The Associated General Contractors‘ Oregon-Columbia chapter has named Josh Tompkins as chief executive officer, the organization announced last week. He will begin work by the end of this month.

Tompkins succeeds Mike Salsgiver, who will work with Tompkins during a transition period through the remainder of the year. Salsgiver will retire in January 2027 after 19 years of leading the chapter.

“Mike’s someone I’ve always viewed as a professional mentor,” Tompkins said, noting that he will take advantage of the overlap period to make sure he has all the tools he needs to be successful.

“Josh brings a strong understanding of the intersection between business and public policy, as well as a demonstrated commitment to our industry,” Brandon Flint, president of the chapter’s board of directors, stated in a press release. “T��� board is confident that he will provide steady leadership and build on the chapter’s long-standing work on behalf of our members.”

Tompkins is well-known within the association and has attended a lot of its events, Flint said.

“One of the key factors (in selecting) him was he understands Oregon landscape and can navigate Oregonians,” he said.

Tompkins has experience in business, public policy and regional economic affairs, along with a long-standing connection to AGC’s Oregon-Columbia chapter. Since December, he has served as president/CEO of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce. Past roles include business and talent development manager at Dick’s Auto Group and president of Associated Builders and Contractors‘ Central Texas chapter.

Dick’s Auto Group has been a member of AGC’s Oregon-Columbia chapter since 2017, Tompkins said. The relationship has involved community outreach and sales of vehicles to contractors.

He was also a board member and chair of the AGC chapter’s Professional and Industry Associates Council and vice chair of its Workforce and Professional Development Committee. Tompkins said he has about eight years of experience working with the organization that has provided him with a lot of insight into the CEO role.

“T��� AGC Oregon-Columbia chapter is a very high-performing organization,” Tompkins said, adding that one of his goals as CEO is to maintain that standing.

Other goals, he said, are to ensure members continue to have great experiences as well as dig into workforce development and apprenticeships.

“This is an opportunity I’ve looked at for years as a big career goal,” he said.

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Junior McDonald trained to become an electrician at Portland Community College and was working as one when he discovered a broader interest in construction. “Owning my own home really inspired me to learn more about construction as I had to work on several projects around my house,” he said.

He started Black Dreams Construction in 2022 and provides general contracting, home additions, electrical, plumbing, roofing and landscaping services. McDonald partners with other contractors to support him on projects when he cannot complete them himself.

“I started my own company because I wanted to control my own schedule and have a way of helping others improve and maintain their homes,” he said.

Black Dreams Construction partners with local organizations such as PCRI and the Portland Housing Bureau to develop projects that benefit seniors and low-income homeowners. The company also supports workforce development by providing opportunities for young adults entering the industry.

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SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is proposing a a $200 million legislative package to bolster the state’s workforce during the pandemic.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the program, titled “Future Ready Oregon,” aims to prioritize key populations disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and existing disparities. They include Oregonians of color, women, low-income individuals, rural communities, veterans and those who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated.

Lawmakers will consider the plan when the Legislature convenes Feb. 1.

Three specific sectors would benefit from the program: Health care, manufacturing and construction.

Members of Brown’s Racial Justice Council, business groups and labor policy experts developed the program in late 2021 with the central theme of “meeting people where they are.”

That means investing approximately $82 million in existing programs that have shown results in putting people to work. Those include programs administered by the state’s nine regional workforce development boards, community colleges and career-specific apprenticeship programs.

The governor also wants to help especially hard-hit Oregonians by spending $95 million to solve problems that keep people out of the workforce. That includes covering the cost of tuition and fees for school and training programs, transportation, housing, food and childcare costs.

The $12.5 million remaining would help launch initiatives to support those engaged in the program by helping them navigate the benefits available to them and connecting the business community to consortiums set up for each of the three sectors involved.

The total $200 million would be composed of both state general fund monies made up of personal and corporate income taxes, as well as American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

Duncan Wyse, president of the Oregon Business Council, called the program a “game changing and exciting” proposal.

