(bright cheerful music) (gentle upbeat music) - This is "10thirtysix."

I'm Portia Young.

A reshoring renaissance is underway in the United States and here in Wisconsin, bringing manufacturing back home.

In partnership with the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel," "10thirtysix" is taking a look at how this is impacting companies and communities in our state.

We begin in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

(lively instrumental music) (tools humming) (sparks cracking) (lively instrumental music continues) - Stoughton Trailers has been around since 1961.

We've always been a family-owned company, predominantly with manufacturing in Southern Wisconsin.

And our primary products support the transportation industry including semi trailers, container chassis, and grain trailers.

(tool thrumming) (lively instrumental music) (machine clacking) In the late '90s, early 2000s, we were one of the largest manufacturers in North America of intermodal containers and chassis.

(tool humming) (sparks crackling) And in about the early 2000s, China came in very aggressively, and they had a goal of not only dominating that market but wiping everybody else out, and they did.

(devices humming) (devices power down) (dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) - [Rick] Stoughton Trailer CEO Bob Wahlin clearly remembers what it was like back in 2007 to lay off hundreds of workers and shut down their plant in Evansville, Wisconsin.

- We couldn't get raw material to our plants for a cost equivalent to what they were bringing finished products into the ports of China and delivering into the US at, so there was just no way to compete.

And in a few short years, they not only wiped out our participation in those products, they wiped out everybody else's of any significance in North America.

(tense dramatic music) It's frustrating.

It's this strong superpower on the other side of the world that isn't playing by the international trade rules and regulations.

(drill buzzing) We live right in the communities.

And when you have those layoffs, just seeing how it's significantly impacted them, and it's your friends, it's your neighbors, it's the people you've worked with for a number of decades.

And you know, being in a spot where you have to let them go, it's disappointing and it makes you wanna fight back.

- [Rick] And fight back they did.

A coalition of US companies, including Stoughton Trailers, filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission that Chinese competitors were selling trailer chassis in the United States for below the actual cost, a trade violation known as dumping.

It was April 11th, 2021 when Wahlin stood alone inside that idle Evansville plant and got some important news.

- My phone started to vibrate, and at that time I was waiting for an update from our team in Washington, DC, our legal team, that was waiting for the vote from the International Trade Commission on our anti-dumping countervailing duty case.

And it was just a real quick short sentence that we were successful on a unanimous vote with the ITC, and it was just such a overwhelming feeling of various emotions, excitement, a little bit of disbelief, but also motivation and start really planning and making changes to get that plant back up and going again.

(devices humming) (energetic upbeat music) - [Rick] The April ruling from the US International Trade Commission became a seminal moment in an industry trend called reshoring, which is the return of work from overseas for reasons that can include trade wars and tariffs.

In some cases, companies have moved work back after taking it overseas.

In other cases, like Stoughton Trailers, they have restored production that had been lost to foreign competitors.

- How are you?

Thanks for having us.

- Thank you.

- Thanks- (device pounding) - How you doing?

Thank you.

- Very good.

- [Rick] Former US Congressman Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Allouez and Northeast Wisconsin, served as chair of the House Select Committee on Competition with China.

During a visit to the company back in August, 2023, Gallagher praised Stoughton Trailers for standing up to Chinese competitors.

- I think Stoughton's story is a great example of American grit and determination in the face of China's economic warfare.

- I'd like to think that, and I take a lot of pride in that.

And look, a small family-run business in South Central Wisconsin is able to go and take on a company dominated by the government of China that has the full force of the Chinese government, that we can take 'em on and win.

I'm proud if people look at that as an example of what an American company can do.

- They won the case.

Tariffs were put in place as a result.

And that helped them now add a new production line here, open up new facilities in other places like Waco, so it's an inspiring story.

But they shouldn't be left on their own, left to file legal defenses.

There should be a coherent government strategy so we have their back.

- [Producer] Are tariffs on Chinese goods a lasting solution or more of a short-term fix to address dumping specifically?

- Yeah, I think there're a short term solution designed to buy time where we can restructure our economic relationship with China.

Tariffs can increase the cost of goods, but you gotta weigh that against the cost of having an entire American company or an entire American industry disappear because by the time Chinese goods arrive on American soil, they've been so heavily subsidized by the Chinese government that no American company can compete fairly with them.

So that's always the risk-reward, but they can be used when applied strategically and effectively.

They can be useful.

- [Rick] Reshoring has been accompanied by other trends such as factory automation and hiring people from other places due to local worker shortages.

