Whether you visualize manufacturing as lines of workers assembling cars or pieces of candy rolling down a conveyor belt, the reality is, “The industry has changed dramatically and the mid-Hudson needs to grab hold of more of the new technology being manufactured and bring it home,” said Harold King, executive vice president of the Council of Industry.
The Council of Industry doesn”™t have to look far for partners in its quest to bring more business to the region. It shares its space with the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center in the Westage Business Plaza in Fishkill.
It also has an office at Mount St. Mary College”™s Desmond campus in Newburgh and in the 721 Media Center in Kingston.
The group has begun to collaborate under a single name, Iclean. “This will help us move toward growing the alternative energy and green-tech corridor from the Capital District and bring it down into the mid-Hudson and Westchester,” said King. “It has been concentrated around the IBM facility in Albany….these are the kind of manufacturing jobs we need to grow right here in order to keep the industry viable in New York.”
King attended the National Association of Manufacturers summit in Washington, D.C. on April 14-15, where the group of more than 300 national manufacturers and their representatives focused on three critical issues: job creation, taxes and labor policy. According to a report conducted by the Milken Institute, more than 11 million jobs can be created between 2010 and 2020 by changing key tax and economic policies and investments in infrastructure, King said.
One thorny subject for the manufacturing industry at the summit was the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, still being debated in Congress. The ability to create a union without benefit of a private ballot, forcing employers into collective bargaining, is considered to be one of the most direct threats to manufacturers”™ ability to compete, according to the group.
“Right now, our focus is on bringing jobs created in the Tech Valley corridor farther down the Hudson Valley pipeline,” King said. “We need to become a real placeholder. We have the infrastructure and the access to academia ”“ what we need are the companies and the jobs they will bring. We have the workforce ”“ for us, it is a regional endeavor. Whether the company relocates to Dutchess or Westchester is not key to us ”“ we want them here in the mid-Hudson.”
A $1.5 million grant from New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to aid alternative energy and related companies with subsidies will help the Council of Industry assist its members by building business plans, prototype development, sales and marketing. “We”™ll be doing a lot of outreach,” said King, “but it will be on an accelerated level.”
The Council of Industry will be celebrating its 100th anniversary at the Grandview on June 3 beginning at 6 p.m. “We”™re not honoring anyone in particular; we are honoring all our manufacturers here in the Hudson Valley,” said King. “We hope to see more joining us in the future, especially as new energy alternative companies come into the area.”
