HABCO WELCOMES JOHN RATZENBERGER, HOST OF “MADE IN AMERICA” TV SERIES ON MANUFACTURING

Actor John Ratzenberger, perhaps best known as the barfly postman Cliff Clavin on TV’s Cheers, visited HABCO on Wednesday, 1/25/12, to talk about his new real life role as champion for American manufacturing. He has spoken out for American manufacturers at congressional hearings, and in 2004 John also created, produced, and hosted Made in America, a show for the Travel Channel. In the show he visited 200 U.S. companies to celebrate the men and women still making products on American soil. He is also completing an independent film about the current job crisis, Industrial Tsunami.

John is currently involved in promoting a program called MOST, which stands for Mobile Outreach Skills Training.  This private, for profit group has a fleet of 18 wheeler mobile training centers which travels from manufacturing site to site, training workers for specific skills needed by that company.  Students are not taken unless a job is already in place for them by the sponsoring company. MOST has also reached out to our veterans with the “Putting Veterans Back to Work” program, which helps them transfer skills learned while serving in the military and teaching new skills towards a career in manufacturing. The goal is to combat unemployment rates of over 20% for veterans of our current conflicts by placing them in careers that produce high quality goods made on American soil. For more information, please visit http://www.timewisems.com/MOST.html.

John is also a Senior Fellow for Center for America, an organization who’s leading the campaign to rebuild America’s skilled workforce. The organization has many different programs, including the new “10 x 20 Pledge for America”. Its goal is to have 10 million new skilled workers by the year 2020. Information for Center for America and their different programs can be found at http://www.centerforamerica.org/.

John will be joining HABCO, Farmington Bank, and other local CT manufacturers in sponsoring a bike ride in the fall of 2012 to raise money and awareness for the need for job training for veterans returning to CT.