south texas manufacturers association

MCALLEN, Texas - Mike Willis says he has, for a few years, provided advice to manufacturing firms about how to deal with unions.

He says he has told them that the time to worry about union activity is not when the union is starting a wage campaign. He said the firms need to pay attention to how they treat their workers all the time.

The executive director of the South Texas Manufacturers Association spoke about the recent wage package agreed by the so-called Big Three - General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler - and the unions. He mentioned the deal in his monthly report, which was given at the DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel in McAllen.

“I've mentioned this to a lot of my manufacturing friends over the last year or two. The time to worry about a union campaign is not when it's underway. It's all the time, by treating your people right and good communications and providing the best paying benefits you can afford to,” Willis said.

“I think it's almost not even needed to be said because the labor market has been so tight (that) everybody’s paying what they can afford to attract and keep people.”

As for the Big Three, Willis said: “Everybody knows the Big Three finished settling their labor contract issues with the United Auto Workers I think they ended up with generally about a 25% pay raise over four years. Some pretty ratifying bonuses to sweeten the pot for them to vote yes. And they didn't get the work for four days and get paid for five they wanted. They didn't get a return from 401k’s back to defined benefit pension plans. But, it's gonna to cost the automotive industry quite a bit of money. The workers are gonna get a lot better deal.”

Editor's Note: To read the full story, go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service website.

Editor's Note: Here is an audio recording of Mike Willis' executive directors report for November to the South Texas Manufacturers Association.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

MCALLEN, Texas - The executive director of the South Texas Manufacturers Association has given an overview of apprenticeship programs in the Rio Grande Valley.

Mike Willis was a keynote speaker at South Texas College’s 2nd Annual Apprenticeship Summit. 

“The apprenticeship program is a proven model that has been used for many years, as Dr. Solis pointed out. In our region, the construction industry continues to use it widely. In Texas and elsewhere, electricians and plumbers are actually required to complete an apprenticeship to even take the state licensing exam,” Willis said.

“In the manufacturing industry, apprenticeship was widely used in the past but some structural changes like outsourcing to smaller and more specialized manufacturing firms, and, of course, the offshoring that's been taking place over the last 20 yeas has made it more challenging but not impossible to support apprenticeship programs.”

The “Dr. Solis” Willis was referring to was Ricardo Solis, president of STC.

Willis said that in 2002 his organization started working on apprenticeships with STC, Texas Southmost College, Texas State Technical College, VIDA and McAllen Economic Development Corporation. “We formed a regional partnership to create, develop and support manufacturing apprenticeship programs across the Valley.”

Willis said STC secured a Department of Labor grant to support the creation of DOL registered, STMA sponsored, apprenticeship programs for industrial machinery mechanics, tool and die makers, and plastic process technicians. He said the grant helped produce highly skilled workers for the manufacturing industry.

“The strategy was to have our organization create regional standards for all the manufacturers in the region,” Willis said.

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MCALLEN, Texas - Luis Diaz, the interim executive director of the RGVMPO, gave a detailed update on his group’s work at a recent South Texas Manufacturers Association meeting.

RGVMPO stands for Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization. The STMA meeting took place at the DoubleTree Suites McAllen.

Diaz has temporarily taken over the hot seat at the MPO because the previous executive director, Andrew Canon, has taken a job with the Texas Department of transportation in Austin. Canon is now director of international trade, freight and corridor planning for TxDOT. The RGVMPO board of directors is currently conducting a nationwide search for a new executive director.

In his 30-minute power point presentation to STMA, Diaz explained what the RGVMPO does and which entities it works closely with, such the bigger cities in the Valley, TxDOT, Hidalgo County Regional Mobility Authority, and Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority.

He also spoke about the overall transportation funding that is coming to the RGV, not just MPO monies. Diaz said that in 2026 the total funding for transportation will jump to an astonishing $1 billion.

“So going on to the next slide… I can talk about the timeline here. So the next slide talks about our funding. Keep in mind that this is funding overall, this is federal money, this is state money, all of the money for the region,” Diaz said.

“So in 2023, we had $39.47 million. And you could see that it actually goes up, which is a good thing of course. So in 2024 we go to $325.4 million and in 2025 we'll have $414.6 million. And in 2026. this is a big jump, we go into $1.1 billion with a ‘B’. 

"So you can see the progression and growing funds towards the region. So all of these things are for overall projects. Those are your state facilities, the local facilities, all facilities put together. So this is money that's for the entire region put together, not just MPO funds.”

Diaz also spoke about the staffing situation at the MPO. He said the organization is currently understaffed but will be hiring additional staff soon. Among them, for the first time, will be communications specialists.

“If we go on to the next slide… so this is the structure of the MPO. So, starting all the way on the right which is RGV MPO staff, which is myself, all of our planners. We have GIS staff. We’re going to be acquiring more public information people into our office, people to do social media and those type of things, public outreach. So we have a total of four positions open actually. So we're short staffed right now, but we're hopefully fill those by the turn of the new year.”

