Factories

washington -- Mitt Romney twice emphasized his unique business background when he and eight other Republican presidential candidates faced off in a debate last week in Iowa. "I've spent the last, as I've told you, 25 years in the private sector," former Massachusetts Gov. Romney declared at one point. "I understand why jobs come and why jobs go. I've done business in 20 countries."

Perhaps the only silver lining to the Great Recession is that it triggered a new focus on manufacturing in the United States. After 25 years of being sold a shiny vision of a service-dominated post-industrial economy, the U.S. is rediscovering how important it is to actually make things in order to spur innovation, raise wages, drive exports and lower the trade deficit. Corporate cost calculations undergird the newfound appreciation of U.S. manufacturing. The offshoring of manufacturing was rooted in harsh economic realities: rock-bottom wages in nations such as China and the aggressive attraction and infrastructure strategies of foreign governments.

The "Made in Italy" label conjures images of little old men and women in aprons and spectacles, stooped over wooden tables, cutting leather and sewing by hand in workshops that dot the hills of Tuscany. It certainly doesn't make you picture Chinese immigrants toiling long hours in ramshackle, poorly illuminated sheds, and then sleeping in small rooms behind thin plywood right there in the factories.

Los Angeles County prosecutors are examining large property tax breaks extended to the owners of the Old Spaghetti Factory, the now-closed Hollywood landmark, as part of their influence-peddling investigation of Assessor John Noguez. Prosecutors are also looking at more than a hundred Westside properties whose owners got secret, improper tax reductions from a former assessor's office employee who said he broke the rules hoping to generate contributions to Noguez's campaign account.

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

First, Tao Shoulong burned his company's financial books. He then sold his private golf club memberships and disposed of his Mercedes S-600 sedan. And then he was gone. And just like that, China's biggest textile dye operation -- with four factories, a campus the size of 31 football fields, 4,000 workers and debts of at least $200 million -- was history. "We're pretty much dead now," said Mao Youming, one of 300 suppliers stiffed last month by Tao's company, Jianglong Group.

An investigation into the Chinese factories that produce Apple products found “significant issues with working conditions," according to a report released by a labor watchdog group. The Fair Labor Assn. said Thursday that it had conducted a thorough inspection of three factories in China operated by Foxconn, a major supplier, and had secured “groundbreaking commitments” that will reduce working hours, improve health and safety conditions and “establish a genuine voice for workers.” The group said it would continue to monitor the factories.

A sweeping investigation into three Chinese factories that produce Apple Inc. products found "significant issues" with working conditions, including excessive overtime and health and safety risks. An industry-funded labor watchdog group, the Fair Labor Assn., said Thursday that it had conducted a thorough inspection of the factories operated by Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple and other tech companies. The group said it had secured "groundbreaking commitments" that will reduce working hours, improve conditions and establish a voice for workers.

Apple has responded to a wave of criticism of its labor practices in China by joining an industry-funded labor monitoring organization that will conduct extensive audits of factories run by Apple's Chinese manufacturing partners.  The Fair Labor Assn. audits would including the vast Foxconn facilities in Shenzhen and Chengdu that employ hundreds of thousands of workers, and which have been the locus of a number of worker safety problems in recent years. Last May, a fire at one of the plants killed four and injured nearly 20 workers, and in 2010, 13 Foxconn employees jumped to their deaths from factory rooftops.

Apple Inc.'s chief executive responded to a wave of negative attention to conditions at overseas factories that make its products, saying the insinuation that Apple doesn't care about the welfare of its workers is "offensive. " "Unfortunately, some people are questioning Apple's values today," Tim Cook wrote in an e-mail to Apple employees. "Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. " A series of articles in the New York Times has brought new focus on Apple's highly profitable production strategy, which relies heavily on Chinese workers who live in dormlike factories and spend many hours assembling devices.

Is a strain of recent abstract painting obsessed with revitalizing the celebrated tradition of the 1950s New York School? A peculiar new show at the Museum of Contemporary Art says yes, proposing that a vigorous revival of Jackson Pollock's drips, Mark Rothko's luminous clouds of color, Franz Kline's muscularity of forms and other painterly concerns from a half-century ago is underway - albeit with a notable twist. The old abstraction recorded the singular hand of the artist at work in the studio.

