New numbers out this week
show manufacturing in the U.S. is growing,
with orders and sales at their highest levels since 2014.
Factories that pump out products also create jobs.
But in one Rust Belt town,
that's seen tens of thousands of manufacturing layoffs,
the new jobs come with a different kind of boss.
Americans are working in Moraine, Ohio again,
thanks to a new enormous factory,
which began production last year.
And the company isn't local, or American.
— I like all three of those, too.
— Cao Dewang is the chairman of Fuyao,
one of the largest auto glass manufacturers in the world.
He's a billionaire,
and... that's the large portrait of Cao that hangs in his office.
— Why did you choose Moraine, Ohio?
— It wasn't just any factory.
It was the old General Motors manufacturing plant in Moraine, Ohio,
which closed in 2008 and left almost 1,100 people without jobs.
— It was empty, six-ish years.
Plants growing up in a parking lot,
it looked like an abandoned factory.
— Elaine Allison is the Mayor of Moraine.
She, along with Ohio's Governor John Kasich,
personally lobbied Cao to choose the old GM plant.
— That was the city of Moraine's largest employer.
And the city gets payroll taxes,
which is how we fund our city operations.
So, when that dried up,
then we had to make some serious cutbacks.
— What sort of cutbacks?
— Well, we held off on doing capital improvement projects,
like paving roads, buying equipment.
We just had to put a moratorium on everything,
just to keep the city afloat.
— Fuyao isn't investing in the United States
to help cities like Moraine.
The company, which supplies auto glass
to many large American car manufacturers,
including Ford, Chevrolet, and GM,
is doing it because it's good for business.
The World Bank estimates that China's tax rate
as a percentage of profits is 68%,
but only 44% in the U.S.
Chinese labor is also now only 4% cheaper
than it is in the United States.
That's led to a growing influx of Chinese investment,
from just over $2-billion in 2011,
to nearly $55-billion last year.
It's also creating jobs.
Roughly 2,000 people now work at the plant,
many of them former GM employees.
— Yeah, it is really weird.
— Steve Qvick never expected to be back inside,
much less while on the payroll of a Chinese company.
— When I walked in, I got some old memories popped up.
Right now, it doesn't even remind me of the GM plant.
When I walk in here, this is Fuyao.
And I enjoy walking in here and knowing that I'm coming to Fuyao.
— So one of the interesting things about this factory
is that it very much runs against the national narrative
of jobs moving overseas, from the U.S. to China.
These jobs came here from China.
Have you thought about that at all?
— I know that I, personally, am very grateful that they are here,
because it did bring jobs back to this community.
— Do you think of it as a Chinese company with American workers,
or do you think of it as, like,
an American company with a Chinese boss?
— I'm going to say neither.
It's two different cultures that kind of came together
rather quickly in one operation.
And... it's kind of hard to explain.
— It isn't just the workers that are having to adapt.
Fuyao is still getting used to U.S. regulations.
And American labor unions.
— There have been American workers who have refused to do things,
and they will send a Chinese person who will do it without question.
— Jason Turner and Roberto Martinez are thankful
to have manufacturing jobs in 2017,
but they feel like Fuyao is still operating
as though it were in China.
— I worked a lot of factory jobs in my lifetime and
I haven't experienced this type of level of safety issues.
— Fuyao Currently has 24 pending violations
with the U.S. Department of Labor.
It's appealed all 24 of them.
When we checked with a government safety official,
we were told that the number isn't unusually high
for a factory of its size.
— We're grateful that the jobs are there.
We just feel they could be better.
— And safer.
— And safer, yes.
— Growing pains in the United States have been compounded
by pushback in China,
where the company has been accused of outsourcing jobs and business.
Cao, though, says that nothing has changed.
— Do you feel like you've learned something about doing business
in the United States, especially with manufacturing,
that others might benefit from knowing about?
— It's hard to argue that Cao hasn't achieved
at least some of this balance with the new factory.
— Steve, the former GM worker, hadn't met Cao
when we first spoke to him.
But he's wanted to thank him in person
ever since he started almost two years ago.
— So I'd like to thank him for bringing his company here,
for us and our community.
it's very, very lucrative for us.
And we appreciate it.
— You're welcome.
Thank you.