United Steelworkers President Tom Conway on “Keeping America Free”

It’s not enough to assemble finished products in the United States. We also need to make sure we have the supply chain to make those products, too.

There’s been a growing consensus in policy circles over the past year that the United States must reshore manufacturing of critical products. Part of this shift in consensus, of course, is because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States faced shortages for months and months of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essential supplies, making clear just how important it is for the United States to be able to ramp up production of critical supplies when we need them.

Now the United States is coping with global shortages of semiconductor chips, which have already led to temporary shutdowns of auto factories, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs and our post-pandemic economic recovery.

The Biden administration has responded to these crises through executive action, including an order designed to examine and strengthen critical supply chains that was signed by the president last week. It’s a good start; but it’s just a start. Good policy must follow.

United Steelworkers President Tom Conway recently offered his thoughts on how the United States finds itself in this current position, and why taking steps to strengthen domestic manufacturing and supply chains is so important to our national and economic security.

Conway makes his case via a real world example:

Sam Phillips and Trey Maestas fought tirelessly to save TIMET’s titanium sponge plant, both to protect the jobs of about 420 co-workers and safeguard America’s future.

The decades-old facility in Henderson, Nev., was the nation’s last remaining producer of the coral-like material essential for manufacturing warplanes, munitions, satellites, civilian jetliners, ships and even joints for artificial hips.

The plant’s closing last year—despite the best efforts of Phillips and Maestas of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 4856—left the nation completely dependent on foreign imports of titanium sponge and further decimated manufacturing supply chains crucial to the nation’s security.

America can only be truly free if it rebuilds these and other vital lifelines.

As Conway writes, much of the attention on reshoring has focused on making sure we can assemble critical supplies like face masks. And while that is important, it is only a piece of the puzzle. If we don’t have the supply chains to make these items, we will “leave the job half done.”

Conway continues:

The country’s security also depends on patching hollowed-out supply chains and building back the capacity to produce all of the raw materials, parts and components, like titanium sponge, that go into those end products.

That means ensuring America not only makes sufficient numbers of face masks and surgical gowns but continues to produce the homopolymers that go into them.  

It means manufacturing and stockpiling hand sanitizer, as well as the springs that operate the hand pumps.

America needs to manufacture air-conditioners to cool homes and businesses and earth-moving equipment, wheat combines and elevators to power a diverse economy. But it’s just as important to produce on U.S. soil the bearings and other parts that keep these machines running.

Conway’s entire blog is worth a read. Find it here.