...Building ‘the cloud’
(From Page 5)
longest I’ve been working,” he said.
Chris Rockwood, a plumber with a
wife and two kids, was out of work for
a year-and-a-half. “Eighteen months
with no work was challenging,” he said.
Bishop and the others also com-
mented on the jobsite. “Awesome,” he
said. “The cleanest, safest job, most
productive I’ve ever had. It’s like your
grandma’s kitchen floor.”
In July, general contractor DPS/For-
tis celebrated a million hours worked
without a lost-time accident.
Local businesses in Prineville also
are getting a boost.
John Beach, manager of the Execu-
tive Inn, said his motel is full all the
time. “It pays the overhead, my wages,
and all the bills,” he said.
Mandy Ireland, a bartender at the
Horseshoe Tavern, said, “We see a lot
of the Facebook guys in here, especially
Taco Tuesdays. Business has picked up.
It’s benefited the whole town.”
And unlike other construction proj-
ects that provide only short bursts of
employment, the size, complexity, and
phased nature of the data center projects
keep the work going.
“We’ve been here two-and-a-half
years — a good run,” said K.C. Bed-
dow, superintendent for Rosendin Elec-
tric at the Facebook site.
...Clackamas
County battle
And there’s still plenty of work to do
at Facebook and Apple. Add to the mix
other high-tech companies negotiating
for land, water, and power in Central
Oregon, EDCO’s Carr says construc-
tion contractors can expect to look for-
ward to another five to 10 years of
building the cloud in Central Oregon.
HIGH - TECH FIRMS PREFER
USING UNION LABOR
Facebook’s corporate policy en-
courages buying and sourcing locally.
Only a few general contractors have the
knowledge and experience to build pre-
cision high-tech facilities, and Port-
land-based Fortis has a history of using
union subcontractors.
Craig White, DPS/Fortis Mechani-
cal, Electrical, and Piping superintend-
ent, gave two reasons for preferring
union labor: “Unions are familiar with
these types of projects, and they have a
qualified labor pool with training and
experience. We know they have the
level of schooling we need.”
White said he is happy with how the
project is going. “We get workers who
care, 99 percent care about craftsman-
ship and the product we’re turning over
to Facebook.”
Facebook spokesman Lee Weinstein
said the company is “absolutely”
pleased with how the work has been
going in Prineville. “The commitment
Curtis Cole (left), Tom Boyhan (center), and Brian Rutheford (lying down),
members of Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 employed at Temp Control
Mechanical, work on the first of three data centers built by Facebook in
Prineville. In the background are Rich Schlegal and Aaron Hanlon,
electricians for Electrical Construction Co. and members of IBEW Local 280.
(Photo courtesy of Facebook)
to craftsmanship and safety has been
exceptional,” he said, “We’re proud to
provide good jobs at a fair wage.”
Asked about whether Facebook’s
experience with union labor in
Prineville would make them more or
less inclined to use union contractors in
the future, Weinstein replied, “We’ve
had a wonderful experience and don’t
plan to change our construction plans.”
(Editor’s Note: Union construction
workers performed the majority of
PAGE 8
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
work at Google operations in The
Dalles and at Amazon data centers in
Boardman.
Google invested $600 million and is
operating out of three data centers
(205,000 square feet) on 37 acres on
the banks of the Columbia River in The
Dalles. It employs over 150 full-time
workers.
Amazon is completing a second
120,000-square-foot data center adja-
cent to one it opened last year in Mor-
row County.)
(From Page 1)
small increments since 1979. In other
words, “Portland creep” is already lim-
ited by law, a law which, Chamberlain
points out, some Republicans have
sought to undermine — on the grounds
of property rights.
As for the union movement, Cham-
berlain said, “We’re not for strip malls
in timber land or farmland. We’re for
sustainable growth and development
where it makes sense.”
To support Lehan and Damon, Ore-
gon AFL-CIO is mounting what
Chamberlain described as a sophisti-
cated ground game, with phone banks
and canvasses.
Labor’s efforts focus on its mem-
bers — 14,000 Clackamas County res-
idents are members of AFL-CIO-affil-
iated unions, and 22,000 more are
members of their households. Thanks
to years of canvassing, there are also
12,000 members of the AFL-CIO’s
Working America affiliate — it’s a
group for workers who don’t have
union-representation through their
workplace. And at least 7,700 residents
are members of other unions.
“We’re doing everything we can to
get Charlotte and Jamie elected,”
Chamberlain said.
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NOVEMBER 2, 2012