LACONIA — Governor Maggie Hassan touted the virtues of advanced manufacturing yesterday as she visited New Hampshire Ball Bearings' Astro Division as part of her "Innovate NH" tour, which features stops at cutting edge businesses across the Granite State.
''When I tell high school students what starting salaries are in high tech manufacturing they're amazed,'' said Hassan, who said that focusing on helping people develop skills for jobs in an innovative economy is her major priority as governor.
Manufacturing accounts for $18.5-billion in gross state product, making it the single largest sector of New Hampshire's economy (19-percent), according to a study released in 2011 by the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies.
That study also showed that manufacturers employ 77,000 people in the state and pay out $6.4 billion in wages and benefits each year.
But an aging workforce and the lack of skilled workers to take their place has produced a labor shortage in the state, which mirrors national tends according to Gary Groleau, manager of Labor Relations and Organizational Development for NHBB.
Groleau says that there are 400,000 skilled manufacturing job vacancies nationally, 1,200 of which are in New Hampshire, even though the state has lost 35,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.
''We're the fourth oldest state in the country with an average age of 40.4 years. Only Maine, Vermont and West Virginia are older,'' says Groleau, who said that the state has lost 35,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.
That same age dynamic is in play at NHBB, a leading manufacturer of precision bearings and complex bearing assemblies for the aerospace, defense, medical, dental, and high-technology markets, according to Groleau.
He says that the average age of workers at the plant is 49 for those in the office and 48 for those in production, with 37 workers in the 61-71 age bracket and 52 in the 55-60 age bracket, which means that a significant number will be retiring in the near future.
''We have 15 production worker vacancies right now and in some cases those jobs have nearly six figure salaries along with benefits,'' says Groleau.
He said that NHBB has partnered with higher education institutions, including Lakes Region Community College, to develop the workforce training programs needed to fill jobs at the company.
Groleau, who is also a member of the N.H. Board of Education, says that there are some very positive developments at the local level, including what he said is the extraordinary effort underway in the $16.8 million complete overhaul of the Huot Regional Technical Education Center in Laconia, which is strengthening the pre-engineering and manufacturing programs there.
He's a member of an advisory committee working with Lakes Region Community College to develop an advanced manufacturing program which will help provide workers with the skills needed to work with the sophisticated equipment high tech industries use.
Tom Goulette, academic affairs vice president at LRCC, says the college has received a three-year $979,000 grant to develop an advanced manufacturing program. The grant is part of nearly $20-million federal grant received by the state last year as part of a national $500-million program for community colleges.
Hassan says that her budget proposal is designed to advance her "Innovate NH" jobs plan and aims to build a strong, highly skilled workforce that will attract innovative businesses and good jobs. She said her proposal substantially restores cuts made to New Hampshire's public universities and community colleges in exchange for freezing in-state tuition for the next two years in order to make higher education more affordable and accessible.
She also supports doubling the research and development tax credit from $1 million to $2 million a year in order to support innovation by both existing companies and new start-up firms.
NHBB employs nearly 500 people at its Astro Division in Laconia and another 700 in Peterborough and has a $52 million payroll in the state, according to Rich Bardellini, NHBB's vice president for manufacturing, who said that since NHBB was acquired by the international firm Minebea in 1985 the company, the world's largest producer on miniature ball bearings, has invested $63 million in its Laconia plant.
Bardellini said that the company enjoyed its best year ever in 2012 and continues to invest in Laconia, where its' new product development center recently hired five research and development engineers, two of whom are PhD's, and applied for three patents last year as a result of its research.
He said that 97 percent of the Astro Division's products are used by the defense and aerospace industries and that the company is deeply concerned over automatic federal budget cuts which will take place if the budget sequestration measure takes effect.

CAPTION: Governor Maggie Hassan talks about advanced manufacturing during a Thursday visit to New Hampshire Ball Bearings' Astro Division as part of her "Innovate NH" tour. With her are Scott Davis of the Huot Technical Center, left, and Richard Bardellini, vice president of Manufacturing for NHBB, and Gary Groleau, manager of Labor Relations and Organizational Development for NHBB. (Roger Amsden/for The Laconia Daily Sun)

