Meeting to discuss ways to bolster Illinois' manufacturing base and jobs

Republican State Senator Bill Brady, the GOP candidate for Illinois governor, Congressman Peter Roskam (R-6th District), and numerous federal, state and local candidates for public office are among about 500 people expected at the Manufacturing First! Town Hall Meeting on April 19 hosted by the Central States Chapter of the Metals Service Center Institute, based in Rolling Meadows, Ill.

The meeting will run from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., and includes formal presentations, comments by the public officials and an audience Q&A session. Topics to be addressed are the many threats to U.S. manufacturing base, including rapidly rising costs, excessive regulation, adverse trade practices and policies, and consequences of the anti-business attitude of many politicians in Washington.

Brady, Roskam and other public officials have confirmed their intention to attend. Others who have committed to attend include Republican Congressional candidates Michael Bendas (3rd District), David Ratowitz (5th District), Joe Walsh (8th District), and Teri Davis Newman (12th District). Green Party Congressional candidates Anthony Williams (2nd District) and Dan Karis (14th District) also plan to attend. Others expected to attend include Indiana State Senator Lonnie Randolph, 2nd District Democrat; Illinois House members Mark Walker, 66th District Democrat and Mike Sweeney, 48th District Republican. Officials from Elk Grove Township will also attend.

Presentations will be made by Bill Jones, vice chairman of O'Neal Industries of Birmingham, Ala., and chairman of the MSCI national organization; Bill Hickey, president of Lapham-Hickey Steel Corporation, Chicago; Jim Miller, partner, Winston & Strawn LLP, Washington, D.C., and Kevin M. Dempsey, senior vice president, public policy, and general counsel of the American Iron & Steel Institute, Washington, D.C. The session will be moderated by Bob Weidner, president and CEO, MSCI.

Founded in 1909, the Metals Service Center Institute has more than 375 members operating from about 1,200 locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere in the world. Together, MSCI members constitute the largest single group of metals distributors in North America, amounting each year to more than 55 million tons of steel, aluminum, and other metals, with about 300,000 manufacturers and fabricators as customers. MSCI's membership also includes almost all ferrous and non-ferrous industrial metals producers in North America. Metals service centers inventory and distribute metals and provide first-stage fabrication services.