Bradken Foundry in Chehalis Will Close; 91 Employees Affected

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Bradken, a company that specializes in steel castings and similar products, announced Wednesday it plans to shut down its operations in Chehalis.

According to a news release from the company, Bradken notified employees at the foundry on Sears Road of its impending closure. Ninety-one employees will be impacted, although the release doesn’t necessarily say they will be laid off; a great deal of the work will shift northward.

“The closure will be staggered in departments to service the needs of customers as we work to complete orders at that facility as well as distribute ongoing customer orders to other facilities with much of the work transferred to Bradken’s Tacoma foundry,” the release stated.

A call to the Bradken Tacoma office seeking comment has not yet been returned; such was also the case with a call to Bradken’s Chehalis Foundry.

According to the news release, the decision to close the Chehalis location is “in response to softer market conditions served by the Chehalis facility, and Bradken Energy Business Unit will allow Bradken Energy to remain competitive through improved economies on scale.”

According to Lewis County tax records, the Bradken property at 109 Sears Road has an assessed value of $1,760,000 and is owned by Atlas Foundry Limited Partnership. The main building on site is listed as measuring 77,160 square foot, with the total property comprising 5.52 acres.

Bradken is globally headquartered in Australia and, according to The Australian, had been offered 872 million Australian dollars from private equity firms Bain Capital and Pacific Equity Partners. MarketWatch.com reported in December that Bradken’s shares on the Austrailian Stock Exchange had been hit hard, falling 45 percent in 2014 due to low demand primarily in the mining industry.

Locally, workers at the Chehalis foundry moved to unionize in 2012 in what local labor leaders called the largest labor unionization in Lewis County in three decades. The workers joined the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, and in 2013 filed a complaint against Bradken with the National Labor Relations Board for regressive and surface bargaining — essentially a charge that the company was stalling wage negotiations.

The union stated in a September 2013 Chronicle article that Chehalis employees had been earning at least $4 per hour less than what people doing the same jobs at Tacoma’s foundry were making. In June 2014, the union and Bradken reached a tentative agreement.



According to public records accessible on the National Labor Relations Board website, a case was filed Jan. 13 against the Bradken Chehalis operation by an individual alleging a violation of section 8(a)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act that deals with employee discharge. That section of the act deals with discrimination against employees and lists several instances in which the rule could apply.

The filing also alleges a violation of section 8(a)(2) of the act, which prohibits the employer from acting to “dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it.”

The Chronicle will file a public records request with the National Labor Relations Board’s Seattle region office seeking specifics on the situation.

According to records kept by the Washington State Employment Security Department, 91 employees affected would be the largest loss of local jobs since RoadLink laid off 150 employees in May 2013.

Matt Matayoshi, executive director of the Lewis Economic Development Council, expressed disappointment at the loss of local jobs at a time when such job losses have been relatively few. However, he said, indications showed the company made its decision due to external factors and wasn’t indicative of issues within the local business community.

“I think in this case I make the initial assessment that it’s a business decision, and knowing that I feel confident in the community that they did all they could for Bradken,” Matayoshi said. “In an industry like that, there’s a lot of international competition abroad. They can operate under different standards and have lower operating costs elsewhere, so that could probably play into it.”

Matayoshi said if any workers are laid off or decide not to transfer, the EDC wants to stand ready to help any way they can. From there, he’ll reach out to the company and see if they intend to put the building on the market.

“We find the opportunity in the difficult situation in that they have a building, an asset they have built. That building and property have been improved,” Matayoshi said. “Look at Hardel, the community recruited them because they had a building available. We could see that here."