PAGE 2 | October 21, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
All-union courthouse project breaks ground
HEELS ON A CONSTRUCTION
SITE? MAYBE JUST THIS ONCE.
Leaders who made the courthouse
project possible, starting with
County Chair Deb Kafoury (left)
line up Oct. 4 to break ground. Be-
low, Multnomah County Judge
Nan Waller shows what the current
courthouse is made of: century-
old unreinforced masonry.
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The replacement for the cen-
tury-old Multnomah County
Courthouse broke ground offi-
cially Oct. 4 on the west end of
the Hawthorne Bridge. It will
be the state’s largest public
works project in recent years,
expected to employ over 500
construction workers by the
time it’s completed in 2020.
And they’ll all be union, thanks
to a project labor agreement
worked out in partnership with
the Columbia-Pacific Building
and Construction Trades Coun-
cil (CPBCTC).
“We are looking forward to
working with the County to de-
liver an on-time and on-budget
project,” CPBCTC Executive
Secretary-Treasurer Willy My-
ers told the Labor Press.
Hoffman Construction is the
construction manager and gen-
eral contractor on the project,
which will be funded jointly by
the State of Oregon and Mult-
nomah County. The old court-
house was built in 1914. It’s be-
ing replaced chiefly because,
built of unreinforced masonry,
it would be unsafe in an earth-
quake.
The courthouse project will
also serve to increase the partic-
ipation of women and minori-
ties in the local construction
workforce. The goal is that at
least 20 percent of the appren-
tices and journey-level workers
on the project will be minorities,
and for at least 25 percent of ap-
prentices and 6 percent of jour-
ney-level workers to be women.
“When it comes to work-
force, union density equals di-
versity,” Myers said.
The project also has a goal of
contracting 15 percent of the
work to firms owned by minori-
ties and women and emerging
small businesses.
“I think [this courthouse] will
stand as a symbol of justice,”
said Oregon State Sen. Richard
Devlin, who helped secure
funding for the project as co-
chair of the Legislature’s Joint
Ways and Means Committee.
Oregon
General
Election
Ballots can be
returned by mail or
at any official drop
site in Oregon.
All ballots must be
received by 8 p.m.,
Nov. 8
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