Editor’s note: Welcome to So That Happened, our editors’ takes on things going on in the manufacturing world that deserve some extra attention. This will appear regularly in the Member’s Only section of the site.

Meta’s New Academy Builds Builders 

To meet the rapidly growing need for AI infrastructure, Meta, in partnership with the National Urban League, CBRE, the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and other community partners, has announced the launch of America’s Workforce Academy (AWA), a fast-track workforce training program designed to prepare workers for the in-demand skilled trades needed to construct data centers. 

The five-week training program, supported by an initial $115 million investment, is cost-free for participants and provides graduates with a guaranteed job offer on a Meta construction site. Accepted participants will receive a daily stipend during training, tuition, airfare and lodging. No prior experience is required. 

“The AI infrastructure we’re building today requires an incredible workforce to make it a reality. America’s Workforce Academy is our commitment to building that workforce with the same ambition and long-term thinking we bring to the technology itself,” says Rachel Peterson, vice president of data centers at Meta. “America needs hundreds of thousands of skilled tradespeople — electricians, mechanics, fiber technicians and more — and this program creates clear, accessible pathways into those careers.” 

Program graduates will earn an America’s Workforce Certificate as well as a National Center for Construction Education and Research credential. Pilot programs will launch in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana and Texas. 

“America’s Workforce Academy represents the kind of bold, inclusive investment our economy urgently needs. At a time when too many Americans are searching for pathways to stable, family-supporting careers, this initiative opens doors, particularly for communities who historically have been excluded from opportunity,” says National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial. “By removing cost barriers, providing industry-recognized credentials and guaranteeing employment, AWA is helping to build a more equitable and resilient workforce for the future.” 

AWA is building on Meta’s LevelUp Fiber Technician Pathway training program announced in April, which received 35,000 applications in its first week, according to the company. 

—Anna Smith

It turns out that letting people go before the value of your AI initiative has been proven out can backfire. 

In a story first broken over the weekend by Bloomberg, Ford has been quietly hiring back hundreds of workers to help address quality issues that have emerged over the past three years. Those issues are attributed to mistakes made by automated quality systems, including AI-driven inspection systems that were introduced to streamline production and address quality control issues. 

However, the rehiring of more than 350 veteran engineers suggests that the AI systems in place were not yet mature enough to fully understand the nuances of the operational environments they were asked to monitor. To fix the situation, “we brought back technical specialists and they hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer.

In addition, the returning engineers were asked to mentor junior staff, rebuild the data pipelines that feed Ford’s AI training, and refine the automated systems.

One of the questions that this situation raises is whether AI technologies are ready to add value to manufacturing at scale. One of the key use cases for industrial AI is to assist in early fault detection among physical assets, and to more quickly identify root causes of those failures to reduce future unplanned downtime. However, based on their experience, Ford is reframing the issue as, how many experienced humans does it take to ensure that AI functions well?

"Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and adjusting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product,” said Charles Poon, Ford's VP of vehicle hardware engineering, to Bloomberg and The Next Web. "Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it's only as good as the information you use to train it."

The good news is that once experienced human scientists were back on board, Ford experienced a marked improvement in its quality standards, ranking high on the most recent J.D. Power list for new vehicle quality.

—Thomas Wilk

Martin Marietta to Acquire Limestone Producer

Martin Marietta Materials Inc. closed out the first half of 2026 with a big buy. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based manufacturer of aggregates and other building materials announced June 29 that it would spend $13.5 billion to acquire limestone producer Lhoist North America.

The deal, said Martin Marietta president and CEO Ward Nye, “…advances our SOAR 2030 objective to expand our complementary, upstream Specialties segment in lime and other industrial minerals.”

Lhoist North America is a subsidiary of privately held Lhoist, a Belgian industrial company founded in 1889. LNA operates 20 quarries and production facilities, as well as 45 distribution terminals, according to Martin Marietta’s press announcement. Moreover, it is underpinned by more than 2 billion tons of “high-quality limestone reserves.”

In outlining key drivers for the purchase, Martin Marietta said Lhoist North America offers a “highly complementary footprint in key Southeast and Southwest geographies,” as well a differentiated product offering and “attractive exposure to high-growth end markets.”

Martin Marietta says the combination of the two companies improves its ability to serve large-scale projects such as data centers, semiconductor fabrication and more.

The acquisition is valued at $13.5 billion, accomplished via cash and shares of Martin Marietta common stock. The transaction expected to conclude in the second half of 2026.

Martin Marietta reported fiscal 2025 revenue of $6.15 billion.  

—Jill Jusko

Labor Share Decline: Workers Lose, Unions Find Their Groove 

If worker dissatisfaction seems to be rising like the heat index this summer, uncomfortable physical working conditions may only be the tip of the melting iceberg. 

We already know that AI implementation/anticipated job loss is contributing to that dissatisfaction. But here’s another reason that gets shouted but less often statistically shared: 

U.S. workers are reaping the lowest share of corporate profits since World War II. Couple that with their wages falling behind as inflation rises, and you get increased union organizing and more public support for unions, despite Trump administration efforts to dismantle union contracts for federal workers and roll back worker protections. 

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data shared by S&P Market Intelligence, in the 1980s and ’90s, workers’ labor share hovered around 62%. Since January 2020, it has averaged only 55%, with labor share dropping to 54.1% from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026.  

Of course, manufacturing has more tied up in capital investment than some other sectors so labor share is naturally lower. But it’s still declining overall in manufacturing.  

According to the Federal Reserve bank of New York, the manufacturing labor share clocks in at 28.2%. In 1988 it was 35%, and it still hasn’t recovered from a pre-COVID uptick to 30% in 2020. 

Union organizers are capitalizing on the dissonance. Auto suppliers are a big summer target as UAW gears up for negotiations with the Detroit 3 automakers in September. Yesterday, 1,000 UAW workers at Bridgewater Interiors in Warren, Michigan, manufacturer of seats for Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram trucks, ratified a contract that capped their health insurance costs and raised top wages to $35 by 2029 from the current $26, avoiding a walkout.  And on June 29, 800 UAW workers at Woodward MPC, a manufacturer of aerospace motion control systems, voted to authorize a strike at the Niles, Illinois, facility if contract negotiations aren’t met to their satisfaction.  

—Laura Putre