Freightliner Job Loss: City Must Boost Job Creation Effort

Did you happen to consult these people before formulating your 10 strategies:

Freightliner COO

Columbia Sportswear

Dave Lister

Adadis

Thanks
JK

Profits are good.

Without them, there are no jobs, no sevices, no schools, no aerial trams.

Portland and Oregon has to learn this, and internalize it. Start to LIKE private enterprise, like Freightliner.

Freightliner makes the Sprinter, which is selling spectacularly. I wonder how much heavier their sales mix would lean to the West Coast if California allowed the registration of light diesels?

If I was providing good jobs that generated the taxes that kept Oregon running, and it sued me, why would I want to stay? If my employees were being taxed to support unionized government employees who were providing a national laughingstock of an education while bleeding state coffers, why would I make them stay here?

If I produced a vehicle that ran on internal combustion in a town whose bureacracy is openly hostile to internal combustion, why would I stay?

Let's learn to appreciate profits, private enterprise, and the good it does for our community.

An economy of non-profits, goverment, and subsidized companies is unsustainable.

Repeat after me:

Private profits are a beautiful thing.
Private profits are a beautiful thing.
Private profits are a beautiful thing...

Maybe if you can take time out from building monuments, you'd realize Portland is not very friendly to jobs and is very expensive to do anything business-related in.

You may ask your economic developement person how much of a parallel she sees with her last job writing grants for subsistence farmers in Africa. GOd forbid we should ask someone who has actually had a job not dependent on the kindness of taxpayers how to get jobs here.

Can we re-train our Freightliner brothers and sisters into the new green collar economy? I recall we talked about building retrofitting, streetcar industry, infrastructure repair projects, green energy products/services, fixing the potholes/sidewalks, although at the same time, we have to replace the jobs already lost with "green manufacturing" ones, while fighting to get back the ones sent overseas? Even though this concept is a long-term process, could it be part of the solution, versus re-training our workers into low-wage jobs that pay minimum?

Can we turn this crisis into a green opportunity? Can Oregon be willing to enter the green collar industry? How can we work together on this? Let's keep it up.

Thanks Sam for your dedication to the tough years ahead......

Your “10 Strategies” debunked

In the next 3 months

1) Protect basic services – That should mandate spending transport dollars on maintaining roads and bridges instead of the reckless spending on fantasy toys like a web of streetcars that require increasing ongoing operational taxpayer funded subsidies.

2) Form a council of economic advisors – Will this be yet another stacked deck committee with the usual list of suspects (including a well known book merchant) that sit on just about every other committee you have formed?

3) Boost support to vulnerable families, expand rent assistance and increase capacity of foreclosure counseling services – A good sound bite, but where is the money to pay for it going to come from? Middle class families are already tapped out and all you want to do is add more taxes including on grocery bags, for street maintenance, etc.. City government needs to live within its means too and not use the tax code for social engineering purposes.

4) Support small businesses by placing a moratorium on new fees and taxes, extending city building permit validation, easing permitting process, boosting technical assistance and access, expanding loan programs and promoting local retail activity. – Less bureaucracy in the Socialistic Republic Portland of Portland; I doubt it!

In the following 6 months

1) Expand job placement and workforce training programs – If the jobs go away like Freightliner, there will be few options to make placements.

2) Reduce City taxes on small businesses. – sounds good but the City too must end the frivolous spending by getting back to funding basic services while cutting back on frills like streetcars and art on every corner.

3) Increase exports of local products and services – again sounds good, but Portland is fast loosing ground in the manufacturing and product sector, and there is little to no market for services dictator like sermons and lip service.

4) Maintain tourism support – In today’s economy staycations at home are becoming the norm.

5) Support transition to a sustainable economy and green jobs strategy – With so much babble emphasis on making Portland a platinum bicycling city, curb extensions popping out everywhere creating congestion and restricting truck movements, and streetcars planned for MLK and Grand further congesting a major truck route; obviously a truck manufacturer leaving town fits this strategy. The green jobs strategy is far too narrow a path. The sustainable economy must include bicyclists paying for bicycle infrastructure with a bicycle tax, and transit users paying a greater share of the costs of providing the service. Sustainability starts with financial self-sustainability, not a propped up taxpayer subsidized economy like downtown Portland.

