Our industrial past and future

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On the same day last week, South Carolina learned that 540 Upstate textile workers will soon lose their jobs and it learned a $560 million aircraft plant was going to be built in Charleston that will create 645 high-wage jobs. There is an obvious relationship between these two news items that underscores the transition underway in this state's manufacturing sector.

South Carolina's once mighty textile base continues to deteriorate, mainly due to foreign competition. Consequently, this state's manufacturing future lies in the sort of value-added manufacturing represented in the joint venture between Vought Aircraft Industries and Italy's Alenia Aeronautica.

The companies will assemble the rear fuselage for Boeing's 7E7 Dreamliner aircraft. Gov. Mark Sanford and state business leaders hope the plant becomes the genesis of an aviation cluster in the Lowcountry, where more aeronautical businesses is spawned from this development. If that synergy is achieved, then there could be hundreds of additional high-tech, high-wage jobs created. The Upstate has seen this multiplier effect through the suppliers that have grown up around BMW and Michelin, this state's automotive cluster.

The Vought jobs will pay an average of salary of $50,000. There is fierce competition among states for industry of this sort. So South Carolina's primary focus must continue to be making this state appealing to high-tech manufacturers. We do that by having the tools needed for manufacturers to effectively compete — an educated workforce, a sound transportation system, low taxes, expertise in the sciences.

Meanwhile, Springs Industries says competition, especially from China, is forcing the company to close two of its Upstate facilities. About 400 Spartanburg workers will lose their jobs and about 140 Anderson workers will be laid off, as both facilities will close come February. The story is painfully familiar. Between June 2001 and June 2004, South Carolina has lost more than 14,000 textile jobs.

Even so, the beleaguered industry has the ability to create a viable future for itself. It will depend largely on how well the textile industry continues to evolve in a global economy where it will remain at a disadvantage because of cheap foreign labor. For textiles to compete, the industry must rely on its other strengths. And our nation must aggressively enforce trade law.

Our state and nation both have an obligation to make sure those displaced textile workers are trained to fill the jobs of tomorrow. And we must do more to match willing workers with new jobs. The Bush administration, for example, has flirted with the idea of paying lump-sum unemployment benefits to workers to pay for relocation and education.

South Carolina remains a textile state, and the loss of jobs still hurts. But this state is increasingly defined by value-added assembly, as demonstrated with the Vought announcement. That bodes well for our future.