“We have immediate needs. Employers need talent right now, and there are a lot of Oregonians who are looking for new careers as they’ve gone through the pandemic,” he said. “(This program) really is trying to reimagine how we provide education and training services to adults.”

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Facebook is addressing the construction industry’s skilled labor shortage one data center at a time.

Following completion of two successful pilot programs, the tech company expanded its Hardhat in Hand job training program nationwide. One such program started in Prineville earlier this week in partnership with Central Oregon Community College (COCC) and Fortis Construction.

Thirteen people are participating in the eight-week training program. The first four weeks will be classroom instruction (provided by COCC) that covers construction basics such as using math and reading blueprints. Then participants will receive on-site training in the trade of their choice. Those who successfully complete the course will be offered a job with the general contractor or subcontractor with which they trained.

Facebook has active, multiyear data center construction projects under way in several states, said Amber Tillman, community development manager for the company. The work requires thousands of workers, so the hope is that Hardhat in Hand helps meet that need and increase the construction industry workforce.

So far, 30 to 35 participants have completed the program, Tillman estimated.

One participant, April Beatty, 44, completed Hardhat in Hand over the summer with Turner Construction in New Albany, Ohio. She had worked in a glass factory for some time before deciding to make a career change. Then, while talking to a friend in the construction industry, Beatty learned about the Hardhat in Hand program. She said she had seen construction workers driving nice cars and working consistently.

“I started asking questions about the trades,” Beatty said. “How do you get in? Do you have to buy a seat? I had a lot of questions because that isn’t information people just know.”

Though a switch to construction meant taking a pay cut initially, the industry aligned with her goals for dependable employment and higher wages eventually, she said.

The eight-week program is paid. However, it’s typically minimum wage – depending on the location, Tillman said.

No previous construction experience is required for someone to apply for Hardhat in Hand, Tillman said. Participants must be age 18 or older, possess photo identification and a high school diploma (or GED equivalent), and live close to the site location.

“I had some doubts and some thoughts that maybe I am too old, and I am a woman,” Beatty said. “T���re was a lot of factors that go out on a limb.”

However, participation was a supportive experience, she added.

After completing the program, Beatty entered a pre-apprenticeship with the subcontractor she trained under – Cupertino Electric.

Hardhat in Hand might be less exploratory than other workforce trainings, but its focus is really on the career path, said Tim Johnson, workforce development manager for Fortis Construction.

Prior to the program’s start in Prineville, officials offered a series of information sessions (with representatives of various trade partners present) in Central Oregon. Individuals could select a path they wanted to pursue, Johnson said, and then interview with the corresponding trade partner working on the data center. Those subcontractors then essentially became sponsors of Hardhat in Hand participants, he added.

If participants experience any issues like car trouble, insufficient gas money or a lack of appropriate work clothes, program partner East Cascades Works (Worksource East Cascades) is available to help.

The construction industry hasn’t done a great job of promoting itself to a diverse population in the past two decades, Johnson said. Now Central Oregon is seeing a construction boom, so finding skilled labor has been a challenge, he added.

“We’re just really excited for this launch and these 13 folks getting this opportunity,” he said.

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As the shortage of labor in the skilled trades persists, some contractors are increasing their engagement with the next generation poised to enter the workforce. These companies are seeking to cultivate connections with students by showing them in person peeks at careers in the building industry.

Rosendin Electric, a national electrical subcontractor with an office in Hillsboro, is doing just that via the Hillsboro Chamber’s School to Career program. In cooperation with the Hillsboro School District, the firm has developed a two-day program that brings high school students to its shop for exploration of the electrical trade.

“It’s really worked twofold for us,” said Zach Sharber, Rosendin’s quality assurance and commissioning program manager for the Pacific Northwest. “One is being a good partner in our community – we’re part of the Hillsboro community. And two is getting people interested in coming back to Rosendin or into our industry to help fill that void we’re experiencing right now. The schools can’t do it alone.”

Approximately 20 students from Glencoe, Liberty and Century high schools as well as Aloha High School in Beaverton School District recently spent two full days learning career skills such as basic wiring, estimating, project management, building information modeling, engineering, pre-fabrication and more. Further, they also gained insight about the soft skills – interviewing, resume building, fitness and more that are important in the construction industry.

