ILWU Coast Longshore Division news release:

PORTLAND, OR, June 8, 2012 — On Monday, June 4, a neutral arbitrator ruled in favor of the ILWU longshoremen who claim that maintaining refrigerated shipping containers on Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland is their work under a longstanding collective bargaining agreement that covers all West Coast ports.

In 2010, the Port of Portland privatized Terminal 6, and in so doing, relinquished operational control of the facility to a Philippines-based company called International Container Terminal Services, Inc., or ICTSI. ICTSI is a member of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shippers, terminal operators, and stevedores, and negotiates a collective bargaining agreement with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union called the Pacific Coast Longshore and Clerks’ Agreement, or PCL&CA. In order to become a PMA member, ICTSI provided written assurances that the company was not bound by any other labor agreements and that it would abide by the requirements of membership.

The Port of Portland concedes that it is not a party to the relationship between the ILWU and PMA member company ICTSI. Nonetheless, the Port is interjecting itself in this private dispute, including mischaracterizing the facts of the dispute and filing an unfair labor practice charge against the ILWU despite having made assurances to the ILWU over the course of the last two years that it would not interfere with any arbitration in which the subject work was awarded to the ILWU.

The agreement between PMA and the ILWU shows that the parties are in agreement that refrigerated container (or “reefer”) maintenance is ILWU work under the PCL&CA. ICTSI has been instructed by PMA to assign the subject work to longshoremen at Terminal 6. ICTSI, with the support of the Port, continues to ignore its obligations to both the PMA and the ILWU.

“Two years ago, the Port of Portland entered into an agreement with Philippines-based ICTSI in which the Port surrendered control over operations at Terminal 6, and now the Port needs to step aside and respect ICTSI’s contractual obligations to the ILWU and allow longshoremen to do their jobs,” said ILWU Coast Committeeman Leal Sundet.