Download this document in .pdf format
BRIEFLY...
ICC to hold special meeting on future of electric rates
Illinois Commerce Commission Chairman Charles Box last week announced a Special Open Meeting to be held on June 1, 2006 at 10:30 am in the Commission's Chicago office, 160 N. LaSalle Street, Suite C-800. The meeting will focus on trends and forecasts in energy prices and electricity rates in the United States and will seek to develop a common knowledge base about the underlying circumstances Illinois consumers will be facing in the foreseeable future.
Speakers will include a senior representative from the Edison Electric Institute who will discuss trends in electric rates across the United States. Additionally, a senior representative from the U.S. Department of Energy–Energy Information Administration will discuss generation fuel costs and environmental compliance costs.
Questions, answers and specific information will be used to develop the framework for future meetings. Additionally, the Commission will be seeking comments from interested parties through a set of questions to be posted to the ICC's website, www.icc.state.il.us.
Future meetings will be held to solicit input from interested parties to present options and recommendations for aiding consumers in coping with anticipated rate increases, both in the short-run and into the future. Options for consumer education and protection should consider alternatives both on the supply and demand side of the market while taking into account the existing market structure.
(Source: ICC Website)
IMA "Winning Unemployment Insurance Hearings" seminars postponed
Due to a number of conflicting issues, the previously scheduled statewide seminars on winning unemployment insurance benefit hearings have been postponed.
We will let you know when they are rescheduled. Refunds of registration
fees will be made immediately. We apologize for any inconvenience.
U.S. DOL announces industry-based competency model for advanced manufacturing
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco announced on May 22nd the creation of a dynamic set of resources for advanced manufacturers to use in attracting and training workers for careers across the industry.
"After decades of using incomplete and inconsistent standards for training the manufacturing workforce, advanced manufacturers came together to embrace a common framework of skills necessary to pursue a successful career," said DeRocco. "In a global economy, American workers need strong academic, workplace and technical skills to maintain our innovative edge. The tools released today allow industry, educators, and government to match their investments to the modern needs of the advanced manufacturing workplace."
The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) convened a group of leading industry organizations to develop a comprehensive framework over the past year. Participants and reviewers included the Manufacturing Institute, National Council for Advanced Manufacturing, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), Society of Manufacturing Engineers, National Institute for Metalworking Skills, Penn State University, Thomas Nelson Community College, Aviation High School in New York City, and others.
"Our members tell us again and again about the difficulty of finding skilled technical workers — from entry level to sophisticated front line — a problem that will only intensify as the baby boomers retire with no skilled employees in the pipeline to replace them. If we are to avoid a human capital crisis in advanced manufacturing, we need to step up to the plate and actively promote these new core competencies to employers and educators," said NAM president John Engler.
"We are in the race of our lives for talent, and the country with the best work force is going to be the winner," added Phyllis Eisen, vice president of The Manufacturing Institute (the research and education arm of the NAM) and its Center for Workforce Success, which helped develop the core competency framework on behalf of the NAM. "The U.S. education system is not aligned with most of the business community and is not teaching the kind of skills that are needed for advanced manufacturing to stay competitive. We will work hard to get this skills framework into every high school, community and technical college so that curricula can better reflect the skill sets needed for today's advanced manufacturing employee," Eisen said.
The group devised the framework by reviewing existing industry standards and curricula and identifying the common elements that apply across manufacturing sectors. Those elements include working with spreadsheets, interpretation of CAD (Computer-Aided Design) drawings, and database navigation and reporting. This framework allows for consistency across industries, customization within sectors, and easy updating in order to accommodate changing technology and business practices.
The framework is designed to evolve along with changing skill requirements. The NAM has committed to working with industry partners to keep this tool current. "The NAM is proud to have played a key role in developing this groundbreaking framework of core competencies critical for today's high performance manufacturing worker," said Engler. "The framework provides a long overdue snapshot of what the 21st century manufacturing technical worker looks like."
The Department of Labor will soon announce a competition for funding under the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative for the advanced manufacturing industry.
The President's High Growth Job Training Initiative represents a major step in a series of actions that ETA has taken to facilitate partnerships among business, education and the workforce investment system to develop solutions to the workforce challenges facing high growth industries. The initiative targets education and skills development resources toward helping workers gain the skills they need to build successful careers in growing industries. Visit http://www.doleta.gov/BRG/JobTrainInitiative/ for more information.
