Manufacturing symposium showcases wares

About 200 of Long Island's manufacturing faithful -- those who work to get this once huge economic sector roaring again -- gathered at Suffolk Community College Friday to show off their high-tech wares and assure one another that the industry has a future.

The Long Island Manufacturing Symposium at the college's Brentwood campus marked the first time in recent memory that manufacturers on the Island gathered under one roof for what at times seemed like a rally and a prayer. The sector is a skeleton of what it was during the latter half of the last century, when military aircraft-manufacturers Grumman and Fairchild-Republic were the Island's best-known and largest employers.

"We're here to showcase the manufacturing we have," said an event organizer, John Lombardo, the community college's associate vice president for workforce and economic development. "It's alive and well on Long Island."

Certainly alive, but not as robust.

Twenty years ago, manufacturing was Long Island's third-largest sector, constituting 12 percent of the region's workforce. Last spring, it was No. 6, representing only 6 percent of the working population.

Anne Shybunko-Moore, president of the Hauppauge-based defense contractor GSE Dynamics Inc., said during a panel discussion there are manufacturing jobs available but not enough skilled people to fill them.

But the perception, at least, is that manufacturing is dying.

Dennis Goldensohn, a manufacturing coordinator at Westbury-based Arkwin Industries Inc., asked panelists what leaders are doing to promote the sector.

"The short answer is: not enough," said a panelist, Suffolk County Legis. Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor), who also runs a manufacturing company in Westbury.