Having just commemorated Memorial Day, I would like to share a thought shared with me from one of our UMA board members, Stan Lockhart. Thanks Stan for the perspective on why we have the national holiday, Memorial Day.
REMEMBERING OUR WAR HEROES
Ronald Reagan
“It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember.”
REMEMBERING OUR WAR HEROES
Ronald Reagan
“It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember.”
UMA MEMBER COMPANIES IN THE NEWS
YESCO EXPANDS THROUGH FRANCHISING
UB Daily
Since 1920 the people of YESCO have set the standard for quality, innovation and customer service in the electric sign and lighting industry. With a nearly 100-year history of sign and lighting service, YESCO is now franchising its service and repair system to qualified individuals throughout the country. An innovative company from the beginning, YESCO has experienced many milestones in its history.
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UB Daily
Since 1920 the people of YESCO have set the standard for quality, innovation and customer service in the electric sign and lighting industry. With a nearly 100-year history of sign and lighting service, YESCO is now franchising its service and repair system to qualified individuals throughout the country. An innovative company from the beginning, YESCO has experienced many milestones in its history.
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May 31, 2011
I hope that everyone had a terrific Memorial Day holiday.
A number of economic reports last week echoed similar findings from previous weeks. Most of the figures from April, for instance, show declines in manufacturing activity, with growth below the rapid paces in prior months. Surveys from the Kansas City and Richmond Federal Reserve Banks, for instance, reported declines in new orders and shipments among manufacturers. Supply chain disruptions account for much of this decline, particularly for durables. The Census Bureau reported that durable goods orders fell 3.6 percent in April, with the largest declines in transportation.
One other recurring theme in the data is that pricing pressures remain strong. Rising food and energy costs are squeezing consumers, and the result has been that consumer spending, when adjusted for inflation, has been virtually flat for the first four months of this year and the U.S. savings rate has declined. With gasoline prices starting to fall nationwide, however, the Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey rose in May, and consumers were more optimistic about future growth and less worried about inflation.
Manufacturers, too, remain positive overall about the next six months. The two regional Federal Reserve surveys highlight this optimism, albeit with slight declines from the month before. Unfilled orders remain high and are growing, and manufacturers continue to hire new workers, demonstrating the need for more labor with increased production. Greater demand for workers is also translating into higher compensation, with wages and salaries up 12 percent in 2010 and up nearly 8 percent at an annual rate so far this year.
This week, a number of statistics will be released which will highlight the overall health of the manufacturing sector for May. This includes an update to the ISM Purchasing Managers Index on Wednesday, factory orders and measures of productivity on Thursday, and new employment numbers on Friday. Hopefully, each will start to show the sector with continued growth -- a sign that the "cooling" in the month of April was just a breather in a larger expansion.
Chad Moutray
Chief Economist
National Association of Manufacturers
Gmob REVOLUTIONIZES EMAIL ADDRESSES
Daily Pulse
Local entrepreneur Joel Carson is about to revolutionize the email name game. The official launch date is June 1.
Imagine a program that allows people to standardize email addresses globally using their mobile phone numbers. That’s what Carson’s new program “gmob®” promises and the service is free.
Gmob® is not an email provider, but a service that works with your favorite email such as Gmail, MSN/Hotmail, Comcast and Yahoo to allow you to use sequential numbers in your address. Gmob® even works with company email systems. Nothing changes in the way an individual sends or receives email. Only the address is changed. Accepted file sizes are limited only by the email service provider. Gmob® works with any email platform.
“It can be very difficult to come up with a unique email address that’s simple, professional, easy to understand, and easy for people to remember,” Carson said. “Up until now, there has been no email service that allows you to use sequential numbers as an address. I really believe this will change the way we create and share email addresses.”
Electronic social and professional networking is increasingly popular. Carson said Gmob will make it simpler than ever for people to share contact information because, “If someone knows your mobile number they know your gmob® address,” he said. He expects the term, “ ‘Do you gmob®?’ ” to become common across the globe.
“A mobile phone number is something most, if not all of your contacts already have,” Carson said. More than 2.4 billion people have mobile numbers. “Typically people are already on the phone when sharing their email address. When telling someone your address you can simply say, ‘It’s my phone number at gmob®.”
Although a user may change email service providers, the gmob® address remains the same. The user simply notifies gmob® of the change. This is an easy way to switch without having to notify and re-notify contacts.
“Gmob® is the first to guarantee you will get an email address based on your mobile phone number,” Carson said.
To try Gmob®, text the word “gmob” (no quote marks) to 32323. The service will also be available on www.facebook.com/DoYouGmob and the website http://www.gmob.com/.
