Window manufacturer expanding in Odell; housing highest bar to meeting worker needs

In early June, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown toured the facility, which is growing both physically with a planned 145,000 square foot plant expansion and internally, with 370 employees currently working multiple shifts — the facility runs 24 hours a day, six days a week. Currently, an additional 30 employees are needed and when the expansion is complete an additional 50 jobs will be created.

Plant Superintendent Sorn Reppen told the governor the company has been working with high schools and community colleges in the Gorge area to train and find workers. “We want local people,” he explained, noting worker housing is a major issue in recruitment. The company pays well, he added, starting workers at $18 an hour with benefits. Many of the available jobs are open to high school graduates with no college training. Promotion within the company is done internally, so there are opportunities for advancement.

“The number one hurdle is housing,” he said of the struggle to find workers.

A lot of local employers are competing for the same workers, he added. Some employees remain unavailable due to the pandemic, he added, because they are staying home to take care of their families.

Gov. Brown noted the tight job market was not likely to change soon. “The market was tight even before the pandemic,” agreed Gov. Brown. “The pandemic has made it worse, and my advisers suggest there is going to be a tight market” as the state reopens.

Brown added that beginning June 19, Oregon workers on unemployment would again be required to document their efforts to find work. “That might change the dynamic a little bit,” she said.

Supply and demand

Reppen told Brown the company, like many in Oregon, has been having supply issues during the pandemic. “We are having some issues. No show stoppers yet, but it has been very touch and go.”

Maintenance Manager Shane Thoms said “on time, complete deliveries is our buiness model, and that’s been a real challenge.”

On a tour of the facility, Thoms pointed out large stacks of windows packaged and ready to ship. “This will all be going out on tonight's truck,” he said. “There is nothing built up, it's all going out.”

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Thoms noted Cardinal IG in Odell is just one of the company’s glass manufacturing plants. “We have invested heavily in research and development,” he said. The company has one site dedicated to robotics and automation.

Thoms noted the company plans a long future in Odell. The plant was developed with support from the state’s Brownsfield program, an ongoing program which helps landowners evaluate and cleanup former industrial sites, and is a perfect location for manufacturing sealed, insulated glass. “We are 700 feet above sea level, and that is perfect,” Thoms said. Once sealed, the windows shrink and expand with elevation. Sealed in Odell, they can be shipped almost anywhere without imploding or exploding do to changes in air pressure between the panes of glass. “The glass swells and shrinks with altitude,” he explained.