Wanted: Mass-Transit Projects : Technology: Transportation funds could create new careers for laid-off aerospace and auto workers, public officials are told.
Public officials said Thursday they want to create a mass-transit industry in Southern California that would parlay more than $100 billion in transportation funds into jobs for laid-off workers from the automotive and aerospace industries.
Instead of importing buses and high-speed rail systems from other countries, Southern Californians should develop mass-transportation technology and begin manufacturing systems and components here, said Nikolas Patsaouras, president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District board of directors.
“If we can send a man to the moon, don’t tell me the Germans and the Japanese can build a mag-lev better,” he said, referring to magnetic levitation high-speed rail systems being developed in those countries.
Patsaouras was one of 21 representatives of business, civic organizations and local, state and federal governments who gathered at the Van Nuys State Office Building to discuss the flight of large companies from the region.
Last month, General Motors announced plans to close its 2,600-employee Van Nuys plant, the last major car factory in Southern California, next year. In recent years, several large aerospace firms have relocated major elements of their operations to other states.
“We’re not here to point the finger or to find fault,” Mayor Tom Bradley said at the opening of the meeting. “It is my hope that through this conference we will be more knowledgeable about the existing resources available to help us in this transition, to identify other areas of need, and to work toward cooperative solutions.”
The idea of starting a mass-transit industry is a fairly recent one and officials said Thursday that government efforts are just beginning.
Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said GM employees and other displaced workers should be used to produce buses, trains and electric cars that will form part of the city’s transit system.
“I think the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and the RTD ought to amend their rules and their contracts to give a preference in the bid process to companies that will build and manufacture in the Los Angeles area,” Katz said.
He said he will seek to amend current legislation to give similar preference to companies bidding for contracts on a proposed LAX-to-Palmdale rail line, and he plans to introduce legislation that would apply the same rules to future projects.
Noting that $116 billion in mass transit funds are expected to flow into Los Angeles County over the next 30 years, Katz said: “We ought to use the money as a way to leverage jobs. It’s our tax dollar. Let’s use it to create jobs in Los Angeles.”
Congressman Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) called the county’s work force “one of the most incredibly skills-based work forces anywhere in the nation” and said it should be trained in new technology.
“Los Angeles can no longer depend on the types of manufacturing which have made this region so prosperous in the past,” Berman said. “We have to nurture new industries and develop the organizations which employ the full talents of this region.”
Berman has announced plans to introduce legislation to encourage development of electric car technology and is trying to bring the industry to Southern California.
Jerry D. Shrieves, president of Local 645, United Auto Workers, said he welcomed the effort. “We can do anything,” Shrieves said of the GM workers. “Let us build rail lines. Just give us a chance and we’ll do it.”
Many of the panelists suggested that GM could retrain their Van Nuys employees and use them to produce other cars and vehicles. They agreed to extend an invitation to the chairman of General Motors to meet with officials to discuss that idea.
In the meantime, GM workers will be able to receive assistance from a training center on Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys operated by the UAW Labor Employment Training Corp. and the Private Industry Council.
The center offers classroom training and counseling designed to help workers in the transition from one industry to another. Many who come to the center were once employed in the aerospace industry, Director Steve Fraser said.
Although the San Fernando Valley center has been open since November, few GM workers have come through the door.
“It hasn’t hit them,” Fraser said. “They’re still working.”
Panelists also called for the creation of an ongoing task force that would search for ways to prevent the departure of large companies from Los Angeles.
