A Call to Help Made in USA Glassware Brand Anchor Hocking!!!!

Reflecting  on how our nation was built, we think of the strong men and women that used ingenuity to forge life in a foreign land. We think of the innovation and commitment to making quality products. In recent history, we have seen this production disappear leaving a negative impact on many aspects of our communities. Anchor Hocking, a company that has been producing  quality glass products in the U.S. since 1905, has found itself in economic trouble and recently was forced to lay off its employees.  With two plants, one in Lancaster, Ohio and one in Monaca, Pennsylvania, the May layoffs affected over 1,500 people. Originally, the employees were expected to return to work within a few weeks. However, this did not occur. Only some of the employees have been able to return to work at the Ohio plant and the union has had to make concessions lowering wages. The Ohio plant is set to resume more operations next week but is still on very shaky ground. The Pennsylvania plant remains closed.

Anchor Hocking employees and community business leaders are determined to find a way to purchase the company and keep Anchor Hocking running. They have launched an initiative called Save Anchor Hocking and are raising money through various avenues.  Their goal is to purchase the company to keep it  manufacturing here in the U.S., producing and running a commercial and offering stock options for investors. As you can see, the determined organization has quite a road ahead and there are ways we can help!

This loss of manufacturing will have far reaching negative impacts on employees, their families and their communities which will ultimately trickle to all of us. Helping Anchor Hocking is our chance to help keep their manufacturing in the U.S.A. and keep our country producing these quality goods. You can easily support  Save Anchor Hocking by liking their Facebook Page, liking their posts so that more people will see the posts and sharing with your friends. If you are in their area, there will be a variety of fundraising events that you will learn about by following on Facebook. Additionally, Save Anchor Hocking will be selling "Save Anchor Hocking" bracelets to raise money. Norton's U.S.A. will be receiving some of these bracelets to make it easy for our friends and supporters to help Save Anchor Hocking. Manufacturing and innovation are very much the backbone of our country and are vital to the success of our communities. We need to act now to save this company and these jobs!

Anchor Hocking glassware has been one of our celebrated American Made products that we sell at Norton’s U.S.A. since we opened seven years ago. We love Anchor Hocking and will help them stay in business anyway we can!

**Save Anchor Hocking is an organization formed by Anchor Hocking employees, business leaders and concerned citizens. It is not part of Anchor Hocking.

For more information:

Grassroots Effort to Save Anchor Hocking

Anchor Hocking union employees reject concessions: plant's fate in doubt

Anchor Hocking plant in Lancaster to resume production next week

 

 

Keep Asking for American Made!

We are making a difference! After reading this article, "Forget ‘Buy American’? U.S. Retailers Push an ‘Imports Work’ Campaign." I knew that the Buy American movement was really getting the message out and times are a changing. More and more of us are asking for Made in U.S.A. products and that scares many retailers who only sell imports. Change can only happen when the people demand it and we are demanding it! 

I encourage you to read the article and read between the lines. Here is one quote, "What’s more, as for those socks imported from China, Baughman says that such products help—rather than hinder—U.S. employment: “It’s Americans that unload the socks at the port. It’s Americans that are involved in the marketing and selling of those socks.” There will always be imports and retailers, so there will always be dock workers and sales associates, but just think how many more people are employed in America when we grow the cotton, make the yarn, knit the sock, package the sock, sell the sock, buy the sock, export the sock and how good we feel when we wear the sock that is completely made in the U.S.A.. By the way, we do make tons of socks completely in America so there is absolutely no reason to buy socks made anywhere else!

I have always believed that all countries should have a strong manufacturing base. What we need now in America is more competition within the industries to help bring prices down. We need a rebirth of our textile industry so we can have more towels, sheets and clothing made here. We need to bring the production of kitchen appliances back to America along with scientific glass, heating elements and power cords suitable to be used in these products. Americans are tired of cheap products that break or don't work after one use. We don't want to be a "throw away society", we want products that last.