Kinkisharyo’s Plant is Showing Growth

Kinkisharyo's is a light rail car assembly facility at Plant 42. It recently celebrated in its production of its 78th rail car for the Los Angeles Metro Authority. This completes their first contract with LA Metro and moves them onto a new beginning. All the manufacturing is done at the Plant 42 plant in Palmdale with about four hundred workers. It is part of an almost billion dollar contract to deliver over 200 rail cars. The recent completion triggers a new phase and new agreement with LA Metro to produce more cars, and to expand the plant. If you recall several years ago there was a big legal disagreement. The unions accused Kinkisharyo of violating environmental acts. This forced the company to consider a move to Phoenix Arizona where other manufacturing is done. The disagreement would have killed jobs in Palmdale, which the city desperately needed. The company felt the union move was ruse by the union to force the company to use its workers. The company decided to drop their factory expansion, but they later won an agreement to use an existing building once operated to make the B-1B bomber. A swords to plowshares change. Additionally the company agreed to not fight unionization. The Palmdale workers are now represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical workers. This success provides security and jobs in the valley, and it is not just as airplane bomber producing area, but an environmentally conscious area as it is combined with the BYD electric bus manufacturing in Lancaster. This keeps workers in the area, which busts the local economy and areas growth.

New Positive Jobs News on the Antelope Valley Horizon

Northrop Grumman was awarded the “B3” new stealth bomber contract, but it is under appeal by Lockheed and Boeing. Lockheed also has a presence in Palmdale, if there is any change maybe Lockheed will get some input. The entire bidding process takes time, so it looks like Northrup will get the bid unless there was any illegal backdoor deals. But there is no evidence of that. Additionally, BYD is building electric buses and expanding their footprint in other cities and States. Also Kinkishiryo which is also in Palmdale has been building some rail cars for the Metro Rapid Transit system. They were going to pull out of Palmdale at one point, but tempers and accusations cooled. There are several solar power facilities taking place on the west side. These projects are being built and jobs are operating. Once the conduction faze is complete then many of those construction jobs will be gone. But it seems as soon as a project is completed then another one gets started. The sun keeps shining on solar in Lancaster and LA County land. More engineering jobs like these especially the new stealth bomber and the bus and train construction and manufacturing creates a need for housing in ownership and rentals. This all increases the value of land over time. This is all positive news for real estate and land investment.

Kinkisharyo agrees to Continue Work on new Metro Light Rail Vehicles

Back in 2012, Kinkisharyo was awarded a contract for a base order of 78 new light rail vehicles plus contract options for additional vehicles for Los Angeles Metro., Kinkisharyo agreed to assemble light rail cars at a new facility in Palmdale, but late last year unions fought the agreement and Kinkisharyo decided to move on and back to Arizona. Since then the LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Metro Chair announced an agreement between Kinkisharyo and the unions The mayor was quoted in Nov. 2014 “Last month, the lines were drawn in the sand and we were going to see jobs that could be in L.A. County go somewhere else. But because we brought both sides back to the table to grind out night and day negotiations with my office, L.A. County is going to see new middle class jobs and an expansion of our manufacturing base,” Mayor and Metro Chair Garcetti said. “As I oversee the nation’s largest public works project as Mayor and Metro Chair, it’s critical to me that our economy benefits from our $36 billion transportation build out, and this agreement makes that happen. Creating good, local jobs as we strengthen our local infrastructure is key to my back to basics agenda for L.A.” Now according to news reports Kinkisharyo will expand the current light rail car assembly and testing operations at its existing site in Palmdale to include manufacturing tasks, which will create up to a total of 250 jobs. The 175 cars being worked on at the facility will be put into service on the Crenshaw, Exposition and extended Gold lines. The agreement includes a neutrality agreement, as well as a commitment to explore additional skills training and assistance for disadvantaged L.A. County workers. This is an opportunity for more jobs in the valley to go along with further progress at Plant 42, and BYD’s Electric Bus in Lancaster.

Did a Union Just kill hundreds of Jobs and Economic Growth for Palmdale, California?

The city of Palmdale was ready to complete a deal with Kinkisharyo International a Japanese company who agreed to build a $60 million factory on a city owned property. Kinkisharyo has a $890 million contract to build potentially hundreds of light rail cars for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But now the company is taking its project to another state and many indicate a union is to blame. The plant would have employed 300 at a 400k square foot plant. The plant known as Site 9 was a warehouse space used in numerous movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and “Terminal”. This would have been a big economic opportunity for the City of Palmdale as Kinkisharyo International recently moved its U.S. headquarters from Boston to El Segundo, Calif. Palmdale Mayor Ledford was recently quoted this summer as saying "I believe this is just the beginning of a manufacturing renaissance here in the Antelope Valley,”. An environmental group backed by the International Brotherhood Workers Union Local 11 challenged the company. They produced an appeal claiming that construction of the proposed factory would violate state environmental laws. The union wanted to organize the plant without any interference from the company, but the company said no. So the Union backed the environmental group which turned the project into a potential environmental hazard. “They are using California’s environmental laws as a pretense to put leverage on the company to get what they want,” Kinkisharyo spokesman Coby King told FoxNews.com. Thus the Unions demands were not met so they used environmental laws of water rights to reduce “dust spores” which killed the deal. Initially the Union push the card check agreement. Which is a plan also approved by the Obama administration? Card check is where a company must accept a union if the majority of workers accepts the union. A union spokesperson said they didn’t kill the deal, and that it was the environmental laws, but Kinkisharyo is now looking to build their plant in another state. Kinkisharyo paid $2 million to fight to build the plant in Palmdale. It looks like it is too expensive to do manufacturing business in California.