https://portside.org/2026-08-13/daimler-close-portland-truck-plant

For 387 workers and their families, the news landed like a sucker punch July 29. Daimler Trucks North America is closing its Portland truck plant effective Oct. 30. 

Heavy trucks have been rolling off the Swan Island assembly line since 1952, providing generations of union-wage work. Now the plant will go silent, though the nearby corporate headquarters will remain. 

The closure means permanent layoff for 214 members Machinists Local 1005, 101 members of Teamsters Local 305, 10 members of Painters Local 1094, and 9 members of SEIU Local 49, plus 44 non-union office employees. 

It’s a sad end to the high hopes of five years ago, when Daimler chose the Portland plant to make new electric versions of its Class 8 heavy truck and smaller box trucks. 

Demand for electric trucks was on track to increase dramatically thanks to new state-level mandates in California, Oregon, Washington, and nine other states. But Trump’s second administration has moved aggressively to fight those mandates in court, and in June 2025, the Republican Congress repealed a federal waiver that allowed California to enforce its Advanced Clean Trucks rule.   

Union members have been making heavy trucks in Portland since Freightliner began production in 1947, led by Leland James as part of his trucking company Consolidated Freightways. But production has been shifting elsewhere since Freightliner built its first plant in North Carolina in 1978. That shift continued after Daimler-Benz bought Freightliner in 1981 and opened its first plant in Mexico in 1992. 

As late as 2000, the Portland truck plant employed more than 3,000 workers, but it shrank dramatically after that. In 2009, Daimler announced it would close the Portland plant, but it walked back that decision after Machinists union leaders pointed out that a closure would trigger enormously expensive pension withdrawal liability. Daimler ended up withdrawing from the Machinists pension in 2017 with the approval of union members, providing equivalent benefits by boosting contributions to a 401(k) and paying off the withdrawal liability, which had lessened by then.  

Production of Freightliner branded trucks ended in 2007, and since then the Portland plant has made specialty trucks like dump trucks and cement mixers under its Western Star brand. (Daimler bought Western Star, a Canadian truck company, in 2000, then closed its British Columbia plant and moved production to Portland.) In 2021 Daimler announced that Freightliner production would return to its home town with new all-electric models, the eCascadia semi truck and eM2 box truck. Daimler invested in new capital equipment and the first eCascadia debuted in 2022.

Randy Lill, union rep for Machinists Local 1005, said truck orders were already stalling out: Production had fallen to 13 trucks per day, down from 24 a few years ago. Mostly of the orders have been for Western Star trucks, but the plant has continued to produce some electric vehicles too. Lill says production has been plagued by parts shortages in the last few years, in some cases even leading to temporary shutdowns.

A company spokesperson told The Oregonian the closure wasn’t a reflection on the local workforce or business conditions in Portland. It’s just that its factories and supply chains are increasingly concentrated on the East Coast, making Portland an outlier.

When the Portland plant shuts permanently on Oct. 30, its work will shift elsewhere. Daimler performs final assembly of Freightliner trucks at plants in Cleveland and Mount Holly, North Carolina; Fort Mill, South Carolina; and in Mexico at plants in Saltillo and Santiago (near Mexico City) The Cleveland plant also makes Western Star trucks. Other nearby plants in the Carolinas make custom chassis and cab and chassis parts.

Machinists union leaders were set to meet with the company Aug. 6 and 7, after this issue went to press, to discuss the closure.

The permanent closure includes all workers at the massive truck plant at 6936 N. Fathom St., at a nearby post-production facility at 5400 N. Basin St. that customizes trucks according customer specifications, and at a drop lot at 5001 N Channel St. where completed vehicles await transport. 

Machinists union members will get severance equal to two weeks base pay for every year of service, thanks to a provision they negotiated into their union contract. 

Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 has offered the use of its hall at 2379 NE 178th Ave. for a meeting for Machinists Local 1005 members at the truck plant. The meeting will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15. It will include presentations about unemployment benefits, job placement assistance, and how to obtain health insurance. Attendees will also be surveyed to find out what additional help they need.