Last Flatware Factory In U.S. To Close

There's only one flatware factory left in the US, a former Oneida plant bought by Sherrill Manufacturing. In spite of the fact that there's a brisk market in flatware in the US, and that the facility is highly productive and state-of-the-art, the plant will be closed and 80 workers laid off [1].

Earlier this month, the news came out that the Obama administration was going to close the office that reports on jobs lost due to globalization [2], so that it will be much, much harder to check any claims about whether trade was a net cost or benefit to the American worker. While writing about it, I was watching Modern Marvels: Chrome, and they profiled this plant, the last domestic flatware maker, telling viewers:

... "In 2000, the Sherrill Manufacturing facility produced about 170 million pieces of stainless steel flatware. By 2008, due to overseas competitors, that number had dropped to only 10 million pieces." ...

Good thing Modern Marvels' didn't wait too long to shoot their footage. They'd have had to go overseas to film such a thing, otherwise.