The tales of survival almost strain belief. There's the off-road endurance race car that rolled down a steep and rocky slope, but the drive team's gear was undamaged inside their plastic storage cases. Then there's the military helicopter brought down by missile fire where, after the pilot and passengers escaped, the only thing salvageable inside was a plastic storage case. And when an improvised explosive device detonated under an armored vehicle in Pakistan, ripping apart the engine compartment, a U.S. Army combat engineer was able to walk away because of the plastic case that sat beneath his feet.

Blaming a "fundamentally changed" solar industry and plunging business in Europe, panel maker First Solar Inc. is cutting 2,000 jobs and closing a factory. The layoffs represent 30% of the workforce of the Tempe, Ariz., company, which is the leading U.S. manufacturer of photovoltaic solar panels — the type commonly found on rooftops. The factory being closed is in Frankfurt, Germany. In addition, the company will indefinitely idle four production lines at its facility in Kulim, Malaysia, as of May 1. Some U.S. employees of the company will also be cut, though First Solar did not disclose how many.

In what executives now call a "fundamentally changed" solar industry, thin-film panel maker First Solar Inc. is closing down factories and cutting 2,000 workers. The layoffs represent 30% of the Tempe, Ariz.-based company's global workforce. First Solar is also planning to close down a factory in Frankfurt, Germany, later this year while indefinitely idling four production lines at its facility in Kulim, Malaysia, on May 1. The workforce reductions, which will cost First Solar up to $70 million in severance, will also reach employees in the U.S. The scale-back is expected to save the solar giant as much as $60 million this year and then up to $120 million a year after.

A sweeping investigation into three Chinese factories that produce Apple Inc. products found "significant issues" with working conditions, including excessive overtime and health and safety risks. An industry-funded labor watchdog group, the Fair Labor Assn., said Thursday that it had conducted a thorough inspection of the factories operated by Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple and other tech companies. The group said it had secured "groundbreaking commitments" that will reduce working hours, improve conditions and establish a voice for workers.

When Rick Santorum's campaign announced that the GOP presidential candidate would deliver a major foreign policy address today, the venue instantly raised eyebrows - the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, Calif. The candy maker has decades-long ties to California politics - among the candidates to stump there in recent years were gubernatorial hopefuls Richard Riordan and Bill Simon as well as vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger served Jelly Belly beans at his first inaugural festivities; his then-young children reportedly pelted one another with them.

Improbable as it seems, the brightest spot so far in the nation's spotty economic recovery is a sector long considered all but dead -- good-old-fashioned manufacturing. Factories are churning. Exports are up. Even though jobs are the bleakest aspect of the overall economy these days, factory payrolls have turned positive. "We could have a renaissance here," said Ron Bloom, President Obama's manufacturing czar. "Indeed," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke declared late last month, "manufacturing has been leading the recovery so far."

Responding to criticism after worker deaths and injuries at Chinese factories that produce iPhones and iPads, Apple Inc. and its suppliers have agreed to allow a labor watchdog group to monitor those facilities. Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., said Monday that the Fair Labor Assn., an industry-funded labor monitoring organization, would evaluate some of the most controversial factories in Apple's Chinese supply chain. The group plans to conduct interviews with thousands of workers and managers and will inspect the plants and worker dormitories with what Apple called "unrestricted access.

An investigation into the Chinese factories that produce Apple products found “significant issues with working conditions," according to a report released by a labor watchdog group. The Fair Labor Assn. said Thursday that it had conducted a thorough inspection of three factories in China operated by Foxconn, a major supplier, and had secured “groundbreaking commitments” that will reduce working hours, improve health and safety conditions and “establish a genuine voice for workers.” The group said it would continue to monitor the factories.

MADRID - Millions of Spaniards stayed off the job Thursday to protest new labor laws that allow companies to opt out of collective bargaining pacts, reduce wages and fire workers more easily. The general strike stalled public transportation and shut factories and schools across the country. Angry confrontations erupted between hordes of protesters and riot police officers, but no major violence was reported. It was the first such large-scale labor action against the policies of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the strongest public rebuke yet of his austerity measures.