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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2009)
SolarWorld gets tax breaks while dumping union workforce The German-owned company will get nearly $43 million in tax breaks and subsidies, while cutting family-wage union jobs in Vancouver and hiring lower-paid nonunion workers in Hillsboro By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor Two dozen union workers were laid off last month from a SolarWorld silicon ingot factory in Vancouver, Washington. Next Friday, 27 more will be let go. But it wasn’t recession or foreign competition that killed their jobs. Rather, SolarWorld is pro- gressively downsizing its union work- force while aggressively ramping up employment at a new nonunion facil- b h m k ity in Hillsboro, Oregon — for which the company is getting nearly $43 million in tax breaks and other public subsidies. German-headquartered Solar- World, one of the world’s largest solar energy companies, acquired the Van- couver plant and another in Camar- illo, California, when it bought Royal Dutch Shell’s solar division in 2006. The Vancouver workers had been rep- resented by Machinists Local 1432 Bennett Hartman Morris & Kaplan, llp Attorneys at Law Oregon’s Full Service Union Law Firm Representing Workers Since 1960 Serious Injury and Death Cases • Construction Injuries • Automobile Accidents • Medical, Dental, and Legal Malpractice • Bicycle and Motorcycle Accidents • Pedestrian Accidents • Premises Liability (injuries on premises) • Workers’ Compensation Injuries • Social Security Claims since the 1980s. SolarWorld promised there’d be no job cuts for a year. Then in March 2007, SolarWorld bought a 480,000-square-foot silicon chip factory in Hillsboro from the Ko- matsu Group. SolarWorld paid $40 million for a factory that had cost Ko- matsu $472 million to build, and an- nounced it would spend $400 million to turn it into the largest solar wafer manufacturing facility in North America. The company employed mostly union building trades subcon- tractors on the changeover, and the Hillsboro plant opened on schedule in October 2008. Would the company’s own work- ers be union as well? When Machin- ists District Lodge 24 Business Rep- resentative Scott Lucy met with SolarWorld last summer to negotiate a new contract, he hoped the com- pany would agree to remain neutral toward any future efforts by its new Hillsboro workers to unionize. Solar- World rejected that proposal. It also demanded concessions, in- cluding elimination of the severance benefits that workers would get if laid off. Members voted Nov. 2, 2008, to authorize a strike, for the first time ever. But at length they agreed to a cut in severance pay — from three weeks pay for every year of service to one week. On Jan. 27, SolarWorld announced 52 permanent workers and 11 temps in Vancouver would be laid off in March and April 2009. A skeleton crew of about eight would remain to recycle scrap silicon. Workers were told they could apply for jobs at the Hillsboro site — 32 miles away. But those would be non- union, at-will jobs, with lower pay and We Work Hard for Hard-Working People! 111 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 1650 Portland, Oregon 97204 (503) 227-4600 www.bennetthartman.com Our Legal Staff are Proud Members of UFCW Local 555 Rain Forest Boots Made in America! Try a pair on, you’ll like them. Tough boots for the Northwest. AL’S SHOES 5811 SE 82nd, Portland 503-771-2130 Mon-Fri 10-7:30 Sat 10-5:30 Sun 12-6 benefits and none of the union job protections; work shifts would rotate every other week between 12-hour- long graveyard and 12-hour-long day shifts; and if they took jobs in Hills- boro, they would lose their severance pay. Only a half-dozen accepted jobs at the new plant, Lucy said. SolarWorld spokesperson Anne Schneider wouldn’t tell the Labor Press what Hillsboro production workers are paid, other than to say it’s “competitive.” But Vancouver work- ers say they were told to expect $11 to $13 an hour. That compares to $12.24 to $26.27 an hour under the union contract, depending on skill and expe- rience. Most of the Vancouver work- ers made between $14 to $19 an hour. If $11 to $13 an hour is the norm at SolarWorld Hillsboro, that would- n’t meet the conditions of its enter- prise zone tax break. Under a state program, companies locating in designated “enterprise zones” pay no property taxes for up to five years on new equipment they in- stall. For SolarWorld, that’s an esti- mated tax savings totaling about $11.5 million. The State of Oregon asks almost nothing in return for that, but local governments can put extra conditions on zones in their jurisdic- tions, and Hillsboro requires that at least 75 percent of the jobs pay at least double the Oregon minimum wage, which is currently $8.40. However, in satisfying that re- quirement, the company can count managers, and can choose not to count temps. The temp agency Kelly Services has been recruiting workers for SolarWorld since at least last sum- mer — and even set up a branch of- fice at the plant. Schneider wouldn’t say how many temps the company is employing. SolarWorld has to submit wage data to get the tax break, but the information won’t be available to the public, Hillsboro city officials said. Are these the much-talked-about “green jobs of the future” that politi- cians at every level are eager to attach themselves to? Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski was there with a prepared statement when SolarWorld opened in Hillsboro: “Oregon must remain aggressive in developing economic opportunities in Working Class Acupuncture treatment for pain and stress FREE TREATMENT MAY 1 — call for appointment payment per treatment is on a sliding scale that will work for you ($15 to $35) industries that will create high-wage jobs and be in high demand for the long-term — industries like renew- able energy,” he said. Kulongoski also directed the Strategic Reserve Fund to make a $1 million grant to train SolarWorld em- ployees. All four solar manufacturers that set up shop in Oregon since 2007 are in enterprise zones, but the break on property tax is the least of it. Oregon has massively increased tax subsidies and other supports for renewable en- ergy in the last two years. In 2007, the Legislature approved a 50 percent in- come tax credit for renewable energy investments of up to $20 million. Be- cause Department of Energy practice allows a 10 percent “cost overrun,” in practice that meant wind farms, solar arrays and solar manufacturers get up to $11 million tax reduction per proj- (Turn to Page 5) Unemployment rate skyrockets in Oregon Oregon lost 14,000 more jobs in March, pushing it’s unemployment rate to 12.1 percent — one of the highest rates in the country. More than 256,400 Oregonians were out of work last month, compared to 115,629 a year earlier. The unemployment rate does not in- clude workers who have used up all of their unemployment insurance benefits, or those who have found part-time jobs. “(The) numbers tell us that we have entered uncharted territory — that this recession is not comparable to the re- cessions before that we remember or read about in history books,” said Gov. Ted Kulongoski. The trade, transportation and utilities sector was down by 3,600 jobs last month; manufacturing lost 2,100 jobs; and jobs related to the wholesale trade dropped by 800 jobs. (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon as a voice of the labor movement. 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Ore. 97213 Telephone: (503) 288-3311 Fax Number: (503) 288-3320 Editor: Michael Gutwig Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non- profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore- gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union members. Group rates available to trade union organizations. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS, P.O. BOX 13150-0150, PORTLAND, OR 97213 3526 NE 57th Ave, Portland 4410 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy 503-335-9440 503-244-7525 www.workingclassacupuncture.org PAGE 2 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS APRIL 17, 2009
