MaryBeth Matzek: Initiative looks to help Oshkosh suppliers weather defense cuts

This is an excerpt from a column posted at BizOpinion.

Defense spending cuts didn’t just cost approximately 1,000 Oshkosh Truck employees their jobs during the past two years; the ripple effects are affecting dozens of Wisconsin companies who are part of the manufacturer’s vast supply chain. The recently formed Oshkosh Region Defense Industry Diversification Initiative is doing what it can to mitigate the hurt.

The Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment awarded an $837,316 Defense Industry Adjustment Grant to the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, along with the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the City of Oshkosh as sub grant recipients to develop a plan to help dislocated workers and businesses who are a part of Oshkosh’s supply chain find new opportunities. In addition, the project includes a 10.7 percent local match from the planning commission and local partners.

“The expected layoffs announced in October 2012 and April 2013 represent a negative economic impact of $91 million in earnings and account for a loss of 1,437 total jobs – that includes not just Oshkosh workers affected by the businesses who worked with Oshkosh who are now seeing less work,” says Katherine Ahlquist, an economic development planner with the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

Barb LaMue, sector development manager for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) predicts, that about 40 manufacturers in eastern Wisconsin will step forward and identify themselves as being affected by defense spending cuts. With the grant in hand, a slew of partners from local counties and economic development organizations such as New North to chambers of commerce and technical colleges, are now working on a plan to realign regional economic and workforce development strategies to respond to Oshkosh Truck’s decreased output and help businesses affected by the cuts to diversify and retool themselves for other manufacturing segments.

Read the full column for more