Participants are also involved in their respective school’s construction or CTE (career and technical education) programs. Some were first-time attendees and others, Sharber said, have attended previous Rosendin events.

“I think the most encouraging thing is seeing the recurrence of the same kids who are interested,” he said. “Some are showing up because it’s something different, but we see the spark every time. They may not be climbing all over us to get information today, but it’s in there. And I guarantee that this summer they will be looking at the things we talked about.”

Knowledge about different options is key, Sharber said.

“If they come in once, great. If they come in twice, you know you’ve got someone who is interested,” he said. “What it speaks to me is exposure. That’s the in, that they know it exists.”

That’s certainly the case for Aloha High School senior Juan Carlos, who attended a Rosendin event for the first time. None of his family members work in construction; he learned about the event from a teacher. He’s been impressed with the instruction so far, he said.

“I don’t really want to be a person with a lot of debt when you get out of college,” Carlos said as he passed a pair of augmented reality goggles to a fellow student. “I wanted to come here because it always seemed interesting to me, and I wanted to learn important skills because you never know when you’ll need them in life. And now I figure that if I do an apprenticeship I won’t have any debt.”

Rosendin volunteers, including BIM modeler Brandon Penney, showed Carlos and other students how the tools of the trade work.

“We do this with a lot of schools,” Penney said.

He pointed at a semi-enclosed space containing metal-stud framing, conduit, receptacles and other items.

“This whole setup is a mock-up of one of the rooms at Sherwood High School,” he said.

Through the augmented reality goggles, Penney showed students how the same layout could be viewed as a 3-D model.

“Our best feedback is the hands-on portions out in the lab,” Sharber said. “So we’re looking at opportunities to expand it.”

The goal, Rosendin business development manager Courtney Hron said is to inform students of career choices they may not have known previously.

“It’s getting them in here and getting them to understand that once they go through that they have an option,” she said. “T���y can bounce around wherever they want to be.”

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The labor shortage in the construction industry isn’t limited to the ground level; it’s happening at the supervisory level as well.

In fact, right now it’s probably harder to find qualified project managers and project engineers than skilled tradespeople, according to some industry professionals.

“We have a tremendous difficulty getting qualified candidates for PM and PE positions,” Hoffman Construction Vice President Dan Drinkward said.

And unlike the skilled trades, which are starting to regain attention from schools, nonprofits and others, construction management is still largely unknown to many young people. Oregon State University, for instance, offers a renowned construction engineering management (CEM) program, but struggles to fill classroom seats – despite a nearly 100 percent job placement rate for graduates.

“T���y’re able to get a job pretty easily,” said Joe Fradella, a professional engineer and a senior instructor at OSU‘s School of Civil and Construction Engineering. “Our challenge becomes: How do we get more students into the program? So, we’re continuing to focus on doing that.”

The construction industry as a whole can do more to encourage college-bound students to consider such academic pursuits, Drinkward said.

“We spend a lot of time with colleges and reaching out to engineering programs and others we hire out of,” he said. “What I think what we as an industry don’t do enough is engage enough with high school students and guidance counselors so we make sure that kids who are looking at their path after high school have an understanding of the opportunities in our industry.”

OSU’s program is one that apparently is suffering from a lack of awareness.

“Once students know about it, they love it,” Fradella said. “T���y just don’t know about it.”

Fradella said that at one point he asked the students in one of his senior-level courses whether they had started in construction management.

“All but one of 30 students transferred in from a different major,” he said. “That tells me students don’t know about it as freshmen or in high school. But when they learn about the opportunities, they want to be a part of it and they come over.”

With few construction management graduates available, however, some companies are looking elsewhere for talent. Woodburn firm Triplett Wellman Contractors even scours the architecture ranks, superintendent Daryl Giorgini said.

“T���y make good project managers,” he said.

