JULY 17, 2009:NWLP
Inside
7/14/09
10:27 AM
Page 1
MEETING NOTICES
See
Page 4
Volume 110
Number 14
July 17, 2009
Portland, Oregon
Members of Iron Workers Shop-
men’s Local 516 and IBEW Local 48
help unveil the first American-made
streetcar in 58 years during a
ceremony in Portland’s South
Waterfront District that featured
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood. The union workers are
employed at Oregon Iron Works of
Clackamas through its wholly-owned
subsidiary United Streetcar LLC,
and sister company Maranatha
Electric. The streetcars are made
from 70 percent U.S. parts and
comply with all federal Buy
American rules. United Streetcar
soon will have contracts to make six
more streetcars for the City of
Portland and seven cars for the City
of Tucson, Arizona.
New streetcars are union-made in America (Oregon)
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood on July 1 helped unveil a new
American-made — union-made —
streetcar that soon will operate as part
of the Portland Streetcar Loop Project.
The streetcar prototype was built by
members of Iron Workers Shopmen’s
Local 516 employed at Oregon Iron
Works through its wholly-owned sub-
sidiary United Streetcar, LLC, and sis-
ter company Maranatha Electric,
whose workers are members of Inter-
national Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers Local 48.
It is the first streetcar made in Amer-
ica since 1951, when Harry Truman
was president, television picture tubes
were being tested for color, and auto-
mobile turn signals were a luxury add-
on that cost extra.
“I believe this is the dawn of a new
era for public transportation in the
United States, a new opportunity to
claim ‘Made in America,’ ” LaHood
told a crowd of political and city digni-
taries, union officials, and union work-
ers at the streetcar unveiling at the
doorstep of OHSU’s Center for Health
and Healing in Portland’s South Water-
front district.
LaHood, a former Republican con-
gressman from Illinois, said the Port-
land project is the kind of project fed-
eral and state government should be
investing in.
“It’s a chance to generate good-pay-
ing union jobs right here in the region,”
he said. “This project demonstrates ex-
actly the kind of synergy we need in the
United States of America today. We
must invest in transportation projects
that preserve and enhance the unique
characteristics of each neighborhood,
just as the Portland streetcar does.”
United Streetcar hopes the resur-
gence of streetcars in the United States
will lead to more work. The Clacka-
mas-based company will soon have
contracts to build six streetcars for
Portland ($20 million), and seven
streetcars for the city of Tucson, Ariz.
($26 million.) Manufacture of these
cars alone will result in more than 250
jobs, United Streetcar President Chan-
dra Brown told the Labor Press.
But not 250 jobs overnight.
Fabrication of the Portland street-
cars is about six to nine months out,
and Tucson cars could take years be-
fore manufacturing begins.
“It can be a long process, but it will
happen,” Brown said. “Our plan is to
become the leading U.S. maker of
modern streetcars.”
Oregon Congressman Peter De-
Fazio, who attended the unveiling
along with colleagues Earl Blume-
nauer, David Wu, Kurt Schrader, and
Gov. Ted Kulongoski, said at least 80
cities have shown interest in the street-
car system. DeFazio chairs the House
Subcommittee on Transportation.
Foreign-made streetcars have been
running in downtown Portland since
2001. The streetcar loop operates on
the west side running from Legacy
Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical
Center in Northwest Portland through
downtown and Portland State Univer-
sity to South Waterfront serving
OHSU’s Center for Health and Heal-
ing, the Portland Aerial Tram and high
rise condo developments in the district.
The extension project will add 3.35
miles to the eastside of Portland, con-
necting to the Lloyd District, the Cen-
tral Eastside and the Oregon Museum
of Science and Industry.
The actual construction phase of the
extension is estimated to cost about $77
million out of a total project cost of
$147 million.
City officials estimate the project
will generate 1,290 mostly family-
wage jobs over the next two years.
The Portland Streetcar Loop Project
has received $75 million in Small Starts
funds from the Federal Transit Admin-
istration, along with $360,000 in Amer-
ican Recovery and Reinvestment Act
monies. Twenty-million dollars in lot-
tery-backed bond revenues are being
used to buy the six new streetcars.