Our View: Pride, grit are foundation of ‘American-made'

Hose manufacturing isn't easy.

It's good work, yes, but it can be demanding work—rewarding work. And the men and women who made a living at Continental ContiTech's Lincoln, Neb., plant likely would attest to all three.

They even could have shown you the callouses that built up on their hands and fingers—callouses from moving the hoses on and off the mandrels day after day.

It took some time, but those callouses eventually faded.

Because just about two decades previous, the molded hose manufacturing that had been an essential part of the plant's operation, moved to a Conti plant in Mexico, leaving layoffs in its wake at Lincoln.

Moves like that are never easy for the employees and communities impacted. In fact, it would have been easy for bitterness and anger to linger and, over time, build up callouses of a different kind.

But that's not the case with the ContiTech team in Lincoln.

When Conti's manufacturing operations in Chihuahua, Mexico, temporarily closed in 2020—shutdowns dictated by the global pandemic—the company was facing supply chain disruptions for some of its major OEM customers. Customers such as agricultural giants John Deere and Bobcat, considered essential to farmers who worked to keep food on store shelves and tables.

But there also was Lincoln.

The plant where that hose production had been a key part of daily operations until the early 2000s. The plant where workers on the shop floor today could remember the hose-making process because they had made those molded hoses themselves all those years ago.

They could make the hoses again.

And they did, it turns out, without a second thought.

Because while time had erased the callouses they had built up on their hands, it never erased the pride—the pride that comes with building good, quality products in the American Midwest. The kind of pride that grows from knowing you gave your all to the task at hand and made a difference for your community, your company and the industry at large.

It was the kind of spirit and grit that the world needed most in those early days of the pandemic. And Lincoln had it.

Lincoln did what it needed to do. It stepped up. It took back the hose manufacturing, knowing full well the move was a temporary one. And the men and women who worked at the facility did all they could to ensure customers got the high-quality, molded hose products they needed. On time.

The commitment was evident in the way the United Steelworkers local there worked closely with Conti leadership to ensure that the production could be done, even if it meant bending a few rules along the way.

Men and women—regardless of what department they worked in—did what they could. They learned new skills, problem-solved, stayed late and came in early, just to ensure the products needed were made and delivered as promised.

And it wasn't long before those callouses were building up again. The kind that come from a good day's work of moving hoses on and off the mandrels day after day.

Hose making, after all, is good work. Rewarding work. The kind of work you know makes a difference in the lives of others, because you know those parts you make go on the agricultural equipment that helps to keep the country fed.

The men and women at the Lincoln plant will be the first to tell you this. They even have callouses to prove it.