Hoffman Construction, Andersen Construction, Walsh Construction and other large general contractors are taking similar approaches. They all hire from the college ranks and develop talent from within, but they also pursue graduates of architecture, urban planning, engineering and other related fields.

Sometimes skilled tradespeople move into management after gaining valuable field experience. That was the case for Scott Rascoe, a project engineer for Walsh Construction.

“T��� thing I like about Walsh is they look outside the bubble,” he said. “For me, my whole background I was a diving superintendent and an underwater welder, and I have general construction experience before I went to dive school. I have a whole different trade knowledge, but management style and skills are all relative when it comes to schedules, clients and subs.”

Rascoe spent 11 years in heavy marine salvage working around the world before returning to Portland and earning an associate’s degree in construction management from Portland Community College. He understands intimately the on-the-ground needs of subcontractors and he knows the day-to-day challenges they face. Students in a classroom can’t learn that, he said.

“If you’ve never worked a trade or understood the hurdles our tradespeople are going through, how can you better manage them?” he asked. “Your degree is 20 percent of the foundation of the whole building, but then your experience is the 80 percent that will go and finish the project. For me that’s hands down the better way.”

Drinkward said most new Hoffman project engineers and project managers come through traditional construction management programs. But there are a growing number of exceptions.

“We do have several each year that are from one of the other related majors,” he said. “It has gotten more difficult, but it’s been like this since the end of the recession.”

Then, of course, there’s the rampant recruitment of personnel from other companies.

“I’m just a year into this and there’s a lot of people looking, for sure,” said Laura Waddick, a Walsh Construction project engineer who earned a degree from Portland State University in urban planning before moving to construction management. “I know that recruiters reach out to all of us on LinkedIn and other places every day.”

Glen Whitefield, a superintendent with Andersen Construction, said this practice is widespread in the industry.

“We’re getting phone calls from recruiters personally going, ‘Hey, do you want to go to Seattle? Do you want to go to Los Angeles?’” he said. “So, it’s not just the local market that’s trying to get people; it’s the market across the country that’s trying to get people. Everywhere.”

Mitch Smith, an R&H Construction project manager working on the Saltwood South mixed-use project in Northwest Portland, agreed. Even when companies are able to hire seemingly qualified project engineers or project managers, retention is still an issue, he said. At Saltwood South, just one of four original project engineers remains since ground was broken this past October.

“We had three people either quit or just not show up,” Smith said.

Companies realize attrition is always a possibility.

“I only speak for Andersen, but by the time people get to be a project manager here there’s a little bit of loyalty there and a little bit of a vested interest on both the company’s side and the employee’s side,” said Eric Sprague, a senior project manager with Andersen Construction. “T���re were a couple over the years – they had opportunities to go be a part owner of a subcontractor or who wanted to switch to form their own company. But I haven’t seen that many PMs just leave.”

OSU’s construction engineering management program is evolving constantly, Fradella said. Officials now actively recruit students pursuing other majors and reaching out to high schools around Oregon.

“We’ve made some pretty impactful improvements over the past several years,” he said. “We’ve started offering the OSHA 30 certified safety class and we’ve developed a construction management partner program to engage with contractors so they can be involved at OSU.”

The curriculum now employs the most up-to-date technology in courses on virtual design and construction using Revit and even 4-D building information modeling applications. The school now also hosts an externship program that bring high school teachers to OSU to learn about the CEM program.

“One thing they cling onto is the virtual construction part of it,” Fradella said, “because they have students interested in that sort of gaming and modeling. And students could specialize in that and work for a VDC (virtual design and construction) company all day long.”

There does not appear to be on the horizon any sort of single industry solution to the shortage of construction management personnel. More likely, each firm will find its own path forward.

“I think it’s more about ramping up what we have been doing and putting more energy into it,” Drinkward said. “I don’t think there’s any silver bullet anyone’s come up with.”

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The decade-long building boom’s effects on the construction workforce have been well chronicled, but effects also have reached elsewhere. Architecture firms are dealing with shortages of designers.

“(It’s) definitely an applicants’ market,” said Alan Osborne, vice president at Hennebery Eddy Architects in Portland.

