* From December of 2021…

From the air, the former Caterpillar factory outside Chicago is sprawling – the size of two dozen football fields. Once a heavy equipment plant, it’s now a hive of activity making a product that has never been in higher demand: medical gloves.

The US Medical Glove Company, or USMGC, wants to turn a profit – but also to reduce US reliance on imports of medical gloves from the Far East, especially China and Thailand, while creating American jobs that pay well beyond the minimum wage.

It’s one of several US companies on the same mission: to make America more self-reliant on essential medical equipment after the coronavirus pandemic sparked a global scramble, especially for personal protective equipment, or PPE. […]

In 2020, 90% of gloves, syringes and needles used in the US were sourced from Asia alone, according to HHS. Now, Washington plans to spend $1.7 billion to spur domestic PPE production, part of $4.5 billion to help expand US manufacturing more broadly, according to HHS. The US is also investing in the domestic production of raw materials for gloves, masks, gowns, drugs, vaccines, medical test kits and other essential medical supplies.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there was only one company producing single-use nitrile gloves in the United States, that maker told CNN. SHOWA Group, a Japanese company, had about 125 employees at a factory in Fayette, Alabama, making about 400 million gloves annually. The production lines were old, and higher domestic costs made a box of gloves about twice the price of Asian brands, the company told CNN.

* Earlier this month…

Although city officials will not confirm if a new occupant is coming to the long-dormant Motorola campus at 2001 N. Division St., logos for Kentucky-based U.S. Medical Glove Co. have been reported on “no trespassing” signs placed around the campus and on security vehicles patrolling there. […]

[Harvard Mayor Mike Kelly] told the audience that the building is being “brought up to occupational standards to have manufacturing there” and that city officials expect the company to bring jobs to Harvard within the next year. […]

Manufacturing, Kelly said, could begin at the site before the end of 2023.

“They are expecting a lot of people to come work for them,” and Harvard will need more housing soon for those workers, Kelly said.

The Motorola campus has been empty since 2003.

* Yesterday…

The City of Harvard welcomes a major company to the community with the hope it will bring more than 1,000 jobs to the region. The U.S Medical Glove Company will take over the former Motorola space on Route 14 that’s sat vacant for 20 years.

“It’s amazing to see the life come back into that building and the potential,” Lou Leone said, City Administrator for Harvard.

Harvard leaders believe the U.S Medical Glove Company will bring more jobs, more residents and more customers to the city. […]

With the expectation of around 1,200 jobs opening up, Leone says the area could see a population boom.

Bringing manufacturing back from overseas is a good thing. More Illinois jobs is a good thing. I hope it works out for them.