characterize our marketplace. The Act never contemplated this type of surreal special status and this case appears to be uniquely driven by an agenda directed at promoting the union agenda at all costs. It is a short sighted philosophy which, if allowed to prevail, will ultimately lead to the demise of many of our companies and the jobs they produce.”

CONSUMER SPENDING, INCOMES RISE IN MARCH

Today in Manufacturing
Americans saw their incomes rise in March and this spurred higher spending, but much of the extra money went to pay for more costly gasoline ... continue

CHINA TURNS TO CURRENCY TO EASE INFLATION

Today in Manufacturing
Surging inflation is prompting China's leaders to turn to a tool they long resisted -- speeding up the rise of the country's tightly controlled currency ... continue

MANUACTURERS IN THE COURTS:

Quentin Riegel – NAM

Pending Cases
Environmental
Ozone challenge on hold. Despite efforts by a litigation group that includes the NAM to resolve our legal challenge of EPA's 2008 ozone regulation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled this month that the case will continue to be held in abeyance while EPA is reconsidering the regulation. The NAM filed comments last year on the new proposal, and EPA plans to act by July 29. Expect further litigation at that point on the old limit, the new limit, or both. Mississippi v. EPA (D.C. Cir.).

Product Liability
NAM joins in expert testimony suit. Questionable science in the courtroom makes defending product liability suits more difficult for manufacturers. A case now on appeal to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania involves testimony claiming that any exposure to asbestos on the job, no matter how small, is a "substantial factor" in causing mesothelioma. The NAM and other groups filed an amicus brief urging the court to reject testimony based on this "any exposure" theory, which contrasts sharply with normal causation testimony. The trial court called the theory junk science, as have many other courts, but an intermediate appellate court reversed because the judge did not constrain his ruling strictly to the arguments made by the defendants. Betz v. Pneumo Abex LLC (Pa.).

Speculative damages should not support liability. New York City won a $100 million judgment by suing various companies for alleged low-level ground-water contamination from MTBE, a gasoline additive mandated by federal law and for which there was no safer, feasible alternative. On appeal, the NAM filed an amicus brief warning that finding damage when MTBE levels will never exceed safe drinking water standards could potentially transform every public drinking water supply into a ready-made multi-million dollar lawsuit. Virtually any manufacturing emissions might lead to liability. We also argued against awarding current damages based on speculative claims that the city could suffer injury in the future. ExxonMobil Corp. v. New York (2d Cir.).