U.S. Senate passes major overhaul of immigration laws
The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Thursday, May 25th that, if eventually approved, would allow millions of illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship. The bill would also tighten U.S. borders and create a guest-worker program. Many believe the bill marks a victory for President Bush, who has outlined an approach to immigration reform similar to that endorsed by the Senate. But tough sledding is forecast for efforts to reconcile the
legislation with a tougher version passed by the House last year. That legislation makes no provisions for a guest-worker program and would brand all illegal immigrants in the U.S. as felons.
Jobs Coalition: State's economy stuck in neutral
The Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity held an economic summit last week at the Governor's Mansion in Springfield. The summit brought together economists and other economic development experts from the four corners of Illinois. Nearly fifty business leaders and association executives attended the one-day event.
"The message was unanimous," said Gregory W. Baise, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association. "While Illinois' economy is stable, it is clearly stuck in neutral. Our neighboring states are experiencing growth — Iowa, for example, is number one in the nation for growth in its gross state product. Illinois isn't growing, and that is a condition we find unacceptable."
The Coalition sponsored the summit as part of its long-term strategy to make the state's economic condition and lack of growth a key factor for the fall election cycle. Recent figures released by the federal Labor Department rank Illinois 48th in job growth and 13th highest for the cost of doing business — nearly four percent higher than the national average.
"We want to know what candidates for public office plan to do to rectify our awful economic performance," Baise said. "The business community is ready to roll up our sleeves and work towards real solutions, but we need to know that politicians are serious and willing to step up to the challenges we face. And, it's more than just lip service and election year rhetoric, it's a viable action plan that we're looking for."
In addition to reviewing the state's economy, Jeffrey Mays, Executive Director of the Illinois Business Roundtable, reported findings of a recent study he conducted on the state's education system. Mays told the group that current proposals to inject billions of dollars into the school system will do little to improve student performance until public policy makers decide to change education philosophy and plan curriculums that are designed to prepare our children for work in a globally competitive environment. Mays cited troubling figures showing that just 20 percent of statewide high school graduates finish a four-year degree, and that number drops to just six percent for graduates of the Chicago Public Schools.
"A billion dollars will buy a lot of books and pay a lot of teachers' salaries," said Baise, "but unless that kind of investment results in significant improvement in measurable student performance against students in other states and nations, it's just more waste of precious taxpayer resources."
The mission of the Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth & Prosperity is to secure the future of Illinois by educating, informing and activating the public, stakeholders and elected officials to develop, promote and implement a stable pro-job, pro-growth, pro-investment climate in Illinois. Its membership includes the Illinois Manufacturers' Association, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Business Roundtable and the Illinois Civil Justice League.
Small business focus: on-line learning in the small and mid-size organization
According to HR Powerhouse.com, online learning can effectively address the challenges of providing training to a small group of employees while maintaining cost-effectiveness. The cost of training per employee can be reduced significantly when an organization provides the same courses online to several employers with similar training needs. Eliminating related costs, such as lost productivity, travel time, and trainer expense, reaps additional savings. Providing training when it's most convenient for the learner and proceeding at the learner's pace, online learning helps eliminate the challenge of finding cost-effective training solutions for a small group.
There are several methods available for online learning. The "best" method is contingent on the training needs of the business, whether a training professional will be needed to assist, and the cost of the training. Methods currently used are direct online access, customized web-based courses, online access and on-line learning system management, or purchasing a learning management system and courseware.
Some dos and don'ts of online learning:
- Do determine training priorities, and whether the employees to be trained have Internet access.
- Do enlist a training professional to evaluate the quality, effectiveness, user-friendliness, and basic design standards of courseware before investing.
- Do limit the number of training vendors to one or two with your first online initiative to give your company an opportunity to gain experience with online learning and the related delivery issues.
- Do select courseware that operates on standard web browsers without the need for additional hardware or software.
- Do ensure that the training vendor selected can provide adequate technical support.
- Don't select courseware that will not provide optimal performance at typical Internet speeds.
- Don't enter into agreements with training vendors without having them reviewed by legal counsel.
Immigration reform . . .
By the numbers:
According to the Washington Post, Douglas S. Massey, a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University has assessed the challenge of enforcing immigration laws on undocumented foreign workers. The following conclusions come from his 2005 Cato Institute report, "Backfire at the Border," and data from the Mexican Migration Project at Princeton.
The cost to taxpayers
Before 1992, the cost of making one arrest along the U.S.-Mexico border stood at $300. After a steady Border Patrol buildup in the 1990s and the September 11, 2001, attacks, each arrest in 2002 cost $1,700, an increase of 467 percent.
The chance of getting caught
The odds that undocumented Mexican migrants were apprehended attempting to enter the United States was 33 percent in 1997. After enforcement pushed border crossings out of cities and into more remote sectors, surveys of migrant communities show that the probability of apprehension fell to 19 percent in 2004.
