PAGE 2 | August 2, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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Vigor Industrial sold to private equity firms
Portland-based Vigor Industrial
LLC has been sold to global in-
vestment firm The Carlyle
Group and private equity firm
Stellex Capital Management. As
part of the deal, Vigor will
merge with MHI Holdings,
LLC, an 800-employee ship re-
pair and maintenance company
in Norfolk, Virginia. MHI is
owned by Stellex. The Carlyle
Group will be majority owner of
the combined company, which it
has named Titan Acquisition
Holdings. It is not clear whether
the headquarters will remain in
Portland.
Vigor builds and repairs ships
and performs complex fabrica-
tion projects for several indus-
tries. The company employs
2,300 people and operates eight
drydocks across the Pacific
Northwest and Alaska.
It has a large union workforce
at the Portland Shipyard on Swan
Island, with approximately 750
workers currently employed
there. The shipyard’s workforce
fluctuates, and can at times top
1,000 workers. Another 405
union workers are employed at
Vigor Works (formerly Oregon
Iron Works) at facilities in
Clackamas, Oregon, and Van-
couver, Wash.
In Puget Sound, the union
workforce is around 250 to 300
at Washington Marine Repair
Seattle, Vigor Marine Seattle,
and Vigor Shipyard Seattle.
The shipyard workers are
represented by 10 unions affili-
ated with the Metal Trades
Council of Portland and Vicin-
ity, and the Puget Sound Metal
Trades Council. They are in the
middle of a contract that expires
Nov. 30, 2021.
Pat Christensen, president of
the Portland Metal Trades Coun-
cil, told the Labor Press he was
aware that the company was
looking for investors, “but we
were blind-sided by the an-
nouncement.”
Christensen said the transac-
tion is still subject to review, and
the sale isn’t slated to close until
the end of the third quarter 2019.
“It’s very early, so we’ll just
have to wait for the process to
play out,” Christensen said. “Our
hope is that it brings investors in
who have a long term interest in
growing the company and bring-
ing more work to Portland.”
At Vigor Works, approxi-
mately 350 workers are repre-
sented by Iron Workers Shop-
Turn to Page 6
...U.S. House acts to save multiemployer pension plans
From Page 1
OPEIU Local 11), and Portland-
based Plasterers Local 82 Pen-
sion Plan. Both plans in recent
months have cut their pension
benefits for current and future re-
tirees to save them from insol-
vency. The OPEIU plan was cut
30% and Plasterers pension cuts
ranged from 22% to 31%. The
plans were allowed to do that un-
der the 2014 Multiemployer Pen-
sion Reform Act, which was
rammed through Congress with
little debate. If HR 397 passes,
those cuts would be reversed,
and retirees would be paid
retroactively for any benefits
they lost.
HR 397 is known as the Butch
Lewis Act, named after an Ohio
truck driver and member of the
Teamsters Central States Pension
Plan who fought to protect re-
tirees’ benefits before succumb-
ing to a stroke in December
2015.
His widow Rita joined hun-
dreds of union members in the
House Gallery of the Capitol to
watch the debate and vote on
July 24. The bill is widely sup-
ported by organized labor.
“This shows when we all act
together we can get anything
done. We got Democrats…we
got Republicans, and we can get
this to the Senate and get the bill
passed, and then we can live in
peace knowing we have our pen-
sions,” Lewis said.
“We all whooped and
cheered,” said Karen Friedman,
executive vice president of the
Pension Rights Center, “and the
members of Congress on the
floor looked up at us and waved
while they also cheered.”
The Butch Lewis Act was
reintroduced in the Senate July
24 by Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
Senate Bill S. 2254 has 26 co-
sponsors, including Sen. Jeff
Merkley, D-Oregon. It goes to
the Senate Finance Committee,
where Oregon’s Ron Wyden is
the ranking Democrat. The com-
mittee chair is Chuck Grassley
(R-Iowa).