{"id":5844,"date":"2010-10-13T12:42:19","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T16:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=5844"},"modified":"2010-10-13T12:42:19","modified_gmt":"2010-10-13T16:42:19","slug":"backfire-bernero-backed-firm-offshores-jobs-to-asia-the-michigan-view-10-13-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2010\/10\/backfire-bernero-backed-firm-offshores-jobs-to-asia-the-michigan-view-10-13-10","title":{"rendered":"Backfire: Bernero-backed firm offshores jobs to Asia (The Michigan View 10.13.10)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A medical devices firm that Virg Bernero has touted as\u00a0an example<\/a> of his success bringing jobs to Lansing has outsourced manufacturing to Southeast Asia and is further expanding its Malaysian operations with 200 employees.<\/p>\n

Details of Symmetry Medical\u2019s vast international operations come at the same time The Angry Mayor has made corporate offshoring a cornerstone of his gubernatorial campaign. Bernero has accused his GOP opponent and ex-Gateway CEO Rick Snyder of funding a firm, Discera, that recently opened a five-man office in China, arguing that it robs Michigan of jobs.<\/p>\n

But the Bernero-favored Symmetry dwarfs Discera in locating jobs in low-cost Asian nations.<\/p>\n

Thanks to special MEDC tax favors, Symmetry is expanding its Lansing operations, but the Penang operation is Symmetry\u2019s fastest-growing facility worldwide. \u201cDevelopment plans for Symmetry Penang’s operations are significant and include . . . instrument and implant manufacturing exclusively for Asian markets,” its CEO Brian Moore\u00a0told TheEdgeMaylasia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked at a Detroit News editorial board interview if Symmetry is engaged in the very same practices \u2014 growing sales opportunities in Asia \u2014 that he hammered Discera for, the usually glib Bernero was incoherent.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes Snyder have the right to expand? Absolutely,\u201d said Bernero before launching into an attack on why Dicsera did not have a right to expand in Asia. He said that Symmetry was growing jobs in Michigan \u2014 but so is tiny Discera which has 41 employees, 27 of them stateside.<\/p>\n

Indeed, if Discera is a public nuisance, then Symmetry is a serial offender. Discera\u2019s office in China is 300-square-foot with three salespeople, one field applications engineer, and an administrative assistant (the lone engineer Benero found particularly troubling as our The Buzz\u2019s Dan Calabrese reports\u00a0here)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bernero\u2019s pals at New York Stock Exchange-listed Symmetry (Wall Street not Main Street!) have a 50,000 sq. ft. facility where the company outsources manufacture of its implants, instruments and sterilization cases. Its new $15 million facility there will be hiring DOZENS of engineers and other personnel to serve as an international sales centre.<\/p>\n

The Symmetry double-standard comes as Bernero \u2014 down big points in the polls \u2014 flails wildly at his opponent trying to make some impression on his \u201cjobs, jobs, jobs\u201d resume. “We think it’s unconscionable that someone who wants to be Michigan’s governor is helping Chinese companies gain a competitive edge,” says a Bernero campaign spokesman.<\/p>\n

Really? By that strained standard, the mayor himself has been integral in helping Chinese companies. He lobbied for the GM bailout – the same GM that has 21,000 employees in China in a minority partnership with Shanghai Motors, a Chinese government company that produces cars for the Chinese market.<\/p>\n

Southeast Asia is the world\u2019s biggest, fastest-growing market. Bernero\u2019s threats to discourage Michigan firms there is suicidal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A medical devices firm that Virg Bernero has touted as\u00a0an example of his success bringing jobs to Lansing has outsourced manufacturing to Southeast Asia and is further expanding its Malaysian operations with 200 employees. Details of Symmetry Medical\u2019s vast international operations come at the same time The Angry Mayor has made corporate offshoring a cornerstone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5846,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844\/revisions\/5846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}