NAM, China and the Sheep. Where are the shepherds?

You gotta pay if you want to play.
This is especially true if you want action out of the US government or supposed trade organizations. The tool and die industry is being killed by Chinese currency manipulation and many other issues. The T&D companies are the sheep of American manufacturing, not big enough to defend themselves against the wolves. They will occasionally travel in packs, which helps protect them even though they are picked off daily. The shepherds job should be easier to protect them as they huddle together. Their shepherds should be organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) . Unfortunately NAM is split on support of a new bill that would seek penalties for China in manipulating its currency. On one side is the small manufacturers who support such measures. The other side is the Large (wolf in sheeps clothing) Corporations. They don't want to upset the status quo for fear of loosing all the money they are able to make by outsourcing much of their work to China. There are some good shepherds out there, but their flocks are too small to defend themselves from the wolves. The Michigan Tooling Association is one of the good shepherds. Their web site(www.mtaonline.com) has a few good articles.The Testimony of Laurie Schmald Moncrieff President of Schmald Tool & Die, Inc. FULL ARTICLE I found extremely good.
Tooling people are great problem solvers. It's what they do on a daily basis. I love this industry because it's one of the few in which the B.S. doesn't fly. These guy's know that talking about a problem or pointing the finger doesn't get the job done. They let their work do the talking for them. They are also quite independent, and this will probably be their downfall. They are usually quite conservative and don't believe government can solve their problems. Unfortunately government is the cause of their problems. If herded together under the watchful eye of a good shepherd they could really turn the industry around and start to solve it's problems. 90% of the industry is small companies under 50 employees and most are under 10. They don't want protectionist measures, just a level playing field. They'll never have the numbers or money to get things done in Washington. Who will be their shepherds?