Union pressures may have cost Palmdale hundreds of jobs

PALMDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- It was a project that would have generated hundreds of jobs to build train cars in the Palmdale area. But now, the company, Kinkisharyo international, is pulling out of the deal.

"This would have had a positive effect, especially for the city of Palmdale or for someone like myself, a veteran," said Albert Becerril of Palmdale.

Becerril has been unemployed for nearly a year. He was looking forward to applying for a job at Kinkisharyo international, a Japanese company that builds light rail train cars.

The company was set to build a plant on 60 acres near the Palmdale Airport. That is until the company announced it was pulling out of the deal and now looking to build a facility out of state. It blames the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union (IBEW).

"It's been a great opportunity to be in this city and to work with the people who are managing it, and it's an unfortunate situation we have here," said Donald Boss of Kinkisharyo during a news conference.

In a phone interview, Kinkisharyo officials tell ABC7 that IBEW had asked the company to go around national labor laws and agree to shortcut the process to unionize future workers once the plant was built.

Company officials say they refused, and the union teamed with several other groups and filed an appeal to have the company's building permit thrown out. They say the groups challenged the permit citing several environmental issues that had yet to be adequately worked out.

"I want to express our enormous frustration and intense dismay that a labor organization, which is ostensibly dedicated to workers, would exploit CEQA, an environmental statute to block Kinkisharyo from building a permanent manufacturing facility supporting hundreds of jobs for workers in the Antelope Valley," said David Flaks of the L.A. County Economic Development Corp.

IBEW did not return calls for comment and have not released a statement.

Kinkisharyo isn't appealing the permit, saying the process could drag on for years. Some local officials are holding out hope things can be salvaged.

"I am calling upon Gov. Brown to call the International Brotherhood Electrical Workers," said L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich.

With the unemployment rate right at 10 percent in Palmdale, people need the jobs.

"I am pretty upset by what's going on as far as taking work away from not just from me, from all my fellow brothers from the union," said Jesus Pinion of the Carpenters Union.

The company says it will still honor its contract with Metro to build 175 light rail cars at a facility it is currently leasing in Palmdale, but will no longer build a permanent facility.