BUSINESS
Wednesday, august 12, 2020
HeRMIstOnHeRaLd.COM • A7
Unions address trade-related job losses in Oregon
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edItOR
A new analysis of data
from the U.S. Department of
Labor shows Oregon has lost
the most jobs per capita to
trade and offshoring, accord-
ing to the nonprofit Trade
Justice Education Fund.
The report uses num-
bers from Trade Adjustment
Assistance, a federal pro-
gram that provides assistance
to workers who lost their
jobs as a direct result of the
job being moved overseas
or the product they produce
being replaced by imports
from other countries. A total
of 11,396 job losses in Ore-
gon from 2017 to 2019 were
certified as “trade-related job
losses” by the TAA.
Jon Irvine, the workforce
liaison for the Oregon AFL-
CIO union, said he had his
own experience with Trade
Adjustment Assistance after
being laid off in 2008.
“It was an incredible pro-
A sign along Hermiston’s
Highland Avenue
advertises for licensed
electricians. Though
Oregon has lost jobs to
trade and offshoring,
there are still shortages
in some specialized trade
jobs.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
gram at the time for me,” he
said.
Irvin said the TAA allowed
him to get into a nursing pro-
gram after his high-skill job
was cut and it didn’t look like
it was coming back.
He said it was “ridicu-
lous,” however, to see work-
ers such as machinists in
high-skill jobs continually
lose their jobs and go back
onto the TAA rolls again
before going through the
training for another company.
“Nothing replaces good,
solid manufacturing jobs
right here in the state of Ore-
gon,” he said.
One of those people who
has been a TAA recipient
multiple times is Nathan
Aldrich, a former machinist
who was laid off with “hun-
dreds” of other people due to
offshoring. He went back to
school with the help of the
TAA and worked for Boeing
before recently losing his job
again to offshoring.
“I got some experience
with manufacturing and a
Chamber puts up land for sale
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edItOR
The Hermiston Chamber
of Commerce is hoping for
some new neighbors.
In 2019 chamber pur-
chased a 2-acre parcel of
property on the south-
east corner of South High-
way 395 and East Evelyn
Avenue, across from New
Hope Community Church,
to build a new business cen-
ter. The center will include
offices for the chamber and
rooms for workforce devel-
opment activities.
Chamber CEO Kim-
berly Rill said the designs
that the chamber board have
approved do not need the
entire 2 acres, and so the
chamber is putting two par-
cels of the property up for
sale.
The
chamber
was
awarded $1 million by
the Oregon Legislature in
2018 to build a new work-
force development space.
The original plan was to
fundraise additional dol-
lars locally, but Rill said
in March when Hermis-
ton’s economy was hit hard
trade, but it is definitely suf-
fering,” he said of those
industries.
Umatilla County resi-
dents have had their own
experiences with trade-re-
lated job losses. According
to the Trade Justice Educa-
tion Fund’s report, 33 people
who lost their jobs at Herm-
iston Foods were certified by
the TAA as trade-related job
losses in 2017, along with
219 jobs at Sykes Enterprises
Incorporated.
Hermiston Foods was a
vegetable-processing plant
owned by NORPAC, which
closed the Hermiston facil-
ity and laid off 199 seasonal
and full-time workers. Sykes
Enterprises runs call centers
around the world that offer
customer services for a vari-
ety of companies, but closed
its call center in Milton-Free-
water in 2018.
Hillary Haden, represent-
ing the Oregon Fair Trade
Campaign, said the TAA
numbers undercount the true
Staffing agency to hold
drive-thru job fair
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edItOR
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
The Hermiston Chamber of Commerce is putting part of the 2
acres it purchased for its new building up for sale to help pay
for the project.
by COVID-19 the board
decided that “a year like
2020” wasn’t an appropriate
time to be asking their mem-
bers for donations for the
building.
Instead,
the
cham-
ber plans to use the money
from the sale of the par-
cels along with the money
from the Legislature to build
the Hermiston Chamber of
Commerce Business Center,
and cut back on some costs
for now.
She said how soon
they can start construction
depends on how long it takes
to sell the other parcels.
“It’s
exciting,
but
also
challenging
and
nerve-wracking,” she said
of trying to build a business
center during a pandemic.
Rill said anyone who
purchases one of the par-
cels will benefit from work
the chamber has already
done to make the land shov-
el-ready, including getting it
rezoned from residential to
commercial.
“It’s a unique piece of
property,” she said.
Express Employment
Professionals will be hold-
ing a drive-thru job fair on
Thursday, Aug. 13, from
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front
of its offices at 120 E. Hurl-
burt Ave. in Hermiston.
Owner Kristin Connell
said as of Monday, Aug.
10, they had 55 jobs that
needed filling, but many
companies had given her a
low estimate to get started
and could actually use
more workers if they were
available.
“We have so many jobs
available we’re doing any-
thing we can to get people
in those jobs,” she said.
She said anyone who
is interested should bring
their employment history
and I-9 documentation to
show they can work. Jobs
currently available include
manufacturing, warehous-
New information available
for PPP loan forgiveness
Businesses that received
a Paycheck Protection Pro-
gram loan now have more
information available on
how they can go about seek-
ing forgiveness of that loan.
