A trade association founded five years ago to give manufacturers a stronger voice in Salem is dissolving.
The Oregon Manufacturers and Commerce trade group was formed in 2018.
“From the Silicon Forest to forest products, fabricated metal products, machinery, paper and food and beverage products, Oregon manufacturers provided Oregonians with good paying jobs and economic stability for our state,” Stuart Gray, the chief operating officer for Roseburg Forest Products and a founding board member of the organization said in a statement.
The group felt it was under threat from “extreme regulations and excessive tax proposals” when it formed.
Roseburg Forest Products and ENTEK international were two of the founding members.
Longtime Salem lobbyist Shaun Jillions established the association. In 2020, the group was key in killing climate change legislation – known as the cap-and-trade program – that many business groups opposed. The organization also helped support the Republicans who fled the Capitol, derailing the legislative session.
With the manufacturers and commerce trade group closing its doors, many of the state’s businesses will now be represented by Oregon Business & Industry, a group created in 2017.
Manufacturers in Oregon employ about 10% of the state’s workforce, according to the group, and there were more than 201,000 manufacturing employees in Oregon in 2019.