Today in Manufacturing
China's Supreme Court has ordered judges to issue harsher sentences, including the death penalty, to people convicted of food safety violations ... continue
SmartBrief on Leadership
The U.S. Postal Service is heading over a cliff, and management experts say a lack of strategic planning is largely to blame. Many executives at the struggling institution rose through the ranks as letter carriers and clerks, says government auditor Phillip Herr, and remain focused on day-to-day operations rather than on long-term strategic and financial planning. "We said, 'What's your 10-year plan?'" Herr says. "They didn't have one." Bloomberg Businessweek
SmartBrief on Leadership
Midlevel leaders have important roles in helping their organizations deliver better innovation, write Anna Pettersson and August Vlak. Top executives typically can't spend as much time meeting with researchers or wading through the details of ongoing research, so it's up to middle managers to ensure that R&D teams work at maximum efficiency, they write. Strategy+Business online
Rep. Stephen Sandstrom wants Utah to pass a law to punish businesses that hire illegal immigrants now that a similar law in Arizona was found to be Constitutional. He wants a special session in September to consider the measure [Tribune, KSL, Deseret News].
WILL INTEGRATING SCIENCE IN CTE BOOST TEST SCORES?
Marv Johnson - Utah State Office of Education Career and Technology Education Coordinator
SALT LAKE CITY - End-of-year testing is wrapping up now in the 15 Utah high schools from 13 districts participating in a semester-long research project to determine whether integrating science lessons into Career and Technology Education Health Science programs will boost student achievement.
The Utah State Office of Education was selected to collaborate with the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) and University of Louisville on this research project. Colorado and Michigan schools are also participating. Researchers chose Utah because of the quality and quantity of its existing Health Science programs, says Marv Johnson, CTE Specialist at USOE. He says the integrated curricula model has the potential to enhance these programs.
"With CTE in the health sciences, specifically, students have an opportunity to learn the skills that will lead to high-skill, high-wage careers and post-secondary programs. And this integrated curriculum model allows the technical skills to be taught and the science that's already taught as part of the CTE curriculum to be enhanced," Johnson says. "You can teach science without taking away from CTE technical instruction. And many students learn science or math better in a CTE program where they have some relevance to the specific career choice."
Thirty-eight teachers in total are participating in the project, most are from Utah. The project divided the teachers into two groups, an experimental and a control. In the experimental group, CTE teachers paired up with science teachers in December. They reviewed the CTE lesson plans together to find areas where science concepts could be taught. The resulting integrated curriculum was then taught in the spring semester. The control group teachers taught their classes as they always do. Students in both groups were given a pre-test at the beginning of the spring semester and a post-test at the end of the semester with a national standardized science test.
The results of the project will be announced this fall. If they are favorable, the Utah State Office of Education's CTE program will encourage this model to be adopted by districts across the state by providing professional development opportunities for teachers from interested districts.
This integrated curriculum model is not new to Utah. CTE classrooms across the state are wrapping up their first year of integrating math into CTE programs, a method supported by the findings of a previous research project. Literacy integration in CTE courses is another model the State Office may consider adopting in the future.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and Blogs – on computers and cell phones. Social media is everywhere, including your workplace. It has many positive uses, but what if an employee personally attacks a supervisor on a blog? What if the blog is anonymous? How about confidential information being divulged on Facebook? Can an employer take action when the employee uses social media during non-work hours? These technologies create unique risks for employers and we’ll discuss various ways to manage them in your workplace.
Please join Stoel Rives Labor and Employment Partner Matt Durham and SnappConner PR’s Managing Partner Cheryl Snapp Conner for a complimentary lunch seminar as they explore the benefits and risks of social media in the workplace.
Topics will include:
Introduction to social media
Employer and employee uses
Risks to employers
Policy considerations
Monitoring
Discipline
When: June 24, 2011 11:30 a.m. - Noon - Registration and lunch
Noon - 1:00 p.m. - Presentation
Where: Stoel Rives LLP201 S Main Street, Suite 2100Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Click here for directions.
Parking: Validations will be provided for One Utah Center parking garage.
Cost: Complimentary (lunch included).
Registration: Space is limited! Register online by Tuesday, June 21.For more information about this seminar, please contact Melanie Williamson at (801) 715-6662 or mwwilliamson@stoel.com.
MANUFACTURERS IN THE COURTS
Quentin Riegel – National Association of Manufacturers
Decided Cases
Employment Law
No preemption of state immigration verification requirements. On May 26, the Supreme Court, over 3 dissents, affirmed a lower court decision upholding the Legal Arizona Workers Act. Unfortunately, this means that employers in Arizona can be punished for not following the Act's procedures for verification of the citizenship of employees. The NAM filed an amicus brief highlighting the tremendous burden caused by state systems that impose a wide variety of inconsistent verification requirements or that mandate use of the voluntary federal E-Verify program, and argued that such systems are preempted by the uniform and comprehensive federal system. The Court disagreed, finding that the state law was a licensing statute, not one that imposes civil or criminal sanctions. Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting (S. Ct.).