- The biggest shift is it's gone from really physical labor to much more automation, right?

That physical labor has been replaced with a more mental labor on programming, on running robots, on setting up material control systems and automation and a drive to do things easier but also raise that quality level.

We've had such fast growth, we've had to kind of go outside of the current market to keep up with that growth.

That doesn't mean we're not hiring local workers.

It's a mix of both.

We've had up to 250 employees that we've transferred from Puerto Rico, so there was a lot of people from Puerto Rico with the hurricanes and some of the development in that country that were looking to come to the mainland and work.

- [Rick] 25-year-old Alfredo Orengo is one of those workers.

- And when the hurricane came, our house, the roof came up and it damaged everything on the inside, the living room, the bedroom and everything.

When I got here, I didn't know anything about trailers.

I'm a production supervisor.

I'm in charge of the front of the line, so you're gonna see how we build the entire wall.

With this job, I bought my dad two brand new cars, improvement in their house and everything.

I put a new roof on it.

So yeah, it's been nice.

- Hey, guys.

How you doing?

- Hey, Bob.

- [Rick] Wahlin says he can repeat Alfredo Orengo's success story for the next generation of workers coming from Wisconsin's Technical College System.

- [Wahlin] We have a strong investment in our people, and it's not just training them on how to weld, but it's training 'em on lean manufacturing.

Six Sigma Black Belt, Green Belt Certifications and other areas.

And the technical colleges have been very key in that.

- [Rick] Wahlin agrees that China is still considered the factory of the world, but knows that his company's strong sense of American pride will keep manufacturing thriving in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the United States.

- They are out to dominate.

They are out to not just beat, but crush and eliminate the competition.

If we can't build it ourselves and something escalates, whether it's another COVID or something worse globally, where are we gonna get everything, right?

We don't have to be 100% self-sufficient as a country, but we need to be self-sufficient at a core level on many critical items 'cause if we don't have that, that's a security threat to everybody that lives in the United States.

So, you see some of the American flags around the plant.

You get a pride and a sense of, you know, we can compete with them.

We can fight back and we can build it better than they can.

And you get angry, you get protective, and you're ready for that fight.

- Next time, "10thirtysix" profiles a Sussex company that's found a way to "Bringing it Home."

Our democracy now and how voters view our government was the latest topic for our ongoing Vote 2024 Table Talk initiative.

This is in partnership with Marquette University's Civic Dialogues Program.

According to Gallup, just 28% of Americans are satisfied with the way democracy is working in our country.

We asked our diverse group of voters gathered at Engine Company No.

3 to share their thoughts on that.

(lively pensive music) (lively pensive music continues) - I think a lot of that is individual and plural and communal.

You know, if I think about, you know, how my government is working for me, what connections I have, how I'm feeling, how are my rights being protected or represented?

That's a whole different conversation than if I'm talking about the state of Wisconsin or the community at large or other communities that are out there.

So I'm always interested in polling questions like that when it comes to just how positive my democracy is based on my personal life and then linking it to my economics or my social wellbeing or other things.

And then, do I care about the rights of others that are out there and about how they're experiencing America the same way that I am?

Maybe I do, maybe I don't depending on that, the question that's raised that way.

- What concerns me is how we're reacting to our concerns about democracy 'cause I could be a person who says, "I'm really concerned about democracy and I see it slipping."

But I think the important thing is, you know, what are we doing about it?

- When I hear that percentage, I think that older generation numbers would have been higher but right now the younger generations who are becoming more vocal are so fed up with the system.

So it may become a process of regression regarding having to almost tear down what has been here 'cause it's just not working anymore.

And I think everyone needs to... You're not gonna come to an agreement what democracy is, but you need to be able to come to an agreement on how it can grow and what it should represent and then build on that, right?

And I don't think right now we have a lot of people in power that can help do that.

And so that's where I think that percentage comes in.

The people with power, like, who's controlling our democracy?

- Your figure, 28%, I find a little, somewhat shocking.

I remember a recent figure not too long ago that the overall approval rate of Congress was around 11%, which when you think about it is absolutely horrible.

And I don't know that people think about democracy so much as they do, is our government working?

And I don't think they see 'em in the term of democracy, per se, okay?

They're seeing the fact that Congress is at a stalemate.

They don't seem to get anything done.

They're always in a bottleneck.

They're always at each other's throats.

They can't pass a budget.

We haven't had budget in, seems like decades.