6) Integrate job, housing, education and development programs – And finally, just more of the same old, same old, social engineering policies that aim to dictate the lifestyle, housing and transport choices of the people.

It is no wonder why Freightliner left town. Maybe we need a windfall profits tax on the bicycle industry to make up for them leaving.

Furthermore, I totally agree with Jim, Karlock’s, Dan Fitzgerald’s and Steve’s comments. If only you will step outside you tight circle of cronies, streetcar advocates and bicycle babble buddies; then maybe you will see the real world for what it is; and just maybe real progress can be made towards a vibrant economy with the marketplace replacing social engineered mandates and tax codes. .

Hi Sam

I think the strategies are a great start and it will take all we have as a community to work together to get through these tough economic time but I am confident we will come through this even better and stronger.

Job Creation...

I believe we need to once again create “on the job training” there are some careers that could actually benefit from someone learning on the job, in Europe this is very popular they work at a reduced wage for a particular job i.e.; marketing, sales, IT, HR, administrative work etc. just to mention a few and then after a period of time (one year) with success they then are promoted to a permanent placement in that field/career. This works for those who either do not have time to go back to university or who also learn better in this type of placement also while exploring a new careering they are still earning a decent income to sustain their families during these times.

I believe this also gives individuals the opportunity to expand their knowledge and to then explore the opportunities within a new field and career. If the city could partner with specific businesses to incentivize this type of job creation it would not only benefit the employee but it will also benefit companies in this economic down turn.

There are some who did not get university degrees for whatever reasons but who have the skills, talent and intellect I think we could very well be missing. I believe that if we only look at those with advanced degrees we are missing a large sector of very willing and capable individuals. Sometimes it’s not about the education but about the passion for a job or a career that propels us forward. We need to look at not only education but we need to look at experience in the work place and life experiences as well.

This is a way to give many a chance to possibly get into a career they have only dreamed of.

My thought are with these families and with our community during these difficult times.

Shannon Thompson

Sam,
You should try to convince Daimler to retool the Swan Island plant for buses. They know something about building them since they've been doing it since 1895. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_buses)

Demand for more public transit in this country will grow exponentially in response to concerns for global warming and diminishing oil reserves. There will be high demand for more buses, especially for large buses powered by electricity and CNG currently being built by Daimler in various countries.

Jim Howell

Sam I was listening to the radio this morning was pleased to hear that you are currently looking into procuring the uniforms and goods the city uses from either local manufacturers or at least those in the USA, that is a great start in the right direction.

If we all started thinking about where the things we buy were manufactured and started buying from "Home" we would increase the demand and the need for new manufacturing in the states in general and specifically here in Portland.

If there is an urgent desire to keep cost down you could also import material (or even parts) from offshore manufacturers but who do the final manufacturing process here - best of both worlds and could apply to other areas also

I was very pleased to hear of this incentive although it does not surprise me that you would looking into this not only to benefit our own economy but to ensure that our city is not involved in procuring goods made where they are not using best practices as far as rights of workers are concerned.

Kudos!

Shannon

Whats wrong with all the illegal aliens hanging out at the Tom Potter Memorial Illegal Alien Labor Site? Too busy? Asking wage too high? Not a job an illegal alien wants?

Let them go.

They will move where third world working conditions, polluted rivers & black plumes are accepted.

Keep your focus on education, livability, walkable communities, public transportation, jobs close to homes, live-work units, & affordable family housing

Businesses will learn their most important asset is an educated work force in a livable community.

Ditch Portlands outdated "industrial sanctuary" policy. Sanctuaries are magnets for big trucks that wear out Portland roads. Their workers are forced to rely on cars.

Keep up the good work.
Pat Wagner

Sam,

as a CAD Design contractor who has worked at Freightliner, now Daimler Trucks NA, for over a decade, I have seen a lot of people come and go.

