Childers retires from CMA, board selects Spires

Ray Childers, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Manufacturers Association (CMA) is retiring from his position effective June 30. After 18 years at the helm, Childers is leaving content that the Chattanooga area’s manufacturing community is taking a swing in a positive direction.

He served as personnel director for Dupont’s Chattanooga division for many years before coming to his position at CMA, therefore Childers has seen the many struggles and triumphs of the manufacturing community he has dedicated a great share of his adult life to promoting. His hard work and determination have now culminated in a success story he can be proud he helped write.

“Having Volkswagen choose Chattanooga is certainly huge,” Childers said. “It’s a boon to our region’s economic development, of that there is no doubt. However, long term, the nuclear renaissance will prove there are no other viable options.”

Currently, there are authorizations being sought for 17 nuclear plants, and according to Childers, they are mostly all in the Southeast.

“We’ve got everything it takes to become a nuclear service center,” he said. “We’ve got the expertise at Alstrom along with all kinds of welding and training facilities. We have Westinghouse right here and a reactor simulator.”

Childers also pointed out that Alstrom Power will be producing the huge turbine rotors for power plants, nuclear and otherwise.

“Twenty to 25 percent of all the electricity in the world is produced in whole or in part with equipment made by Alstrom,” he said. “They are an impressively large company, and we are fortunate to have them right here in Chattanooga.”

Childers was pleased that the region around Chattanooga has not been hit as hard as many areas in the U.S. by the downturn in the economy the past few years. With construction in full swing for the Volkswagen plant as well as other businesses that have opened or located to the area due to Volkswagen’s presence, unemployment has been lower than many other manufacturing centers across the nation.

“We expect to come out of the economic downturn at a higher rate than other areas, too,” Childers said. “Our manufacturing heritage is something to be proud of here in Chattanooga. And if Zach Wamp is elected governor, I think he would be the best person for the job. He understands the value of manufacturing and would do a great job at helping the state continue to attract more manufacturing to the state.”

Childers also talked about how Volkswagen is paying their wages to employees.

“They are going to pay exactly what they have to pay to attract and retain the kind of people they need to pay to run their business,” he said. “If they pay any more than that, they’re paying too much. Assembly line work in the automotive industry is tough. It’s fast moving, and those are not jobs for just everybody. In time, people will get up to $25 or $30 per hour, but they will have to prove themselves first.”

Childers said that he hopes the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf will not cause repercussions in the oil industry as a whole.

“President Obama wants them to pay for everything related to the accident,” he said. “But he is going to have to understand that if he is not careful, he is going to kill the goose. The only way BP can afford to pay for all this cleanup work is if they get back to doing what they do to make money — making gasoline out of crude oil. If he just stops them in their tracks, they don’t have enough assets to help clean it up. If he stops them, somebody else is going to have to pay to clean it up.”

Childers will continue to live in the area after retirement and is pleased that manufacturing has been accepted so readily now by almost everyone in the city since the Volkswagen announcement.

“This area is beautiful, and has so much to offer for a quality of life — our tourism economy is making this a great place to live and do business,” he said. “But, if you take manufacturing out of the equation, and it’s family wage jobs, everything collapses. Chattanooga has the best of both worlds right now.”

Childers said his replacement, Tim Spires, comes from a manufacturing background and that he thinks Spires will do very well running CMA.

“I’ll be around in the background to help Tim in anyway I can,” Childers said. “I’ve enjoyed my time with the membership, and intend to do what I can in a more limited basis to see them continue to do well.”