Sen. Chris Coons and Congressman John Carney joined US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker on tours of on tours of two Delaware companies - M. Davis and Accudyne Systems - as part of National Manufacturing Day.
Coons advocates finding new ways to bring manufacturing jobs back to the First State and developing the workforce to staff them. He helped create the Manufacturing Jobs for America Initiative, a package of legislation he says would help manufacturers grow and create jobs, and help alleviate unemployment.
Coons says the M. Davis Company came to Secretary Pritzker’s attention because they have a regular practice of opening up their shop to local high school students - allowing them to recruit those students into their workforce.
"What I’d like to see us replicate from the visit we’ve made here today to M. Davis is the closeness of their partnership with local schools with Vo-tech high schools, with the community colleges that allows for the sorts of engagement with students that makes them believe in a bright future for manufacturing here in Delaware," he said.
Coons spoke Thursday on the Senate floor along with Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin about the need to grow manufacturing jobs and the legislation they intend to introduce in the coming months to spur that growth.