Page 36 - MetalForming July 2012

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panies seek to become more flexible and provide more value-added operations...This trend is already reflected in the association’s membership, where some 20 percent of the manufacturing members are primarily metal fabricators and metal spinners, rather than stampers.”
In 1988, Metal Stamping magazine took the name Metal- Forming. Both changes were in recognition of the evolution of so many metal stampers throughout the 1970s and 80s. Describing the reason for changing the magazine’s name, its editor and PMA president Jenson wrote (in the June 1988 issue):
“More than ever before, the metalforming industry—the industry that gives utility to sheetmetal by shaping it with tooling in machines—is blending various types of metal- forming operations. Technologies that were traditionally separate are being merged. The metalforming industry includes contract metal stampers; end-product or captive metal stampers; perforators; precision sheetmetal fabricators;
30-Plus Years of Advocacy
AMSA became very active in government relations in the early 1970s, with the inception of OSHA. Association member- ship doubled in the early 1970s as a result. In the late 1970s, AMSA joined with other industry groups, including the Precision Machined Products Association and the National Tooling and
Machining
Association
(NTMA), to
form the
Alliance of
Metalworking
Industries
(AMI). This
group lobbied
and testified
before Congress on issues affecting the industry.
AMSA formed a political-action committee (PAC) in 1977, primarily to support challengers and congressional races where there were open seats. The philosophy was to focus on change in order to elect a pro-business and pro-manufacturing Congress. The AMSAPAC became the Precision Metalforming Association Political Action Committee (PMAPAC) in 1987, before becoming PMAVIC (PMA Voice of the Industry Committee) in 1995.
AMI weakened and eventually dissolved in the 1980s, as the association found little reason to lobby during the Reagan years. Although PMA continued to be involved in government relations and lobbied before Congress on a handful of issues, it significantly ramped up its lobbying efforts in 2001 as the steel tariffs arrived.
At the summer 2003 PMA board of directors meeting, the board decided to place a strong emphasis on lobbying, and in 2004 PMA hired full-time lobbyists to strengthen our industry’s voice in Washington. In 2008, PMA joined forces with NTMA to lobby as One Voice for the metalworking industry. Ever since, PMA has continued to increase its footprint in Washington, D.C., growing its presence with members of Congress, the Administration and the media.
34 MetalForming/July 2012
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