The employment pool is suffering from a dearth of midcareer and, to a lesser extent, senior architects, hiring managers said. That’s an echo of the Great Recession that began in 2007 and drove workers away from the industry.

“Basically, there was a whole generation of architecture students who never started,” said Jon McGrew, a Hennebery Eddy associate principal.

Hennebery Eddy had a senior project architect position open for so long that the firm took advantage of a long-established program in Portland to borrow an architect from another firm. In this case, Bora Architects loaned a senior project architect to Hennebery Eddy for two months.

“You just can’t get enough people at that level,” Osborne said. “T���y’re very skilled at this point in their career, and there’s not enough of them to go around.”

Hennebery Eddy has hired more than a dozen architects in the past year, Osborne said.

Like others, Otak Inc. is struggling to find experienced architects.

“Right now we’ve been recruiting for more senior level, and I’m seeing more difficulty, obviously,” said Carol Forsberg, Otak’s talent acquisition partner.

TVA Architects is also looking for midcareer architects who can lead projects.

“T���re’s really just nobody in that 10- to 15-year (experience) range,” said Mandy Butler, a TVA principal who leads recruitment efforts for the 40-person firm.

TVA hires a new graduate only once every three to four years.

“T���re’s no shortage of brand-new graduates, and we get a tremendous number of applications from recent graduates,” Butler said.

Portland is a desirable market for architects, and there’s a substantial number willing to relocate from out of state, hiring managers said. As long as the project pipeline remains robust, firms will be hiring.

“What I’ve seen is a lot of people coming from outside this market,” including Boston and Seattle, Butler said. “T���y’re high quality, but sometimes the salary ask is out of alignment with where our market is at.”

The dearth of midcareer architects has pinched both sides of the divide, with younger architects playing more senior roles than usual, and older architects mentoring younger ones to accelerate their development, managers said.

Entry-level architects at major firms often do much of the actual design work. That fact and their more affordable starting salaries make them attractive to architectural firms.

“We do see quite a few firms recruiting,” said Karen O’Donnell Stein, spokeswoman for the Portland State University School of Architecture. The school expects to graduate approximately 44 undergraduate students and 27 graduate students in 2020.

“Our students are definitely in demand by architecture and design firms in the Portland area and beyond,” she added in an email. “Hiring personnel at firms frequently reach out to us when they have design jobs to fill, and our students have many opportunities to connect with professionals who participate in final reviews and other events.”

The University of Oregon holds a popular recruitment fair for architecture students and professional firms to meet. This year’s fair, on Feb. 20, has 41 firms signed up to visit with students in Eugene.

“We’ve been waiting for this strong, positive job market to end, and it hasn’t,” said Nancy Cheng, department head of the UO School of Architecture. “T��� outlook is very strong.”

Still, many firms are finding there are plenty of young architects looking for jobs.

“As far as entry level, I tend to see a lot of applicants,” Forsberg said.

Salaries for entry-level architects have increased, Osborne said.

“T���y’re on a steady climb, and that benefits us all,” he said.

SERA Architects has offices in Portland and Oakland, California. Both may soon present employment opportunities, said Valerie Williams-Hurwitz, director of human resources.

“We’re stable,” she said. “We expect to grow some in both offices.”

However, SERA respects the collegial atmosphere of the local design community.

“In Portland in particular we sort of have a gentlemen’s or gentlewomen’s agreement that we generally don’t poach from other firms,” Williams-Hurwitz said.

That said, SERA conducts open searches, and sometimes they result in an architect from another local firm being hired, she said.

Portland has the 10th-highest concentration of architects in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among large cities, only Denver, Seattle and San Francisco have a higher concentration of architects. In 2018, the Portland-Hillsboro-Vancouver metro area employed 1,760 architects, at an average annual wage of $85,420.

Architecture firms are also beefing up their internship programs to lure young architects. SERA is working to put together a yearlong internship, which could provide participants experience in several different disciplines, Williams-Hurwitz said.

Williams-Hurwitz and other SERA representatives last week attended a career fair at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She said students who expect to graduate this spring are eager to land a position, but don’t seem to be lacking offers.