The cost to illegal immigrants
From 1980 to 1992, the cost of hiring a "coyote," or smuggler, averaged $400 per crossing. The cost rose to about $1,200 in 1999 before leveling off.
The likelihood of returning
As the cost of illegal crossings grew, the likelihood that undocumented Mexican migrants would stay in the United States instead of going home fell, from about 45 percent to 25 percent, while the average stay rose from 1.7 years to 3.5 years.
The bottom line
The number of illegal immigrants has doubled since 1995 from 5 million to more than 11 million.
Comparing the bills:
There are two competing bills pending in the Congress addressing immigration reform. National Public Radio put together a comparison of the two proposals showing the stark differences between them. We will keep you abreast of developments as House and Senate conferees meet to reconcile their differences.
Border fencing
House: Calls for the construction of reinforced fencing of at least two layers along 700 miles of the 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico. That's equivalent to the distance from Atlanta to Chicago. The fence would run across parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Senate: Calls for the construction of about 370 miles of reinforced, triple-layer border fencing. Also adds 500 miles of vehicle barriers along the southern U.S. border.
Guest-worker program
House: Has no provisions for a guest-worker program.
Senate: Allows up to 200,000 foreign workers to apply for U.S. guest-worker permits each year. Guest workers would receive an initial three-year visa, with the ability to extend the visa once for another three-year period. After four years, foreign workers would be able to apply for permanent U.S. residence.
Workplace enforcement
House: Requires employers to use an electronic verification system to screen employees' Social Security and foreign identification numbers with the Department of Homeland Security. Requires the system to be in place within three to six years. Imposes fines of up to $40,000 on those who hire undocumented workers.
Senate: Also requires employers to screen all new hires against an electronic verification system. Mandates that the system be in use 18 months after Congress funds it, and that workers' information be submitted within three days of their hire. Fines employers up to $20,000 for each illegal immigrant they hire. Authorizes hiring 10,000 agents to enforce workplace rules.
Criminal penalties for illegal status
House: Makes it a felony to live illegally in the United States. Also mandates criminal penalties for those who help illegal immigrants enter or stay in the country. Requires new immigrants to clear background checks for prior criminal records, links to terrorism and prior use of fraudulent documents before they are granted legal status. Allows deportation of any illegal immigrant convicted of driving under the influence.
Senate: Makes it a criminal misdemeanor to have entered the country illegally; however, those who have overstayed their visas are not subject to misdemeanor charges. Mandates penalties for smuggling illegal immigrants, but allows for exceptions for those who offer "humanitarian" aid to undocumented aliens. Provides for immediate deportations of immigrants — legal or illegal — who are convicted of a felony or of three misdemeanors unrelated to their residency status. Permanently bars those convicted from applying to the guest-worker program or other paths to U.S. citizenship. Allow immigrants facing court-ordered deportation because of immigration-related violations the chance to appeal.
Paths to legalization (earned adjustment of status)
House: Makes no provisions for illegal immigrants to gain legal status.
Senate: Classifies illegal immigrants into three groups:
- Those in the United States for less than two years would be deported.
- Those in the U.S. between two and five years would need to register with the Department of Homeland Security, leave the country and return through a port of entry before applying for legal status. They would be eligible for U.S. citizenship in about 13 to 15 years.
- Those in the U.S. longer than five years would be allowed to stay in the United States while they apply for legal status. This last group would need to work in the country six more years, pay back taxes, learn English and U.S. civics, pass a background check and pay a fine.
Makes farm workers eligible for legal status, provided they can prove they've been working in agriculture for at least 863 hours or 150 work days during the 24-month period ending Dec. 31, 2005. Over the next five years, up to 1.5 million farm workers would be eligible for legalization under this provision.
Green cards
House: Does not address "green cards," which give immigrants legal permanent residency.
Senate: Caps the number of green cards available to immigrants and their family members each year at 690,000. That figure does not include the farm workers and undocumented aliens who would be eligible for legalization under the "earned adjustment of status" provisions of the bill.
Source: National Public Radio
U.S. House vote on R&D funding is good news for manufacturers
"Increase will help Illinois industry," says Baise.
In a 404 to 20 vote last week, the House approved the first major funding increase in almost 15 years for the Department of Energy Office of Science, which is responsible for the critical national laboratory system that dates to World War II. The Illinois Manufacturers' Association applauded the House action, which marks the first piece of the President's American Competitiveness Initiative to come to a floor vote in either chamber of Congress.
"The importance of the increase which congress approved last week cannot be overstated," said Gregory W. Baise, president and CEO of IMA. "Following nearly 15 years of flat R&D spending, there is light at the end of the tunnel," he continued.
