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June, 2010
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Powerhouse
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State of manufacturing report 2010
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By: Rick Berg
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In 2009, Wisconsin ascended to the absolute pinnacle of the manufacturing world – surpassing Indiana in one key economic indicator. With an estimated 15.6 percent of Wisconsin’s workforce engaged in manufacturing in May 2009, the state just edged out Indiana, which had 15.4 percent of its workforce in manufacturing.
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March, 2010
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Diamonds in the rough
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By: Nikki Kallio
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When Brandon Treadway was offered a two-week job as a pressure washer at Bayland Buildings in 2005, he wasn’t too happy about the idea – the pay was bleak, for one thing, and it wasn’t the farming work he was hoping for. Not that he had much of a choice.
At the time, Treadway was an inmate completing a sentence for aggravated battery at Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center in Oneida, a minimum security prison that operates a work-release program. Treadway accepted the job at Bayland and decided to make the best of it, hoping to extend the job beyond its original two-week stint. His hard work paid off.
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December, 2009
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ReTooling
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Tech colleges help workers prepare for next boom
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By: Sean Johnson
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Heavy metal dominates the midnight hour at Fox Valley Technical College’s Oshkosh campus. It’s not head bangers rocking out to the latest Metallica release. What you will find in the Spanbauer Center’s labs after hours these days are student welders, many of whom had different career paths a year ago. That was before the recession stripped nearly 50,000 manufacturing jobs from Wisconsin, one of the nation’s leading manufacturing states. Welder jobs, however, are still in demand.
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September, 2009
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High Tech High
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Education and industry team up to train the workforce of the future
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By: Sean Johnson
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The three R’s will soon have a new look at Plymouth High School. With the modern workforce demanding more than just a mastery of the basic subjects, a partnership between the educators, manufacturers, the local technical college and the city itself will result in the installation later this year of a high-speed manufacturing training center at the school.
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June, 2009
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Prevailing Winds
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After a relatively brief lull, the wind power industry looks ready to reenergize
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By: Rick Berg
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Wausaukee Composites President Dave Lisle must feel like he has a warm wind at his back these days, which is a long way away from what it felt like in January when he had to lay off 61 workers at his Cuba City plant after the wind power industry suddenly went slack. The Cuba City plant, which manufactures fiberglass housings and other components for wind turbines, shut down after the company’s primary customer cancelled its orders. After a flurry of activity in 2007 and most of 2008, the wind industry ground to a halt at the end of 2008 as wind farm developers stopped construction, in part because of a lack of capital and also because Congress allowed the production tax credit to expire.
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