Even with the factory floor cleared out and tour stations assembled Thursday, it was not hard to spot crews coming in and out of soon-to-be Red Line cars, all destined for the other side of the state.
Lifted nearly 10 feet into the air on individual test tracks, the cars already sport the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority line’s paint scheme.
CRRC officials said some of the cars are the very shells that were held up at port about a year ago – part of an almost year-long ordeal that meant chaos and concern for workers like Springfield native, Denese Morgan.
“I'm really grateful for the job because if we lost this job … I'm taking care of my mom – she’s 95 and she's at home with me - I don't have her in a nursing home, she's at home,” Morgan told Governor Maura Healey, Congressman Richard Neal and others gathered for Thursday’s tour. “It’s just me and her – so it’s hard. If I lost this job, it would devastated not only me, it would devastate my mom and… I'm just grateful for all of you [who] helped.”
Morgan noted she was not one of the 140 workers furloughed after U.S. Customs and Border Protection halted train shell imports for CRRC.
The hold-up started around May 2025, as the feds looked into whether or not slave labor had been used for the parts or raw materials that went into the shells, potentially violating the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
CRRC reportedly complied, but by the start of 2026, the holdup was still on and soon took a deeper toll. Production was slowing and soon, furloughs were issued for some of the nearly 400-person workforce.
Like Morgan, Anthony Scavotto says he wasn’t among the furloughed, but he said the uncertainty took its toll.
“You know, there was a lot of ‘If’s’ … and it's tough to go home and wake up in the morning, and you don't know what news you're getting in the morning,” said the worker who's been with CRRC for some eight years. “You could be out of a job. So, like I said, we're grateful.”
But, as WAMC reported in March, a member of the state’s delegation made a breakthrough in Washington.
Coordinating with the governor’s office, Congressman Richard Neal, a former mayor of Springfield, managed to get a small 3-by-5 card to President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, one detailing the manufacturing jobs at stake and more.
It worked. The card handed over at a St. Patrick’s Day event eventually led to the freeze being lifted. Four months later, with a banner reading “Thank You Congressman Neal” hanging overhead, Neal, Gov. Maura Healey and others took in the results.
“When we talked to the individuals who were here today, they all said the same thing: good job, good wages, good health care - that is the American dream and we want to make sure we keep it,” the 1st district Democrat said. “I think there are about 40 more jobs to be returned. Remember - Los Angeles is depending on this plant for the Olympics, just a couple of years out. Again, it's a great testimony to the men and women who work at this facility. Thanks, from the United States of America.”
Of the almost 140 workers furloughed earlier in the year, several dozen have not yet returned. CRRC MA previously told WAMC they will be coming back in waves, with the last expected by September.
They are also expected to get 180 or so Red Line cars out the door as part of their contract with the MBTA. They already finished just under 70, along with the entire Orange Line order they agreed to, albeit, with struggles along the way.
As worker Konstantinos Adamos said, it’s the kind of work that needs precision and focus – something the import freeze didn’t help.
“This line of work needs a lot of patience and proper understanding of documentation… you cannot rush this, especially when you're dealing with thousands of wires and thousands of serial numbers,” he said, standing beneath one of the unfinished cars his crew is directly responsible for. “You have to be focused - clear-headed in the morning when you come in and you have to leave all your troubles/problems at home when you walk through this door, or else it will hinder your performance here.”
