The National Association of Manufacturers and the Business Council of Alabama enhanced their partnership today by signing an agreement to strengthen manufacturing advocacy, to deliver increased visibility for both organizations and to help grow the manufacturing army.
The NAM and BCA already enjoy a successful partnership that advocates effectively for manufacturers across the United States and in Alabama. The BCA is the NAM’s exclusive representative in Alabama.
The NAM and the BCA issued a joint statement following the agreement signing in Washington, D.C., by NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons and BCA President and CEO William J. Canary.
With the agreement, the presence for Alabama manufacturers will be enhanced in the nation’s capital through the NAM’s national scope to create a joint manufacturing network that will respond to ever-changing national economic issues. The agreement is a vehicle to expand the role that manufacturers play in policymaking and to increase training and development opportunities for Alabama manufacturers.
“The NAM’s partnership with the BCA is among our strongest alliances,” Timmons said. “Together, we are more influential in the pursuit of pro-growth policies that increase manufacturers’ ability to compete and create jobs. Growing this important partnership is key to accomplishing our mutual goals and putting our economy on the right track.”
The groups will co-promote material in the BCA’s The Manufacturing Advocate and all digital communications involving manufacturing. Doing so will increase manufacturers’ impact in areas critical to manufacturing competitiveness, including energy policy, workforce development and transportation and infrastructure funding.
“Our partnership goes back decades, and this effectively enhances it by expanding our abilities to brand our work and advocacy for the manufacturing community,” Canary said. “We envision this will give us a powerful way to benefit both organizations and leverage our abilities to fight for issues that are important to our members and important to general manufacturing. We’re both in the business of creating jobs.”
Accompanying Canary to the signing were BCA Chairman Fred McCallum, president of AT&T Alabama; BCA Past Chairman Carl Jamison, shareholder in JamisonMoneyFarmer PC, Tuscaloosa; BCA First Vice Chairman Marty Abroms, president of Abroms & Associates, P.C., Florence; and Manufacturing Advocacy Council Co-Chair and NAM and BCA Board Member Ronnie Boles, owner of General & Automotive Machine Shop, Huntsville.
Background: The NAM is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing 12,000 small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For information please visit www.nam.org.
The BCA, formed in 1985, is Alabama’s leading advocate for business and represents about 750,000 working Alabamians in Montgomery and Washington, D.C. As the exclusive representative of the NAM in Alabama, the BCA has more than 1,300 manufacturing members, and its Manufacturing Advocacy Council works to help promote and enhance a positive business climate for Alabama manufacturers.
In 2003, the BCA and the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama created The Partnership that includes more than 60,000 local chamber members.
-Dana Beyerle
Photos by David Bohrer / National Assoc. of Manufacturers