The union that represents the Port of Tacoma's facilities and equipment maintenance people and its clerical workers said today it is concerned about plans for layoffs at the port.

Dave Fjeld, business agent for International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 22, told Port of Tacoma commissioners he is concerned that the layoffs could prove shortsighted.

Fjeld said union officials meet with the port's top three officials Wednesday including port director Tim Farrell to discuss possible alternatives to layoffs.

Farrell sent out notices to 47 Port workers early this week putting them on notice that they could be laid off by July 30.

The port's container traffic is down nearly 15 percent in the first quarter, and the port administration is cutting expenses to match revenue declines.

Fjeld said that while container traffic is down, maintenance requirements continue regardless of container volume.

The port's container cranes, he said, need maintenance and safety inspections no matter how many container lifts they've handled. With fewer workers, that maintenance could be neglected.

The union is looking for creative money-saving solutions to the port's money issues without cutting vital services, he said.

Container traffic at the Port of Tacoma during the first quarter dropped significantly, according to new figures from the port, but things could have been worse.

The Port of Tacoma, for instance, could have been the Port of Long Beach.

The plunge in container traffic at that Southern California port was more than double the fall in Tacoma, -29.5 percent for Long Beach versus 14.7 percent in Tacoma.

New statistics presented to port commissioners at their Thursday noon meeting, showed Tacoma fared better in this declining economy than any established West Coast port.

Oakland was down 15.7 percent. Los Angeles container volume was off 17.4 percent, and Seattle recorded numbers down 23.1 percent from the first quarter of 2008.

Only Prince Rupert in British Columbia, a new container port, posted a gain, 94.8 percent, but on a relatively small number of containers, 40,956.

That compares with Tacoma's 379,174 in the same period.

The two Rolls Royce jet engines on Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner fired up for the first time about 9:30 a.m. Thursday, moving Boeing closer yet to the first flight of the revolutionary plane.

The engines ran for about 40 minutes on the first test aircraft, Boeing said. The engines operated at several power settings, and the systems the engines power were tested successfully, the company said.

The 787 engines are unique in that they are started using electrical power rather than bleed air as other airliner engines have been.

The 787 is the first major jetliner to power most of its systems with electricity rather than air bled from the engines.

That's most important in the heating and air conditioning systems, where electrically-powered systems offer fuel savings and better control flexibility.

The 787 is due to take its first flight before the end of next month, nearly two years behind schedule.

Arthur Erickson, the Canadian architect who designed the award-winning Museum of Glass in Tacoma, died Wednesday in Vancouver, B.C.

The National Post of Canada carried this story about Erickson's passing today.

This Aug. 8, 1982, photo shows architect Arthur Erickson displaying a photo of Roy Thompson Hall, which he helped design, in Toronto, Canada. Erickson first achieved international acclaim for his award-winning design for Simon Fraser University. He was also handpicked by Pierre Trudeau to design the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Erickson died Wednesday in Vancouver at the age of 84. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press)

After the Museum of Glass opened in 2002, its uniqueness, especially the iconic cone, drew rave reviews – a new, positive attention to Tacoma.

"I was extremely dubious because Tacoma has always been a place to drive through," Julie Ovenell-Carter, a free-lance travel writer based in Vancouver, B.C., who was here for the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, told The News Tribune during the museum opening. "I have been happily surprised at every turn, not just by this museum. Now I feel like I could, in good conscience, go back to my readers and say, 'Yeah, stop in Tacoma.'"

Erickson's work drew that kind of praise.

The startup the two Rolls Royce engines on the first test Boeing 787 Dreamliner is imminent in Everett, aviation sources said this morning.

Pre-startup tests have been performed, and it appears that the engines on the test plane are ready for their first ignition on the aircraft.

Those engines or ones identical to them have been tested for hundreds of hours on test stands and on test aircraft other than the 787.

The engine start is likely to be accompanied by big plume of white smoke as oil used to keep internal parts of the engine lubricated and safe from corrosion burn off during the initial few seconds of the engines' run.

The engine start is another prelude to the 787's first flight, now nearly two years behind schedule.

The engine test will demonstrate how the plane's systems perform independent of ground power or of the plane's auxiliary power unit, which has already undergone its test.

Next expect taxi tests and then high speed taxi tests on the runway. Boeing says that during high speed taxi tests, the plane could accidentally leave the ground for a few seconds. That's much like Howard Hughes huge Spruce Goose seaplane whose only "flight" resulted from high speed tests in the Long Beach Harbor when the plane rose briefly from the water for a few feet.

The full-blown "first flight" when the plane leaves the runway and climbs to higher altitude, is due before the end of June.