Kentucky Second District Congressman Brett Guthrie was in Elizabethtown Thursday, and as part of the visit toured Fischbach USA.
Guthrie said coming from a manufacturing background he was excited to see behind the scenes at Fishbach, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, and said his conversations were focused on helping to sustain growth.
“The number one thing that we brought out of here, well two things, is environmental laws don’t over-impact, make sure plastic is important, plastic has a role,” Guthrie said. “You can’t just will away plastic until somebody invents something different, that’s what the marketplace is moving for. But I think the big thing is employment, access to employees. I know that’s on everybody’s mind here, even Ford BlueOval SK as they grow here, and the skill trades.”
Guthrie said earlier in the day he met with officials at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, and said the federal government can better leverage resources to support programs that help employees pursue education while supporting their families.
“Okay, work part time, and we’ll pay for you to go to school and have the same salary and have some commitment to come back, and how does the federal government help with that?” Guthrie said. “It helps people stay employed, and it helps people to more importantly make a better life for themselves.”
Fischbach USA General Manager Kirk Chadwick said developing opportunities for the manufacturing workforce is a goal all area industry members can get behind.
“We’re a German company, and that culture there is really an apprenticeship culture which really says every manufacturing company is going to hire more apprentices than they need and make sure they get trained, and they won’t hire them all to work in their organization but they’ll go into this larger pool that will then allow all boats to rise, and that’s really a culture we need to develop here in order to make sure that we have the people that we need to do what we need to do,” Chadwick said.
Guthrie said he is working on lowering costs and reducing regulatory burdens in order to help Kentucky businesses sustain job growth.