“We don’t usually have to offer beyond what we consider the market pay, but if we have to do other creative things, like a lot of architecture firms – whether it’s a signing bonus or relocation – we can do those things depending on the circumstances,” Williams-Hurwitz said.

Hennebery Eddy has also worked to strengthen its internship program, Osborne said. The firm recently hired a former intern – a Montana State University student who graduated in December.

“Our student intern program is more important than it’s ever been, so we work hard to get in top architects,” Osborne said.

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The central Oregon coast is not a hotbed of welding talent. So the Port of Toledo‘s manager, Bud Shoemake, decided to initiate an effort to change that.

Under Shoemake’s supervision, roughly two dozen staffers operate the Port of Toledo shipyard and perform a variety of marine repair and maintenance services. Specialized skills – including welding – are required, and the port has encountered difficulty finding and keeping skilled workers. That led Shoemake, as part of the port’s five-year development plan, to create a pathway for certified welders in the small logging town on the Yaquina River.

“I’ve always said that Toledo was famous for exporting wood products and kids, and what we’re trying to do is get these kids good jobs locally,” Shoemake said.

To make it happen, the Port of Toledo went after and received a $261,285 Maritime Administration Small Shipyard Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in June 2019. The port then partnered with Oregon Coast Community College (OCCC) and Northwest Oregon Works, a nonprofit focused on workforce development, and used the grant money to build and equip a 12-bay welding training lab at the Toledo Shipyard Industrial Park. The new lab space will be available starting in February for Lincoln County high school students who enroll in an OCCC welding program. The course is also open to adults seeking to become certified welders.

The college is also offering welding classes at Taft High School, which has its own workspace funded by the Lincoln County School District. Regardless of location, people who complete the new semester-long course will obtain industry certification and become qualified for jobs in a variety of fields.

“T���y’ll be certified,” Shoemake said. “We use a lot of wire, and we also do some stick welding. And we cut with plasma cutters. But mainly it’s just a lot of wire welding. It’s not ABS certification, which is more for shipyard stuff.”

Preliminary interest in the program when it was announced this past summer suggests there is strong demand locally for such training. Dave Price, director of marketing at OCCC and former director of its small business development center, said the reaction on social media and in real life was much stronger than expected.

“It told us in no uncertain terms there is huge interest in the trades,” Price said. “So we’re doing everything we can to develop that.”

The new welding lab is an offshoot of wider development efforts by the Port of Toledo, which started with the purchase of a boatyard from Fred Wahl Marine Construction a decade ago. Eventually, the Port adopted a new business plan, which included an education component aimed at training new welders.

“We started an internship program in the boatyard last year, and to qualify for that the schools had to have an industrial program or shop classes,” Shoemake said. “Waldport (High School) and Toledo (High School) did, but nobody else did in the district, so that really got us thinking about it.”

More recently, Lincoln County resident Annette Mulee donated to the college $25,000 that will be used to fund 10 scholarships for welding students working out of Taft High School. The scholarships will cover tuition, books, consumables and fees associated with the course.

The courses will be taught by Mike Rasmussen, former department chairman for welding at Portland Community College‘s Swan Island Trades Center in Portland.

It’s not a moment too soon, as far as Shoemake is concerned.

“We did a couple of big projects last year, and we had to hire 13 temporary welders from all over North America,” he said. “We did that just to try and keep up with the schedule.”

Fortunately, OCCC anticipates little difficulty in filling available slots.

“Our big concern is managing expectations,” Price said. “We have 20 bays, so we’ll have one class that runs from February through June. And we’re going to put these 20 students in the new certificate program.”

Then, he added, the possibility of expanding the program could be explored.

“This welding (course) is the beginning of what we expect to be a broader, larger marine technology program,” he said.

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It might be a good idea to get some practice before operating a tower crane … even via a video game.

Equipment operators go through years of apprenticeship and training before becoming full-fledged journeymen. For those getting started, Operating Engineers Local 701 has a new tool: a video simulator that realistically portrays jobsite activities including tower crane and bulldozer operations. The nearly 3,800-member union invested $293,000 in the simulator.

