Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 6
V olume 108
Number 7
A pril 6, 2007
P ortland
E ND O F T HE L INE F OR
F REIGHTLINER TRUCKS
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
T
(PHOTO ABOVE) As swing shift
workers look on, a Freightliner
manager hands Ron Bennett the
keys to the last Portland-made
commercial Freightliner truck.
Bennett, a Freightliner retiree,
drove the first Freightliner truck
out of the Swan Island plant when it
opened in 1969.
(PHOTO LEFT) Freightliner
welder and Machinist steward
Morris Price points out custom
features of the final truck —
signatures, on the unfinished inside
door panels, of the workers who
made it.
he last Freightliner commercial
truck to be manufactured in Port-
land was driven off the assembly line
at 8:15 p.m. March 29, taking with it
802 union jobs.
It was a bittersweet moment, pride
mixed with pain, and was witnessed
only by a few plant managers and
about three dozen swing-shift factory
workers, most of whom would be laid
off the next day. The company brass
who made the decision chose not to be
there.
Freightliner corporate headquarters
will remain in Portland, for now, but
no longer will Freightliner’s signature
over-the-highway trucks be made in
Portland, the brand’s birthplace.
Instead, assembly will shift to Mex-
ico — the latest defection in the long
march of manufacturing jobs out of
the United States.
Freightliner was the brainchild of
Portland shipping tycoon Leland
James, founder of Consolidated
Freightways. To lighten up the heavy
steel trucks of his era, James wanted to
try using aluminum components, and
decided to build the truck himself
when he couldn’t find a truckmaker
willing to experiment. He hired engi-
neers and in the late 1930s started pro-
duction. Though sidelined a few years
by wartime shortages, James’ Freight-
liner Corporation returned to truck
production in 1947 with a new plant in
Portland. Since then, generations of
Portlanders have made Freightliner
trucks.
In 1981, Consolidated Freightways
sold Freightliner to German-owned
Daimler-Benz. With aggressive mar-
keting and new designs, the company
increased market share, and Freight-
liner became the leading long-haul
truck brand in North America by 1992.
But then, piece by piece, Freight-
liner production began leaving Port-
land.
In 1998, Daimler-Benz merged
with Chrysler; two years later, a plant
in Santiago Tianguistenco, Mexico
that had produced Daimler-Benz
switched to exclusive production of
Freightliner trucks.
The plant in Portland’s Swan Is-
land industrial area began shipping
components to Mexico for final as-
sembly.
Meanwhile, Daimler-Chrysler
bought Canadian Western Star truck
brand in 2000, and closed the
Kelowna, British Columbia produc-
tion plant, shifting Western Star pro-
duction to the Portland plant.
In 2001, Freightliner closed its
parts manufacturing plant in Portland.
Several years later, the steel frame
rails that begin the Portland truck pro-
duction line started arriving stamped
“Hecho en Mexico,” with a Mexican
eagle insignia. They used to be made
in the United States.
“Seeing that was one of my biggest
disappointments when I came back
from layoff,” said quality assurance in-
spector Zack Beard, 32, who was re-
called in 2004 after three years of un-
deremployment.
The Columbia model truck was the
first to shift assembly to Mexico. The
mid-range Century Class left later. The
high-end Coronado was the last to go.
“Freightliner was making money
here,” said Machinists Business Rep
Joe Kear, “but they want to make even
more money in Mexico.”
Half the Portland workforce will
stay on to manufacture Freightliner
military trucks and specialty commer-
cial trucks under the Western Star
brand. The other half will trade
$21.55-an-hour jobs for something
else — a couple years of school, an-
other job, or unemployment.
At a March 28 job fair for Freight-
liner workers, just 30 employers
showed up, one-third of what had been
expected. Mexican-owned Bimbo
Bakeries, which bought Orowheat in
2002, was there to recruit for 16 sum-
mer positions making hot dog buns at
Bakers Union scale: $13 to start, rising
to $19. Tri-Met, another union em-
ployer, was seeking applicants for 200
part-time bus operator jobs, at a wage
that starts at $12.34 and rises to
$22.43.
At the same time Freightliner is
laying off workers in Portland, it’s hir-
ing workers in Santiago Tianguis-
tenco, about 90 minutes outside Mex-
ico City. Top pay for a day-shift
mechanic there is 465 pesos a day,
about $5 an hour — roughly a quarter
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