Last 100 years mostly ‘up’ for Elevator Constructors

By DON McINTOSH, Associate Editor

Elevator construction, as a skilled craft, has had ups and downs over the last 100 years. But thanks to their union, it’s been mostly ups for members of the International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC).

IUEC Local 23, headquartered in Portland, turned 100 this year. To mark the occasion, about 300 members, family, and well-wishers gathered Oct. 25 at the Oregon Convention Center.

One hundred years ago, Portland had fewer than 200,000 inhabitants. The electric elevator had been invented 28 years before. After the IUEC, just seven years old, issued a charter to form Local 23, 18 elevator constructors came to the local’s first meeting, on June 8, 1908.

The IUEC motto — “In union there is strength,” — is part of the union’s insignia. And that union strength produces one of the top wages of any occupation.

Today, journey-level elevator constructors earn $42.09 an hour, plus $16.29 an hour in benefits. That makes elevator construction the highest paid craft among the building trades, according to State of Oregon prevailing wage surveys.

And one of the reasons is that union firms control an unusually high percentage of the market, said Columbia-Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer John Mohlis.

The state’s chief elevator inspector, Ron Crabtree, thinks union share of the elevator market could be near 96 percent.

IUEC is unlike other building trades unions in several ways.

It negotiates a nationwide labor agreement with its counterpart employer group, National Elevator Industry, Inc. (NEII). Its industry is dominated by a handful of big firms that operate nationally and even internationally, some of which, like Otis and Thyssen-Krupp, also manufacture the elevators.

An elevator installation contract typically includes free maintenance for three to six months, and is often followed by contracts with the same company to do maintenance and repair. Thus, even after elevators are installed, it’s IUEC members who return to maintain and repair them over the years — a facet of the business that helps keep members employed during construction downturns. There are now 10,541 elevators in Oregon, and all of them need to be maintained and repaired periodically.

Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. Executive Director Connie Ashbrook, a long-time Local 23 member, describes the work of elevator construction as uniquely challenging: “Imagine having to build a train from scratch inside a building. Only instead of building it horizontally, you’re doing it vertically. You install the rails the elevator runs on. You build the cab itself, install the motors and machinery above, attach cables, put doors in place, set up switches and mechanisms. You don’t have very much clearance. Everything is very tight and compact. And you have to make sure that nothing rubs.”

IUEC members also install and repair escalators, and they put in the small residential elevators and wheelchair lifts that are increasingly common as more and more buildings are made accessible to seniors and the disabled.

IUEC has enjoyed relative labor peace over the years: The last nationwide strike was in 1972. Locals sometimes wage walkouts over local issues, but there have been none in Portland in at least 30 years.

Like in other building trades crafts, IUEC-signatory contractors hire and lay off workers as they win and complete bids. So the union operates a hiring hall to keep members on the job regardless of which company is doing the work.

Though the national economy is looking grim, so far, local work has held up, said Local 23 business representative Frank Regalado, but if the economy slows further, members could be headed for hardship.

Old-timers remember the boom-and-bust construction cycles of the ’80s and ’90s. When recessions hit, it’s a good time to have saved up some reserves. And a bad recession can actually take wages backward: Regalado said in the worst of the ’80s downturn, IUEC, like other building trades unions, took wage cuts to stay competitive. The last two five-year contracts have seen decent gains, however, Regalado said.

When work does slow, IUEC members apply for unemployment benefits like other workers, or they hit the road to work as travelers in the jurisdictions of other locals where there may be work.

Local 23’s jurisdiction covers Southwest Washington all of Oregon except four northeastern counties, but it didn’t grow beyond 75 members for 50 years. It was the late 1950s before it hired its first full-time business agent. That was John Webb, and he set up an office in the now-defunct Labor Temple, which was located on Southwest Fourth Avenue in downtown Portland. Today, Local 23 has 285 members, and is part of an international union of close to 29,000 members. Its offices are at 12779 N.E. Whitaker Way, Portland.

Local 23’s 100 birthday bash drew a congratulatory proclamation from Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a guest appearance from state Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian, and words of praise from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden’s office, delivered by labor liaison Al Panek. Two of the international union’s top three officials also attended the Oct. 25 event — General Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Stringer and Assistant General President Jim Higgins — and helped officiate as honors were given out to some of the local’s longest-serving members.

And a team of instructors — Bob Pyne, Dave Tremain, Mike Bodendorfer, Dave Hyde, Dale Taylor, Don Springer, and Steve King — is molding the generation that will start off Local 23’s next 100 years. IUEC apprenticeship combines mechanical and electrical training, both on-the-job and in a classroom at the union hall. Right now, 70 apprentices are learning the ropes. About two-thirds typically make it through. It takes five years, but IUEC apprentices know that if they make journeyman, they have a challenging and rewarding career ahead of them.

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