Less than a year ago, Machinists union officers were spreading the word that Daimler’s Portland truck plant was hiring. Now the truck maker is looking to dramatically slash the workforce and cut production from its current 21 trucks a day to 12. The plant is located on the north end of the Port of Portland’s Swan Island Industrial Park.
To limit the number of workers who must be laid off, Daimler is first offering a buyout: a $55,000 bonus payment to retirement-eligible workers who opt to retire early. The offer extends to union members with at least 30 years of service, or who are at least 60 years old with at least 10 years of service, or those whose age plus years of service totals 85 or more. Workers can apply until June 23. The company hasn’t made any commitments as to how many buyouts they’ll approve, but those accepted for the buyout would work through July 11.
The company hasn’t shared with the union yet how many positions it will need to cut.
The coming layoffs will be plant-wide, but Daimler is also looking to eliminate one department that’s been saddled with aging equipment — the fuel tank department, with about 10 workers — and transfer their work to a non-union facility in Utah. The company is asking existing workers to train their replacements. Machinists Lodge 1005, the largest of the unions at the Daimler truck plant, has filed a grievance saying the way the company is going about the outsourcing violates the union contract.
Machinists District Lodge W24 representative Randy Lill says the job cuts follow a steep decline in orders for the Western Star trucks made at the plant. The plant has already been shutting down one day a week, and making use of the Work Share program of Oregon’s unemployment insurance system, in which workers collect partial unemployment benefits to make up for a partial reduction in hours.
The plant also makes electric trucks, and Lill said the Trump administration’s efforts to block state-level electric truck mandates are a factor in the layoffs. Another factor is an uncertain investment environment given rapid and unpredictable changes in tariff rules.
“With the questions about the economy, nobody’s buying trucks,” Lill told the Labor Press.
