Outsourcing Splits NAM Members; Small Manufacturers Seek To Fight Migration of Jobs As Larger Firms Join Trend
Tension is mounting within the National Association of Manufacturers, with many smaller members urging the big lobbying group to do more to fight the migration of jobs overseas even as many of its larger members embrace the trend.</br></br>Such friction reflects a broader conflict in the U.S. economy as a whole. Smaller companies often feel squeezed by rising foreign competition and by the bigger manufacturers that the smaller companies supply, pushing them to cut costs. Many bigger companies outsource work to China or other low-cost nations to achieve those savings.</br></br>"This is probably the most difficult case of diverging interests that NAM has ever had to face," says Gerry Letendre, a member of NAM's board and president of Diamond Casting & Machine Co. a small Hollis, N.H., maker of aluminum parts for the electronics industry.</br></br>Some smaller members have grown disenchanted and even are quitting the lobbying group.</br></br>NAM, with 14,000 members, is a major voice for U.S. industrial interests and has been politically vocal on issues ranging from opposition to ergonomic workplace rules to lowering health-care costs. The group spends about $4.4 million a year on lobbying and has 32 registered lobbyists. Small and medium businesses pay about 30% of NAM's $21 million in annual dues, the bulk of the group's $22 million budget. Those companies account for two-thirds of its members.