Recently, within the past year, Daimler Trucks NA has been hiring people from over seas, on H1B work Visas. I would think that is there is some kind of regulation that would require a company to remove from mployment,
NON-Americans before American citizens are removed from their positions.

What would the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry think about this situation?

I know for a fact there is at least 150 canadiens working in the Western Star division, and at least 10 people from East India have been hired within the past year to work in the engineering department. I know of one non-american who has been hired within the past month and is being trained to perform the same type of job I do.

Please make an inquiry to the Daimler folks about this topic the next time you talk with them.

For obvious reasons, I wish to remain anonymous.....

Sam Adams wrote: "I hope you will join me and the rest of City Council in working to hold on to the companies and jobs we have and to support the creation of new jobs and companies where we have a competitive advantage. We'll send out more details in the coming months."

Frankly, I've been a little peeved over the last few months, seeing brand new City of Portland trucks around town.

Not one of them was a Freightliner or Freightliner brand (i.e. Sterling, Western Star).

I've seen lots of Volvos (manufactured in Virginia), Kenworths (manufactured in Tacoma) - but NO Freightliners.

How can Sam Adams, the Transportation Commissioner, tell me that he cares about Freightliner when the VERY BUREAU that he is responsible for, that is one of only a handful of bureaus that actually could be a Freightliner customer, refuses to?

Further, Sam Adams claims he is a major proponent of mass transit. Freightliner doesn't need to re-invest in bus manufacturing - Daimler already owns not one, not two, but THREE bus brands - Thomas Bus (school buses, although they did have commerical bus designs), Orion Bus (Salem's Cherriots is the only agency in the region that owns and operates Orion buses, including HYRBID buses), and Setra Bus (long haul buses). In addition, Daimler Bus North America also produces buses using the Sprinter body (which in America is a Chrysler product, but is a Daimler design and manufactured by Daimler outside of the U.S.) which could be useful for smaller neighborhood bus routes (like routes that serve Southwest and West Portland).

The idea of "oh, let's just have them build streetcars" is foolish - the Streetcar market is a niche at best. But there are HUNDREDS of bus agencies in the United States alone - not including Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere. Bus manufacturing is a HUGE business in Europe (yes, where all of those Streetcar systems apparently are, buses are still heavily used.) What's preventing this from happening? Sam Adams and his anti-bus, anti-business, anti-Freightliner attitude.

If Sam Adams cares about Freightliner, he's going to personally go before City Council, vote in a law that gives Freightliner - as a City resident, business, and employer - favored procurement status - AND make sure that he uses his clout at TriMet and Metro to make sure that Metro funds more bus service for TriMet and that TriMet buys those buses from Daimler and that Daimler builds those buses here in Portland.

I don't see it happening, so this is just another empty promise to placate us while he goes on and plans another landmark to himself (currently in progress: the "Sam Adams Columbia River Bridge" and the "Sam Adams Light Rail Line" to Vancouver.) Meanwhile, as a City of Portland resident, I'm still waiting for my quality public transit and my crosswalk so I can safely cross a street but I'm watching my tax dollars flow north to Vancouver.

This is a reach on this blog connecting Daimler and the Interstate Bridge...but I am Daimler employee born and raise in Portland whose job got transferred to South Carolina (near Charlotte, North Carolina). My opinion: too little concern and too late to keep Daimler in Portland with the current players in power both in the US and Germany.
But because I am in South Carolina, I took a sightseeing trip to Charleston, SC over the weekend. We crossed over the most fantastic bridge connecting Charleston with Mt Pleasant. It is an 8 lane bridge of the most awesome design. It is longer than 3.5 miles and 200 feet above the bay which is far greater than is needed over the Columbia and was finished in 2005...for $540 MILLION.
With the Interstate Bridge, we are taking of a 6 lane bridge (how shortsighted is THAT with 1 million more people in the area over the next 20 years!!) for the cost of $4.2 BILLION.
It would be greatif the mayor's office looked at this Charleston bridge from a cost and design standpoint. View it yourself at
http://revenelbridge.net