How can American manufacturers stay competitive in the age of globalization?

By investing in America's workers.

That was the gist of the New Markets and Organizing forum at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO's convention this past week.

Labor unions are a boon for inventors looking for committed, educated workers to manufacture new products, said Mark Kamlet, provost and executive vice president of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU):

We need to make a stronger case for the cost savings of union labor. People know when you're organized, you're committed to the work and the employer. And I can't tell you how many times our scientists remark that their greatest insights come from workers on the shop floor.

Need proof? Just look at RedZone Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based firm that manufactures robots for sewer inspections, Kamlet said. The firm hired Operating Engineers (IUOE) members who secured new clients for the fledging company by connecting it to municipalities IUOE had worked with.

If Pennsylvania is known as a place where you can interface with workers, workers can help you get your product going—it's going to be a draw.

Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale said that these growing partnerships fill a critical need to educate companies about the potential of American labor.

We need to position ourselves to be in a stronger place as these markets emerge. If we'd started going to [CMU] earlier and said, we can help you make that because we have workers who build the finest technologies in the world, maybe we'd be building iPads in Pittsburgh now.