"Manufacturers need strong partnerships with the national laboratories for research projects. Federally funded labs maintain facilities that no one company can afford by itself. If government had continued to short-change R&D, research in materials science would have begun moving offshore. This long overdue increase will help reverse that trend, but we need to keep up our efforts year-after-year," Baise continued.
The IMA acknowledges our state's members of the Appropriations Committee in carrying forward the President's recommendation: Representatives Ray LaHood, Mark Kirk and Jesse Jackson, Jr.
"U.S. Energy Department Secretary Sam Bodman also deserves our appreciation for taking the lead in advocating for a stronger national research effort," Baise said.
Bonuses for top executives primarily based on profit
Cash bonuses for executives are primarily tied to organizational financial performance according to the 2006 HR Practices in Executive-Level Compensation Survey Report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
"Organizations reward top executives for delivering profit growth and increasing revenue. It is important to remember that creating a work environment that fosters high performance directly impacts profit," said Susan R. Meisinger, president and CEO of SHRM.
Although not all executive-level cash bonuses were contingent on financial performance, 59 percent of bonuses were impacted by gross/net revenue, 54 percent by profit growth, 40 percent by cost containment, and 35 percent by customer satisfaction levels.
Executive-level employees are far more likely to receive performance-based cash bonuses and stock options (76 percent and 28 percent, respectively), than non-management employees (43 percent and 9 percent, respectively) at all organizations. Stock options for executive-level employees were offered by 79 percent of publicly owned companies and just 27 percent of privately owned companies. However, there has been some movement on the level of restricted stock options for executive-level employees over the past two years as 23 percent of survey respondents report that there has been a decrease in the use of restricted stocks for executives.
Perks for executives do not stop at pay, bonuses, and stock options. Eighty-four percent are given cell phones, 71 percent receive relocation expenses, 59 percent are provided with company cars, 38 percent get special vacation allowances, 27 percent get country club or health club memberships, 26 percent get tickets for sports or entertainment events, and 10 percent have use of a company airplane.
DATES OF NOTE:
More events may be found at http://www.ima-net.org/calendar.cfm
June 7, 2006 – IMA Event:
Developing Your Company's Employee Handbook
Northern Illinois University
Naperville
8:30am – 12:30pm
Presenters: Jim Spizzo, Vedder Price Kaufman & Kammholz, PC, Chicago, and Donna Rogers, SPHR, HR Director, Illinois Manufacturers' Association, Springfield. Employee handbooks are essential. Our interactive program will examine the practical and legal do's and don'ts of establishing and maintaining an up-to-date Employee Handbook. Register at:
www.ima-net.org/dehp_seminar.cfm).
Contact: Kimberly McNamara, telephone: 630-368-5300, email: kmcnamara@ima-net.org
June 21, 2006
Managing Your Energy Spend in Volatile Markets
Sheraton Chicago Northwest
3400 W. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights - Registration at 7:30 am
Join other IMA members for this exclusive seminar on developing strategies to control your electricity and natural gas costs. With Illinois transitioning to a fully open and competitive electricity market and NYMEX natural gas futures declining 50 percent over the last five months, many Illinois businesses are taking this opportunity to secure strategic contracts now. Can't make it on June 21? Join us for a live webinar on June 22. To RSVP or for more information, contact Kimberly McNamara, telephone: 630-368-5300, ext. 2109, email: kmcnamara@ima-net.org.
June 21, 2006
Demystifying SOA: Making Business Sense for Manufacturers
Sutton Place Hotel, 21 E. Bellevue Place, Chicago - 8:30-11:30 am
Free Executive Briefing for manufacturers by EPICOR. Learn how SOA can make your operation agile and flexible so it will thrive in today's demanding environment. Call 800-997-7528. or register at: solutions.epicor.com/soa.
July 20, 2006 – IMA Event:
HR Basics Seminar
Hilton Conference Center
Springfield - 9:00 am–12:00 noon
Learn the do's and don'ts among various HR areas of concentration. You will have the opportunity to put your knowledge to the test in a stimulating, yet non-threatening environment. Most importantly, you will leave more confident, and ready to meet any HR challenge that might arise in your workplace. Presented by IMA's Director of Human Resources Donna Rogers.
Contact: Kimberly McNamara, telephone: 630-368-5300, email: kmcnamara@ima-net.org
Download this document in .pdf format
Other Executive Memos available online.
Remember, you must have the Adobe Acrobat
Reader software in order to view .pdf documents. Acrobat Reader
can be downloaded
for free from the Adobe Web site.