Diaz also spoke about another TxDOT project, the I-69 Connector.

“This is a really relevant project to the region because this will be the gateway from I-69C to I-69E, which will be a gateway to the eventual new causeway to the island. So this is important for that reason. So, right now, what is undergoing is actually a feasibility study to identify where would be the good alignment for that project.”

Here is an audio recording of Diaz’s entire presentation. He is introduced by Mike Willis, executive director of the South Texas Manufacturers Association.

Editor's Note: Go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service to read the full story.

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BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Representatives from NextDecade and its main contractor for the liquefied natural gas export terminal being built at the Port of Brownsville, Bechtel, gave the keynote presentations at a recent South Texas Manufacturers Association meeting.

However, the presentations were deemed private and not for publication. So, the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service sought the analysis of STMA President Mike Willis, who emceed the meeting. Guardian audio editor Mario Muñoz asked Willis what he knew of the LNG project.

Willis said: “Well, this is one of the largest projects in the country and certainly the largest in the state and certainly the largest in the Rio Grande Valley. It's been years in planning and conditions are right that finally NextDecade was able to secure all the customer funding they needed, the long term commitments and they made a final investment decision to move forward with this (LNG facility at the Port of Brownsville). So, years of planning, and now they have pulled the trigger on it. They have got paying customers contracts for 20 years or more.”

Willis said two other major projects related to the LNG facility would be going on at the same time.

“So, this project is going forward at the Port and it is going to involve several other major projects. The Brownsville Ship Channel is going to be dredged to 52 feet deep, all the way from the jetties to the Port to facilitate these large tankers coming in to pick up liquefied natural gas. There's a major pipeline that is going to be constructed by Enbridge Energy out of Canada that will connect to pipelines flowing from the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale to Nueces Main in Corpus. They will tie into those pipelines and pipe natural gas down to the Port of Brownsville and that natural gas coming into that pipeline will be the raw material, the input for these liquefaction trains that are going to be built. So, this is an eight year long project.”


Editor's Note: Go to the Rio Grande Guardian website to read the full story.

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BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Mike Willis, executive director of the South Texas Manufacturers Association, says about a third of the manufacturing jobs in the Rio Grande Valley are located within the triangle of north Brownsville, Boca Chica, and the Port of Brownsville.

Around 5,000 of the Valley’s 15,000 manufacturing jobs are located there. 

Speaking at the September meeting of STMA, Willis said this part of Cameron County is starting to fulfill the potential he always knew it possessed. “It’s a huge economic development generator,” Willis said.

Willis said he is now more optimistic than ever about the Valley’s manufacturing base.

Here is Willis’ jobs report from the STMA meeting. 

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

RANCHO VIEJO, Texas - Mike Willis, executive director of the South Texas Manufacturers Association, has given his view on how the Rio Grande Valley’s manufacturing sector coped with the coronavirus pandemic.

Willis said there were winners and losers and cited some examples. A big issue right now is overcoming supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Willis provided his analysis at a recent monthly meeting of the STMA. The event was held at Rancho Viejo.

Here is an audio recording of Willis’s presentation.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

RANCHO VIEJO, Texas - Ramiro Aleman has spoken about the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation’s efforts to attract new businesses to the Rio Grande Valley

Aleman is director of business recruitment, retention and expansion at GBIC. He gave a presentation on the work of his group at a recent monthly meeting of the South Texas Manufacturers Association. The event was held at Rancho Viejo.

Aleman spoke about development of the Brownsville I-169 North Corridor Industrial Park, the Air & Space Campus at Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport, GBIC’s partnership with the Matamoros Economic Development Committee (CODEM), bringing in training funds via the Texas Skills Development Fund, collaborating with SelectUSA, securing Texas Enterprise Zone designation for Keppel AmFELS and DHR Health, launching the 2022 BTX Grant Program, the expansion of SpaceX at Boca Chica, the Astreia sustainable living project, the arrival in Brownsville of the Paragon drone vertical takeoff and landing company, attracting space industry companies to his city, and MVP Plastics expanding in Brownsville to serve Mexican clients.

Here is an audio recording of Aleman’s presentation.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

RANCHO VIEJO, Texas - German Rico has spoken about the work Harlingen Economic Development Corporation is doing to attract new businesses to the Rio Grande Valley.

Rico is industrial development manager at Harlingen EDC. He gave a presentation on the work of his group at a recent monthly meeting of the South Texas Manufacturers Association. The event was held at Rancho Viejo.

Rico spoke about new warehousing coming to the Harlingen Industrial Park, how the Port of Harlingen was doing, and the popularity of Valley International Airport.

Here is an audio recording of Rico’s presentation.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.