The businesses may
receive forgiveness for all
or part of their loans if they
used the money as pre-
scribed by the rules of the
program, which was one of
the main components of the
federal stimulus package
known as the CARES Act.
The Small Business
Administration
recently
released a 10-page Fre-
quently
Asked
Ques-
tions document online to
help business owners nav-
igate the process at sba.
gov/document/support-fre-
quently-asked-ques-
tions-ppp-loan-forgiveness.
According to the doc-
ument, if a borrower sub-
mits a forgiveness applica-
tion within 10 months of the
period their loan covered,
they will not be required to
make any payments on the
loan until the SBA sends
the lender the money for the
portion of the loan that has
been forgiven. If the loan
is completely forgiven, the
borrower won’t have to ever
pay anything. If the loan is
only partially forgiven or the
application for forgiveness
is denied, the borrower will
have to repay the loan before
the date of maturity outlined
in their agreement.
The SBA launched its
portal for loan forgiveness
on Monday, Aug. 10, but
many banks are awaiting
additional guidance and tak-
ing time to prepare before
processing application.
Hermiston-area
busi-
nesses can seek help from
their lender, the Blue Moun-
tain Community College
Small Business Develop-
ment Center (541-278-
5833) or the Umatilla Elec-
tric Cooperative’s Business
Resource Center in Hermis-
ton (541-289-3000).
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Express Employment Professionals will hold a drive-thru
job fair on Thursday, Aug. 13, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
ing, food processing, con-
struction and cleaning.
“We can literally screen
a person today and have
them working tomorrow,”
she said.
Visitors to the job fair
will receive a $5 gift certifi-
cate to Obie’s and a branded
item, such as hand sanitizer
from Express. Connell said
the company’s $75 refer-
As the economy contin-
ues to shift due to the pan-
demic, Umatilla Electric
Cooperative is reminding
area entrepreneurs of its
revolving loan fund.
According to a news
release, the purposes of
the fund are to help estab-
lish a new business, expand
an existing business, cre-
ate employment opportu-
nities, save existing jobs
or develop community
projects.
Loans are available
for between $5,000 and
$360,000, and projects
must have a minimum of
20% of their funding from
other sources.
There is a $500 appli-
cation fee, an annual 1%
servicing fee on the bal-
ance and a 3.25% inter-
est rate. Collateral and the
length of the loan period
are negotiable.
“Eligible projects for
loans can include any busi-
ness venture, governmen-
tal public body, or entities
involved in a community
or economic development
project that promotes job
creation and/or provides
FARM EQUIPMENT
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needed community services
that benefit rural areas,” the
email from UEC states.
“Uses of UEC’s Revolving
Loan Fund proceeds may
be for land, fixed assets,
machinery, and equipment,
or working capital needs.
Working capital loans will
only be considered in con-
junction with the purchase
of other assets, as previ-
ously specified.”
For more information,
contact the Umatilla Elec-
tric Cooperative Busi-
ness Resource Center at
uecbrc@gmail.com
or
541-289-3000.
Dr. Dave Drotzmann and Dr. Kollan Arritt
would like to welcome a new associate,
a graduate from Indiana University practicing
full scope optometry, specializing in Pediatrics.
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ral bonus will also apply if
visitors to the job fair share
who referred them there.
For people who can’t
make it to the drive-thru
job fair, Connell said the
office is closed to walk-in
traffic but people can still
contact Express over the
phone at 541-567-1123 or
fill out paperwork online at
expresspros.com.
Revolving loan fund available for businesses
HeRMIstOn HeRaLd
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edItOR
corporate tax rate on profits
made overseas than they do
on profits made at home. It
also criticized the trade deal
with China that the United
States signed in January for
“neglecting to even men-
tion, let alone address, the
abysmal labor rights, forced
labor, weak environmental
standards and related causes
of job offshoring to China,”
and instead helping compa-
nies feel safer moving jobs
overseas by increasing pro-
tections for their intellectual
property.
The report provides a list
of policy recommendations,
including enforcing a ban
on products made by forced
labor, allowing collective
bargaining and other joint
labor activities across bor-
ders, requiring public notice
when companies offshore
jobs, and requiring other
countries to agree to stron-
ger labor and environmental
laws in order to access lucra-
tive markets in the U.S.
number of people who lost
their jobs for trade or off-
shoring reasons, because
they depend on someone to
proactively fill out an appli-
cation to be enrolled in the
program, and only certain
types of jobs qualify. How-
ever, she said Oregon’s TAA
numbers in the past three
years have been “particularly
concerning.”
“The most troubling trend
uncovered in our analysis
is that trade-related job loss
has been on the rise in recent
years,” she said. “Oregon
experienced a 113% increase
in trade-related job loss in the
past three years compared to
the previous three years.”
She said those losses have
been felt in industries from
steel to semiconductors.
The report from the Trade
Justice Education fund criti-
cized the 2017 Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act for providing incen-
tive for companies to move
jobs overseas by allowing
them to pay a much lower
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