They're always passing these resolutions, you know, and I think people are just disgusted with that.

And I think part of it is the fact that we've got, some of our representatives have, whether they be in Senate or the House, they've been there for 30, 40, 50 years.

Our Constitution wasn't set up, our country wasn't set up for these people to be professional politicians.

They were supposed to go there, get a job done, and come back, and you know, whatever.

So I think there's a lot of unhappiness with the way that the government's working.

But I don't know that people think in the terms of democracy, per se.

I really don't.

- I do think I agree with you, that I do think people are really frustrated with there being a stalemate in Congress.

I also really think that people feel like there is no way they are being represented.

I think that's a big thing where they don't understand that like, representatives don't really seem like someone who would actually represent your interests.

They seem like people who just are career politicians who've been doing that for a long period of time, who get money from people who have a lot of money, who might have way more access to them and way more... Their interests might be represented way better than everyday everyone else in the country.

And I think that is, it becomes more and more tangible in a way where there feels like there's not much redistribution of power in the country overall.

It feels like very, very few people hold a lot of power.

At least I think that's what it feels like, and that doesn't feel very democratic.

- We will share more of this conversation and others in upcoming specials this fall right here on Milwaukee PBS.

And now more on the mental health series right here on "10thirtysix," "How We Heal."

Psychotherapist and producer Elizabeth Cramer explains the healing powers of art.

(birds chirping) (warm guitar music) (group chattering) - Hi, I'm Andrea Fischer, and I'm from Mental Health America Lakeshore.

Today we're gonna have our hike and then we're gonna go into Connie's classroom and we're gonna be making a map, a fantasy map and drawing because we know that drawing and art make us feel better too, right?

It can put things on paper that we can't always express in words.

(warm instrumental music) (birds chirping) I think those turtles down there would make you all smile because look at them.

They're so cute.

- Oh.

(warm guitar music) (water splashes) (group chattering indistinctly) (warm guitar music continues) - Do you ever use art to feel better when you're not feeling good?

- Yep.

I use it a lot.

- [Elizabeth] Okay.

- Like when I'm bored and stuff.

- Do you ever have tough feelings?

- Yeah.

- What are those like?

- Sad, unfair.

- What makes you feel unfair?

- Like, the world itself sometimes.

- [Elizabeth] Mm-hmm.

- Can be unfair.

- It seems like you really know what you wanna do with your art.

- Yep.

- [Elizabeth] You're very intentional.

Do you know what that means?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- When I get an idea, I just (taps desk) put it on the paper.

- And you like the freedom to do that?

- Yes, very much.

(Elizabeth laughs) (warm guitar music) (birds chirping) - Tell me a little bit about your journey and Camilo's story with adoption and mental health.

- Camilo was adopted from Colombia at 10 months.

(gentle guitar music) We were really well-informed about adoption trauma and then sort of what that could look like as he grew up and as he grew older, and we were not spared adoption trauma.

We live it every day.

That combined with ADHD, autism, anxiety, all sort of like in a big package.

(gentle guitar music) - What were some of those things that you feel made a difference in his journey as far as some of the healing modalities?

- We do a lot of traditional things.

We have traditional therapies and therapists and psychiatrists and doctors and medicines.

And then we also just try to search for the things that we know he needs.

His body needs sensory input.

His body needs to move.

He needs to exercise.

- What has it been like watching his journey with art?

- Well, when he was smaller, I started to worry about his art or like, even having fine motor skills.

We took him to an occupational therapist because he was the kid at school that broke all the crayons and threw the crayons and sometimes even ate crayons and other kids were drawing already.

And then one day he got a large poster out that I was using for school and he had a magazine of a train and he drew this giant train so beautifully.

So then we realized that there's like, all these, like, these hidden boxes in his brain that just weren't opened yet or didn't know how to open quite yet, and it gave us a lot of hope.

- What has his journey taught you about mental health?

- A lot of patience.

- Yeah.

- I think understanding that, that everybody's carrying sort of their own weight with them and just to be understanding, yeah.

(warm guitar music) - [Elizabeth] Why do you think people feel like art can be so intimidating or they're not good at it?

- I'm not really sure because humans are compelled naturally to make marks, and they use art to make meaning and make sense of the world.

I mean, we know humans have been doing this for thousands of years.

So I think once people have that mindset of like, art is really just about a process and not what the end result looks like and they can be confident in what they make, you're gonna have a better time doing it.

