NOV. 7, 2008
:NWLP
11/5/08
10:04 AM
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Last 100 years mostly ‘up’ for Elevator Constructors
Portland-based
Local 23 reaches
a milestone
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Elevator construction, as a skilled
craft, has had ups and downs over the
last 100 years. But thanks to their
union, it’s been mostly ups for mem-
bers of the International Union of Ele-
vator Constructors (IUEC).
IUEC Local 23, headquartered in
Portland, turned 100 this year. To mark
the occasion, about 300 members,
family, and well-wishers gathered Oct.
25 at the Oregon Convention Center.
One hundred years ago, Portland
had fewer than 200,000 inhabitants.
The electric elevator had been invented
28 years before. After the IUEC, just
seven years old, issued a charter to
form Local 23, 18 elevator construc-
tors came to the local’s first meeting,
on June 8, 1908.
The IUEC motto — “In union there
is strength,” — is part of the union’s
insignia. And that union strength pro-
duces one of the top wages of any oc-
cupation.
Today, journey-level elevator con-
structors earn $42.09 an hour, plus
$16.29 an hour in benefits. That makes
elevator construction the highest paid
craft among the building trades, ac-
cording to State of Oregon prevailing
wage surveys.
And one of the reasons is that union
firms control an unusually high per-
centage of the market, said Columbia-
Pacific Building and Construction
Trades Council Executive Secretary-
Treasurer John Mohlis.
The state’s chief elevator inspector,
Ron Crabtree, thinks union share of
the elevator market could be near 96
percent.
IUEC is unlike other building
trades unions in several ways.
It negotiates a nationwide labor
agreement with its counterpart em-
ployer group, National Elevator Indus-
try, Inc. (NEII). Its industry is domi-
(Photo left) International Union of Elevator Constructors officers present “gold card” certificates to two recent Local 23 retirees, honoring them for outstanding
service to the union during their careers. Pictured, from left, are General Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Stringer; retiree Dick Dodge; Assistant General President
James Higgins; and retiree Dan McDonald. (Photo right) Higgins makes a forceful point about the need to put friends of labor in public office.
nated by a handful of big firms that
operate nationally and even interna-
tionally, some of which, like Otis and
Thyssen-Krupp, also manufacture the
elevators.
An elevator installation contract
typically includes free maintenance for
three to six months, and is often fol-
lowed by contracts with the same
company to do maintenance and re-
pair. Thus, even after elevators are in-
stalled, it’s IUEC members who return
to maintain and repair them over the
years — a facet of the business that
helps keep members employed during
construction downturns. There are
now 10,541 elevators in Oregon, and
all of them need to be maintained and
repaired periodically.
Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. Execu-
tive Director Connie Ashbrook, a long-
time Local 23 member, describes the
work of elevator construction as
uniquely challenging: “Imagine hav-
ing to build a train from scratch inside
a building. Only instead of building it
horizontally, you’re doing it vertically.
You install the rails the elevator runs
on. You build the cab itself, install the
motors and machinery above, attach
cables, put doors in place, set up
switches and mechanisms. You don’t
have very much clearance. Everything
is very tight and compact. And you
have to make sure that nothing rubs.”
IUEC members also install and re-
pair escalators, and they put in the
small residential elevators and wheel-
chair lifts that are increasingly com-
mon as more and more buildings are
made accessible to seniors and the dis-
abled.
IUEC has enjoyed relative labor
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