Kawasaki officials say comments in a published report stating that labor issues at its plant in Lincoln are causing delays in the delivery of rail cars to New York City are not true.
The New York Daily News that Metropolitan Transit Authority officials are unhappy with the pace of rail cars being delivered from Lincoln to New York and are blaming that on labor problems and mismanagement.
The MTA approved the purchase of 535 state-of-the-art, next-generation R211 subway cars from Kawasaki in 2018, in a contract valued at the time at $1.4 billion.
They were supposed to go into service next summer, but that has been pushed back to January 2025.
The company is also 17 months behind schedule on cars for the Long Island Rail Road, an MTA subsidiary, according to the newspaper.
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The Daily News reported that Jim Allen, head of rolling stock for the Long Island Rail Road, said during an MTA committee meeting Monday that Kawasaki would hire employees only to have them leave after a week, leading to a "real systemic problem."
Siu Ling Ko, chief mechanical officer for NYC Transit, was quoted as saying Kawasaki loses about 45 workers every month from its rail car operation, while Joseph Devito, the MTA’s independent engineering consultant, said the company's problems have forced MTA to provide "constant oversight and supervision."
A Kawasaki official told the Journal Star that it meets monthly with all of its customers to provide status updates and recently hosted MTA officials.
"Last week we hosted NYC Transit members at our facility and we successfully completed the first car review for the R211T open gangway subway cars, which is a large milestone in the progress of the project,"Â Jason Hellbusch, corporate director of administration for Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. U.S.A., said in an emailed statement. "Joint understanding is key to progress and during this last visit by NYC Transit we provided a detailed update regarding status and progress of the project, which included supply chain and manpower status."
But it appears something must have been lost in translation for the MTA officials to come away with the impression that Kawasaki has labor problems.
"The New York Daily News article does correctly highlight that a major reason for delays has been supply chain issues," Hellbusch said. "However, we take exception to the comment regarding labor problems at Kawasaki here in Lincoln. We currently have sufficient manpower for all projects in our facility and we continue to hire personnel as our production rate increases."
Hellbusch acknowledged that Kawasaki, like many other companies, faces challenges finding enough workers in the current labor market. Nebraska's 1.9% unemployment rate in May was tied for lowest in the country, while Lincoln's metropolitan area unemployment rate is among the 20 lowest in the country.
The company in July 2020 announced an expansion, partially driven by the startup of the R211 contract, that would require it to hire 550 new employees.
Hellbusch said Kawasaki is committed to fulfilling its contracts with MTA, and the agency appears committed to the company, despite the quotes from officials.
The Daily News reported that MTA plans to exercise an option to buy an additional 640 subway cars from Kawasaki later this year, largely because the company is one of only two that it works with.
“The universe of competent, qualified car builders that are in the U.S. are down to two. We’re all very mindful of some of those consequences,†said MTA chairman Janno Lieber. “What we’re trying to do is help Kawasaki get back on the straight-and-narrow.â€