Mark Stevenson

Associated Press
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August 27, 2025
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Manufacturing's Brain Drain Crisis: Capturing Critical Knowledge Before It Retires
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Disputed Ballots Could Swing Outcome of Union Election at EV Battery Complex in Kentucky
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Milwaukee Tool Employee Allegedly Shipped More Than $1 Million in Tools to Himself
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Finishing World
SUR/FIN 2016 Interview Series
In this March 5, 2016 photo, Park Min-sook, 43, a former Samsung chip worker and a breast cancer survivor, explains how silicon wafers are used in the semiconductor process during an interview in Seoul, South Korea. An Associated Press investigation has found South Korean authorities have, at Samsung’s request, repeatedly withheld crucial information about the chemicals that workers were exposed to at its computer chip and liquid crystal display factories. Workers who have fallen ill due to the chemicals have the right to access such data so they can apply for workers’ compensation from the state. Without this information, government officials commonly reject their cases.
Product Development
Samsung Worker Working Conditions
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Today in Manufacturing has a new podcast brought to you by the editors of Industrial Media. In each episode, we discuss the five biggest stories in manufacturing, and the implications they have on the industry moving forward.
August 27, 2025
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Safety
Mexico Union Wins After U.S. Labor Complaint
But abuses go on.
April 25, 2023
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Operations
Mexican President Says Tesla to Build Plant in Mexico
He says the company has committed to building a plant in Monterrey.
February 28, 2023
A man works in a shoe maquiladora or factory, in Leon, Mexico, Monday, Feb. 7, 2023.
Operations
U.S. Complaints Help Union Organizing Efforts in Mexico
It has been nearly two years since the U.S. started pressing Mexico over labor rights violations.
February 13, 2023
General Motors assembly plant, Silao, Mexico, Feb. 12, 2008.
Operations
Union Vote by GM Workers in Mexico a Test for Labor Rights
It could be one of the first truly independent auto labor unions in Mexican history.
February 1, 2022
Machinery sits at the Etheuss vetiver oil factory after it was made inoperable by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021. Many of the factories that contributed to the multimillion-dollar industry responsible for more than half the world's vetiver oil used in fine perfumes, cosmetics, soaps and aromatherapy, are now inoperable.
Safety
Oxygen Plant Among Earthquake-Damaged Buildings in Haiti
It had the capacity to supply 40 oxygen cylinders per day.
August 20, 2021
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Product Development
Scientist Nabbed for Russia Spying is Mexican Hero
The microbiologist also has wives in Mexico and Russia.
February 20, 2020
A farmhand harvests avocados at an orchard, near Ziracuaretiro, Michoacan state, Mexico. Avocado pickers earn an attractive wage for the region but the work is seasonal and so physically demanding that few can continue working beyond the age of 45.
Food & Beverage
'Green Gold' Brings Riches, Violence
Avocado growers are arming themselves with AR-15 rifles to guard against thieves and drug cartel extortionists.
October 23, 2019
Avocado
Food & Beverage
Mexicans Dismayed by Avocado Price Climb
Increased demand in the United States and a slight drop in production are to blame.
July 15, 2019
Assistant Labor Secretary Alfredo Dominguez speaks during an interview in Mexico City, in Mexico City, Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Dominguez said that a majority of the country’s union contracts are probably fake, pro-company deals that provide only minimal wages and benefits.
Supply Chain
Official: Pro-Company Unions Will Melt Away
A majority of Mexico's union contracts are probably fake, he said.
May 15, 2019
In this Jan. 9, 2019 file photo, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gives a press conference in Mexico City. Lopez Obrador said Thursday, Feb. 28, that wages should rise “but we shouldn’t create an atmosphere of labor instability.” He is now trying to close the Pandora’s box of wage demands he helped unleash when he doubled the minimum wage in border areas.
Regulation
Mexican President Urges Reason
He's trying to close the Pandora's box of wage demands he helped unleash when he doubled the minimum wage along Mexico's northern border.
March 1, 2019
Operations
Mexican Union Declares Victory in Strike
The Industrial Workers and Laborers' Union won 20 percent wage increases at all 48 "maquiladora" factories.
February 12, 2019
In this Feb. 21, 2014 file photo, employees at work in the new multibillion-dollar Honda car plant in Celaya, in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. Many in the U.S. government, and even some in Mexico, say the new trade agreement reached in Aug. 2018, between the two countries will help increase the extremely low wages in Mexico's auto industry.
Supply Chain
Trade Deal Won't Boost Mexico Wages
Activists say the only way to do that is for Mexico to change labor laws that effectively leave workers helpless.
August 31, 2018
In this Oct. 9, 2014 file photo, a woman is reflected in a Coca-Cola store window display as she drinks a Coke in Mexico City. Mexicans are among the biggest soda drinkers in the world, so residents of the southern city of Ciudad Altamirano were hit hard when first Coca-Cola then Pepsi closed their distribution centers amid drug gang extortion demands.
Supply Chain
Soda Bottlers Flee Crime-Ridden City
Investigators say criminal groups may have been trying to extort money from the companies.
June 14, 2018
In this Friday, Dec.27, 2013 file photo, workers manufacture car dash mats at a maquiladora belonging to the TECMA group in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. In Mexico where the auto industry has boomed under the North American Free Trade Agreement, the industry has created a class of workers who are barely getting by. Many can’t afford even a used car, taking home as little as $50 per week after deductions for mortgages and cafeteria meals.
Supply Chain
Employees Make $2/hr to Build $40K SUVs
The premise of the auto industry since the times of Henry Ford was that workers would make enough to buy the cars they produced, but that's not a reality in Mexico.
September 26, 2017