Question for you, Jor-El – did you backtime to hit the “beep-boop” tone at exactly :38:00, or did you time it to hit the 2 or 3 seconds of dead air between the tones and the start of the news? I always timed it to hit the tones, ‘cuz it was so cool to hear them on the air! (Also, do you remember the name of the main newscaster? I can’t. I can hear his voice, but can’t remember his name. “Bill” something, maybe???)

But I hope he meets with Jim Berlin, and the North Carolina deodorant folks together, to make jobs in Erie, and profit for deodorant folks, Logistics Plus, and Plastek,…with a ripple effect as Erie employed people spend their wages here. Go for it guys!

Plastek is sending (likely) 200 Erie jobs to North Carolina. Owner Prishak has always been a straight shooter, and in the article all but claims, “I can feel your pain, Erie”….as he increases that very pain.

The issue is not wages, so Crank/Jim can sit this one out. The issue is Logistics. Plastek’s customers (deodorant folks who put smell stuff, in Plastek containers) want to cut transportation costs.
That is a legitimate expense. A factory opened for sale down there, so it mitigates the cost of moving.
(Prishak worried that if he moved, built a factory, then later lost the deodorant accounts, he would be left hanging in NC). The empty factory down there, mitigates the cost of building new, and makes the move likely, to please clients who want to fill Plastek containers with stick deodorant.

But Blogger Jim Berlin is a Logistics Plus guy and seems to know how to move cargo. Why don’t these two guys get together and do the Logistics and lower transportation costs, by going with Berlin, while maintaining Erie jobs?

Jake Rouch put his 2 cents in as our Economic Development guy:
“If their (reasons) are something you can affect, then you work on that,” he said. “But if they need to be within a 50-mile radius of a couple key customers, there is probably nothing you can do about that.”

Rouch has a simplistic view of Erie’s future. He wraps it up with saying he will speak with Prishak to stay put.
Prishak has already explained his dilemma, Mr. Rouch.

I have little doubt that the demand for deodorant is far greater in the sweat shops,….er, the sweltering South, as opposed to our wonderful climate.

But we stink up here too and perhaps it is time for Mr. Rouch to avoid saying farewell, and take a scoot with Prishak to his North Carolina clients. They could explain the valid and profitable reasons to relocate from NC to Erie for a portion of their deodorant business, and bring 200 jobs THIS way.

We, too, have empty factories available, and if the deodorant was packed into Prishak containers in Erie, Berlin could ship the stuff anywhere and lower costs of transportation…the reason behind the move.

But Rouch doesn’t think that way. He simply sees his job as saying so long as jobs head to Mexico and Carolina.

Historically, much of Erie’s plastic business was automotive parts for Detroit. Scoot the stuff across Lake Erie and bring some taggonite back on the boat, for steel making in Pittsburgh. Win-Win. That is over, although I am a contrarian and see manufacturing growing in Erie’s future. (Reasons too many for this spot).

I have a friend making lotion containers with machinery in Brazil. He is so darn rich he could afford to use the Quinn Law Firm if needed. Never once has he uttered a complaint to me about logistics and transportation costs as a variable for relocation. I suspect it costs more to ship from Brazil to USA than from USA to USA.

Question? (especially for Rouch, but also for Media to investigate).
How can we have a Logistics firm in Erie growing leaps and bounds worldwide, at the same time a local company is using transportation costs, as a variable to move 1/5 of it’s business away from our community?

Mr. Prishak, get Rouch out of the room, call Mr. Berlin, sit down over a beer at BrewErie, and lay your cards on the table, to work the problem out. Then, have Berlin go with YOU, to your clients in NC, and have Mr. Berlin explain to those folks how they can relocate here, and Jim will move their supplies wherever they need to go….and do it more profitably!

If these outfits need to be located close to their container company, move here. Keep the government and incentives out of it. Those guys down south have deodorant users here, so having a plant up here for that part of the business only makes sense….and profit.

Time for decision is short! Pour the beer soon.

Martin’s story is here:
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100127/NEWS02/301279946/-1/ETN

For those of us that dont work in the business… what does “back time” mean?