LACONIA — The Belknap County Commissioners voted yesterday to approve the collective bargaining agreements negotiated with the three unions representing employees of the Belknap County Nursing Home, Sheriff's Department and Corrections Department. The unions ratified the contracts last week. But, there is little likelihood the agreements will be funded.
Before the commission can ratify the contracts, the Belknap County Convention must approve the cost items included in them — step raises for eligible employees at $115,000 along with approximately $35,000 in funding for bonuses for unused sick days and longevity of service. The convention has eliminated the funding not only for these three cost items but also for the increase in health insurance premiums from the 2013 county budget.
The commission asked the convention to consider the cost items in the new contracts when the convention met this week, but after placing the subject on the agenda, Rep. Colette Worsman (R-Meredith), who chairs the convention, refused to bring the item to the floor for discussion.
The agreements include the merit step raises for eligible employees recommended by the Belknap County Commission but stripped from the 2013 county budget by the Belknap County Convention. Although employees would receive no increase to their salary schedules this year, they would be awarded a two-percent raise for every level in June, 2014, prior to the expiration of the agreement, funds for which would be appropriated in the 2014 county budget.
The employees' contributions to the cost of health insurance remain unchanged. However, the contracts include incentives designed to reduce health care costs by providing employees paths to wellness. The entire county complex would become a non-smoking area. All employees would be required to undergo a health assessment and physical examination as well as participate in a wellness program. The contribution to premium costs of those who failed to comply would increase by as much as three times. The program is intended to lower the risk profile of county employees and with it future premium costs.
The county's union contracts expired at the end of 2012. If the new contracts are not ratified, the relationship between the county and its union employees will revert to the status quo. In return for employees foregoing the right to strike and in order to provide employers with incentive to bargain, public employee contracts are governed by the so-called "doctrine of status quo." It stipulates that when collective bargaining agreements expire their terms and conditions, except for so-called cost items, remain in effect pending ratification of a new agreement.
Step raises, or new rates of pay specified by a salary schedule for an additional year of service, qualify as cost items and are not awarded in lieu of a new contract. But, since health insurance is a defined benefit in the contracts, without an assigned dollar value, public employers are obliged to continue to pay their agreed upon percentage of premium costs for specified policies, regardless of the cost of the premiums.
Without funding for the 7.3-percent increase in health insurance premiums, the county commission could find itself with the choice of asking employees to contribute a greater share to the cost their health insurance or laying off enough employees to provide health insurance to the remainder at the new cost. If employees were to bear the additional cost, the contribution of those with two-person and family plans, who currently contribute five-percent, to 11.5-percent.

LACONIA — The Belknap County Commissioners yesterday refused to permit the Belknap County Convention to hire legal counsel to represent the convention in litigation challenging the legitimacy of the election of its officers by secret paper ballot. The lawsuit was brought in Belknap County Superior by Tom Tardif.
Although the convention and commission are at loggerheads over their respective authority over the county budget, the convention acknowledged that state statute authorizes the commissioners to hire legal counsel to represent the county and sought its permission to engage independent counsel. In denying the request, the commission agreed that it would hire an attorney to defend the convention against the suit.
In a petition filed earlier this month, Tardif, a former mayor of Laconia and local government watchdog and David Gammon, representing themselves, charge that the election of Representatives Colette Worsman (R-Meredith) as chairman and Bob Greemore (R-Meredith) as vice-chairman at the organizational meeting on December 10 was "a clear attempt to circumvent the state's Right-To-Know laws."
Citing the minutes, Tardif notes that when the organizational meeting convened "a senior member referred to a case from 1971 and indicated that the election of officers should be done by secret ballot." By a show of hands all 16 members of the convention present concurred. Worsman and Greemore were elected by a secret paper ballot.
Tardif claims that the Right-to-Know Law (RSA 91-A) includes no exception for secret ballots, but on the contrary stipulates that all votes taken in public meetings "shall be by roll call vote." Moreover the Attorney General's memorandum on the Right-to-Know advises that, "No vote in a public meeting may be taken by secret ballot" except for town meetings and elections, school district meetings and elections and village district meetings and elections."
When the convention met this week Rep. Frank Tilton (R-Laconia) asserted that the election of officers was legitimate and offered a motion to "reaffirm" it. He recalled that when the convention elected Sheriff Craig Wiggin to complete the term of Dan Collis by secret ballot was successfully challenged in the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the remedy was to reaffirm the original vote. Since Tardif has challenged the legitimacy of subsequent actions taken by the convention, Tilton suggested that by reaffirming its election of officers the convention would protect its forthcoming vote on the 23013 county budget.
Rep. David Huot (D-Laconia), an attorney and retired judge, cautioned the convention against acting without the advice of legal counsel. Representative Dennis Fields (R-Sanbornton), alone among the 13 Republicans who constitute a majority of the 18 members of the convention, balked, protesting that no notice was given that the issue would come before the meeting.
With no further debate, Tilton's motion carried by a vote of eleven-to-two and four abstentions, with eleven of the twelve Republicans present voting in favor and two of the five Democrats voting against. Fields and three Democrats abstained.
Likewise, on advice of bond counsel the convention reaffirmed the vote of its executive committee to authorize the county treasurer to borrow up to $10-million in anticipation of property taxes. Bond counsel was concerned that the suit filed by Tardif also clouded the election of the executive committee composed of Representatives Worsman, Tilton, Bob Greemore and Herb Vadney of Meredith, all Republicans.