The group plans to train apprentices on the simulator, and take it on the road to high schools throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington for recruitment purposes.

For the Operating Engineers, investing in the pricey tool made sense given that it can be used for both training and recruitment.

“It’s an exciting time,” said James “Jimbo” Anderson, Local 701’s business manager and financial secretary. “Everybody’s talking about an aging workforce, right? We have to invest in our apprentices.”

The simulator was manufactured by CM Labs of Montreal, Quebec, and delivered last month to Local 701’s training center on rural land near Canby. The tool is transported inside a trailer that can be pulled by a pick-up truck, and then must be assembled each time. Assembly takes time; five 55-inch monitors must be unboxed and tightly fit together.

The result is a simulator that operators praise for its realism. In a demonstration of the tower crane program, operators moved equipment, dealing with simulated wind, rain and snow. Another person can appear on a video screen to give hand signals that are piped into the simulation. The unit offers audio feedback, and the chair shakes if the crane operator hits a building.

The simulator offers the opportunity to put apprentices through a low-stakes training, where errors don’t cost money or lives.

“When you can put someone in a no-pressure situation, it’s amazing,” said Terry Casey, a former crane operator who works as Eastern Oregon business agent for Local 701.

For contractors, the simulator offers a chance to hire better prepared operators.

“That’s been a long time coming, and we really look forward to our apprentices training on that,” said Jonelle Anderson, director of marketing for NessCampbell Crane + Rigging.

A portion of wages paid to operators goes toward training, so NessCampbell helped pay for the simulator.

“It can provide them with a variety of different equipment without having to purchase that training equipment for their training facility,” Jonelle Anderson said.

The Operating Engineers are working to recruit a diverse and capable workforce during a time of widespread labor shortages in the construction industry. The number of apprentices the union can bring on is tied to the number of journeymen it has in the field. So the more workers it has, the more apprentices it can hire.

Local 701’s Anderson said he got more than 200 apprenticeship applications last year and hired about 40.

“We need smart, tough people to do this work, so we’re looking for that smart, tough kid,” he said.

In addition to high schools, union representatives have visited middle schools to start the recruitment process early. And it’s not just kids – some apprentices start in their 40s. Local 701 gets recent high school graduates, single moms and even parents signing up after hearing about apprenticeships through their children at school, James Anderson said.

“We sit and listen, we talk to them, we feel out what their skills are,” he said.

To recruit women, James Anderson often brings along Amanda Stevenson, a Local 701 dispatcher who formerly operated tower cranes and drilling rigs.

Wages are set at 80 percent of the journeyman rate, which ranges in 2020 from $36.55 to $56.22 an hour depending on role.

The Operating Engineers union is trying to stay ahead of the curve of construction industry practices. The union is offering training to certify drone pilots in the expectation drones will play a greater role in future construction projects.

James Anderson said the simulator, which is wrapped in photos of construction sites including Broadway Tower as well as an American flag motif, will be a common sight in the region.

“We’re trying to hit every high school there is in Oregon and Southwest Washington,” he said.

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The city of Portland has pledged to provide $631,321 in grant funding to local groups engaged in workforce development, criminal record clearing and expungement and re-entry housing services.

Allocation of this second round of city cannabis tax revenue was approved by the City Council at its Oct. 23 meeting. Up to $100,000 will go to nonprofit Constructing Hope to help it provide construction training for up to 50 individuals.

“Construction is one of the few industries that will hire people with a criminal record,” Constructing Hope President Pat Daniels stated in a press release. “But that record bars graduates from many projects, such as federally-funded contracts. With city of Portland support, we will help our participants reduce or remove their criminal records history and secure their driver’s license in a timely manner.”

The Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center and Rosemary Anderson High School, which previously received grant money in the first round of funding, will also receive up to $100,000. Officials anticipate 48 to 60 low-income youths and young adults of color being able to take part in the program to obtain construction-specific job skills, hands-on experience, industry certification and apprenticeship eligibility.

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