Pictured in photo above: (left to right) Joe O’Neil of Green Circuits; Meredith LaBeau of Calumet Electronics; John Mitchell of IPC; Ivanka Trump; Shane Whiteside of Summit Interconnect; Darryl Graves of Zentech.
CALUMET, MI (October 31, 2018) — Calumet Electronics Corporation, located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, was one of five industry leaders representing the Association Connecting Electronics Industries (IPC) invited to the White House today to celebrate American workers.
Dr. Meredith LaBeau, Calumet’s Director of Process Engineering, represented the company and IPC at an event continuing Trump’s Our Pledge to America’s Workers, an initiative of the National Council for the American Worker. President Donald Trump established the Council in July of this year as a call to action for private sector companies to increase job training opportunities for students and workers. At today’s event, Calumet joined companies from a variety of industries, all of which demonstrate a commitment to enhanced training and job opportunities for workers in United States.
During the brief White House event, President Trump, Chief Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow, and Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump celebrated the American worker and the private sector companies that are dedicated to retraining, creating enhanced career opportunities, apprenticeships, and earn-while-you-learn opportunities. Ms. Trump acknowledged a collective pledge on the part of private companies to create 6.5 million new jobs and training opportunities, an estimated 5% of the current workforce. One million of those opportunities were pledged by IPC. She said, “It’s really remarkable. This is that call to action to the private sector to invest in the current and the future workforce.” Surveying the people present, she noted. “This room is absolutely a testament to the fact that our greatest resource is the American workforce.”
Comprised of senior administration officials, the National Council for the American Worker is charged with developing a national strategy for training and retraining the workers needed across high-demand industries. The group convenes voices from the public, private, education, labor, and not-for-profit sectors to enhance employment opportunities for Americans of all ages. That task began by asking companies and trade groups across the country to sign a new Pledge to America’s Workers, committing to expand programs that educate, train, and reskill American workers from high-school age to near-retirement.
Calumet was chosen to represent the industry by IPC, the global trade association serving the printed circuit board (PCB) and electronics assembly industries, their customers and suppliers. Calumet Electronics has shown strong support for the Executive Agent for Printed Circuit Boards and Interconnect Technology (PrCB EA) and the PrCB Trust Accreditation, which has been chartered to develop a trusted network of PrCB supply chains, including design, manufacture, and assembly. Together with the Department of Defense electronics industrial base, they are working to combat the damage done by the offshoring of PCB manufacturing to China and other countries.
Calumet which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year, is one of the Upper Peninsula region’s largest employers and one of just 200 remaining printed circuit board manufacturers in North America. Calumet specializes in supporting electronic sectors like aerospace, defense, medical diagnostics and power that demand zero failures and zero downtime. Calumet’s dedication to national security is validated by 100% American PCB manufacturing. It is one of just five U.S. companies that specialize in PCB fabrication and engineering solutions made entirely in the United States. Found in products that are designed and manufactured to provide a lifetime of reliable performance, Calumet’s high-value engineering solutions and manufacturing processes are at the heart of high performance.