- And really, I think that's where the healing can occur.

- 100%.

- Because then you're not worried about what you're making.

You're more in the process of just making.

- Yeah, your senses are engaged.

Your brain's engaged in something different.

Your hands are moving, your eyes are taking in all kinds of sensory information.

So yes, it's really healing.

It gives your brain a chance to rest from thinking about that thing that's stressing you out and just focus on something beautiful and this process that your brain and your hand is engaging in.

- I like things where you can like, do your own thing, make stuff that you want to make and sort of be the person that you want to be the most.

- [Elizabeth] Who's the person that you want to be?

- Me.

(gentle guitar music) - Losing an iconic business in a community can have a huge ripple effect.

That's the case in Port Washington where a big fish story came to an end.

(birds calling) (gentle instrumental music) - Here in Port Washington, we like to consider ourselves a quaint fishing village on the shores of Lake Michigan, and we've worked hard to maintain that historic quality of the city.

- [Sharon] Fishing is just truly ingrained in Port Washington.

(gentle instrumental music) (water splashing) - [Fisher] Nice and easy.

Nice and easy.

- [Fisher] Right here.

He's right here.

- [Fisher] That's a nice one.

(water splashing) Got one in the boat.

- [Fisher] There we go.

Good job, buddy.

- [Sharon] So, Nicky Boy Charters are celebrating this year our 50th anniversary.

We've been in business for 50 years, and throughout those 50 years we have used Ewig Bros.

They're such a good partnership between the boats and the smoking so we can add that special offering at the end of the day.

The customers can get off the boat, literally walk over there and have that smoked fish done, that quality product that people have come to know so well.

(birds calling) (tender instrumental music) (fire crackling) - Six generations and more than 130 years later, a Port Washington business will close up shop for good.

(static crackling) - [Reporter] This week, Ewig Bros., a Port Washington staple, announced its closing.

(static hissing) - Ewig Bros. plans to close its doors May 1st.

Congrats on an incredible run.

(static hissing) (birds calling) - Well, I've been thinking about it for a couple of years and just trying to figure out how to gracefully exit.

Some health issues are adding to it.

That could rear its ugly head again.

So I'm like, it's time.

(water crashing) They always say, "You know when it's time."

Or it's kind of like you're just kinda running outta gas, you know?

(door clanks) I oughta say, I delivered today so I had to say goodbye to all my customers.

And yeah, it was... One girl, she just broke down crying.

And it's people that we've delivered to for 20-plus years, you know, or more, so.

(tender instrumental music) (fire crackling) I was thinking today, "I might be the first guy that actually retired."

Most of 'em just died.

My dad, my grandpa.

Everybody just kept going till they died.

You know, I might be the first guy that's actually gonna retire.

Unfortunately, the whole thing is gonna go away too, you know?

(tender instrumental music) (birds calling) Especially like through the depression years, guys could make good money fishing, and there was a market for the fish all over the country caught here, shipped to New York, Chicago.

It was quite the industry.

(water splashing) I don't know, people are coming in here saying, "130 years," but I guess it really hasn't hit me that, you know, I'm breaking this 130-year tradition.

You know, I just wanna retire.

(chuckles) (door clanks) It doesn't seem like it.

It just seems like a job, you know?

You know, every day.

Never thought much about carrying it on.

It's just something we always, just always did.

That's all we knew.

(tender instrumental music) (birds calling) You know, you see people walk in with their children in little carrying things and set 'em on the floor.

Well, some of those little kids are now coming in the store saying, "Why do you close?"

I mean, they've been coming in here with their parents for, you know, 30, 40 years, you know.

So those little kids we see now aren't gonna be as lucky.

But unless I can keep a piece frozen for 30 years, I don't know.

(fishing reel zipping) (bright instrumental music) - [Fisher] Nice fatty.

- It was heartbreaking because, I mean, they're such a good partnership between the boats and the smoking.

But I am very confident that the charter fishing and the fishing community will endure.

- It's a special sadness.

I think the city has changed.

It's had to change, and the history is so rich it will always maintain here.

But that building will be a blank spot, you know, that's hard to replace.

There's a part of it that will always be basic Port Washington, but any city has to change to survive.

(gentle instrumental music) (door clanks shut) - By the way, the short version on the Ewig Bros. market will appear in the Short Film Festival in September.

That's it for this edition of "10thirtysix."

Enjoy your summer.

We'll see you next time.

(warm instrumental music) (water splashing) (warm instrumental music continues)