MOBILE, Alabama – Job creation and economic prosperity via a renewed focus on Alabama's manufacturing base will be the topic of "Keep it Made in America" at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park Wednesday night.
The town hall meeting, sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, will focus on domestic manufacturing’s relationship to strengthening Alabama’s economy while creating jobs. The free event is open to the public, includes dinner and begins at 7 p.m. in the park’s Aircraft Pavilion. Organizers anticipate the conversation will focus on “national security and the U.S.’s dangerous dependence on foreign-made supplies.”
Elected officials as well as business and labor leaders from the Mobile area have been invited to attend, and the conversation will be led by Scott Paul, the national alliance’s president; Dan Flippo, director of the United Steelworkers ninth district; and Alabama Sen. Marc Keahey, D-Grove Hill.
Specifically, the alliance contends nearly 48,000 Alabama manufacturing workers were displaced between 2001 and 2010 due to trade with China, with nearly 15 percent of those positions lost between 2008 and 2009, alone.
AL.com will provide complete coverage of the forum.