Pending Cases
Environmental Regulation
NAM's challenge to EPA's boiler MACT and incineration rules. In May, the NAM and others asked the EPA for an immediate stay of its Maximum Achievable Control Technology (Boiler MACT) standard and the rule establishing stricter emissions limits on commercial and industrial solid waste incineration (CISWI) units. EPA agreed and announced that it was reconsidering the rules and delaying the effective dates. The rules have the potential to dramatically impact the U.S. economy and impose enormous costs on key industrial sectors. The NAM has long expressed concern that the rules will have a harmful impact on manufacturers of all sizes and could result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of high-wage U.S. manufacturing jobs. The NAM also filed formal petitions in federal court challenging the rules, to ensure that if the EPA fails to adequately reconsider its actions, an appeals court panel will have a chance to intercede. Legal arguments in the cases will be developed over the next several weeks. U.S. Sugar Corp. v. EPA (D.C. Cir.) (Boiler MACT) and American Forest & Paper Ass'n v. EPA (D.C. Cir.) (CISWI rules).
NAM files first brief against EPA greenhouse gas rules. On Tuesday, May 10, the NAM filed its first main brief challenging long-standing EPA rules that are now being used to regulate greenhouse gases. The rules, adopted in 1978, 1980 and 2002, are being used as a part of the agency's overall effort to regulate greenhouse gases, but the Clean Air Act was never intended to control or regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Because there was no indication when they were promulgated that the EPA would use them in this way, the NAM has new grounds to challenge them. This "grounds arising after" litigation is the first of four main cases being briefed over the next seven months. The brief focuses primarily on the timeliness of the lawsuits and on the fact that EPA's interpretation of the Clean Air Act is unreasonable and creates absurd results. American Chemistry Council v. EPA (D.C. Cir.).
Second brief involves controversial "endangerment" finding. On May 20, the NAM and 79 other parties filed an extensive opening brief challenging the legality of EPA's use of its "endangerment" finding to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. EPA determined that a combination of six gases endanger public health and welfare, and has used that finding to impose GHG regulations on stationary sources, including manufacturing facilities. This brief contains the principal legal arguments against EPA's finding, and is part of a series of suits the NAM has brought challenging the agency's authority and multiple regulations in this area. The Government's response is due in August, and oral arguments are expected to be scheduled for early 2012. NAM v. EPA (D.C. Cir.).
EPA regulation of Portland cement raises larger issues for manufacturers. The NAM and other associations filed an amicus brief on May 23 supporting a court challenge to EPA's rule establishing national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAPs) for the Portland cement manufacturing industry. The rule, issued last September, involves interpretations of EPA duties and discretion that are relevant to NESHAPs for other industries, such as chemical plants, pulp and paper mills, steel pickling operations and word furniture manufacturing. Of particular concern is EPA's pollutant-by-pollutant approach, which establishes emissions limits that cannot be met by any existing facility. We highlighted the special problems inherent in sudden, unexpected failures of process equipment or pollution control technology, which EPA no longer recognizes as special circumstances that should fall outside of emissions standards for normal operations. Further, EPA failed to recognize that the source of raw materials at different plants makes compliance with a uniform national standard difficult or impossible. Portland Cement Ass'n, Inc. v. EPA (D.C. Cir.).
Quick Manufacturing News
America's infrastructure investments -- levels of which have long trailed behind those of Asia and Europe -- will be further stifled this year by pressures to cut federal spending and reduce the deficit, compelling cities to be more creative and resourceful in securing partnerships to start or continue infrastructure projects, according to a new study from the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young. Click to continue
Today in Manufacturing
An international panel of experts says cell phones are possibly carcinogenic to humans after reviewing details from dozens of published studies ... continue
Today in Manufacturing
Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell to a six-month low, a sign that Americans are losing faith that the economy will keep improving ... continue
Today in Manufacturing
President has chosen businessman John Bryson to lead the Commerce Department, bringing another private sector player into the administration ... continue
Today in Manufacturing
The predictions of the global-warming camp are so fungible that tying them down is like trying to nail jelly to the wall ... continue
NEW USCIS I-9 CENTRAL WEBSITE
The Employers Council
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has a new website, I-9 Central (www.uscis.gov/I-9Central), dedicated to Form I-9. The website provides employers
and employees access to resources, tips and guidance to properly complete Form I-9 and to better understand the Form I-9 process. It includes sections about employer and employee rights and responsibilities, step-by-step instructions for completing the form, and information on acceptable documents for establishing identity and employment authorization. It also includes a discussion of common mistakes to avoid when completing the form, guidance on how to correct errors, answers to employers’ recent questions about the Form I-9 process, and a "What's New" section highlighting updates reflected in the newest Handbook for Employers: Instructions for
Completing Form I-9 [Form M-274 (Rev. 01/05/11) N] located at www.uscis.gov/files/form/m-274.pdf.
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