NLRB upholds decision against ILWU slowdown in Portland

Following the National Labor Relations Board ruling, ICTSI Oregon, operator of Portland’s sole container terminal, is calling on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to get the facility back to full productivity.    The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has affirmed a decision of an administrative law judge that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and its Local 8 in Portland engaged in unfair labor practices affecting commerce at ICTSI Oregon’s practices at Terminal 6 in the Port of Portland.
   Slowdowns at the terminal have resulted in the two major container carriers that called Portland — Hanjin and Hapag-Lloyd — to end service there earlier this year. Only Westwood, whose breakbulk ships carry a few hundred containers on deck, continues to call the port.
   That has left shippers in the region without container service, meaning they must truck or rail containers to or from Seattle, Tacoma or Oakland.
   This makes things difficult for exporters, particularly those seeking to sell low value agricultural commodities in Asia or other markets.
   The decision by Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Wedekind that was upheld by the NLRB was originally issued in May.
   Wedekind found the ILWU and its Local 8 engaged in unfair labor practicing “By inducing and encouraging, since September 2012, longshoremen employed by ICTSI Oregon, Inc. at the Port of Portland to unnecessarily operate cranes and drive trucks in a slow and nonproductive manner.”
   He said union members refused to hoist cranes in “bypass mode,” and refused to move two 20-foot containers at a time on older carts, in order to force or require ICTSI and carriers who call at Terminal 6 to cease doing business with the Port.
   The union was ordered to cease and desist from engaging in such conduct.
   “The importance of this ruling should not be underestimated,” Elvis Ganda, president and chief executive officer of ICTSI Oregon, said in a statement. “Once again, the NLRB, a neutral federal agency charged with enforcing the nation’s labor laws, has found that the ILWU’s slowdowns and other efforts to interfere with production at Terminal 6 were illegal.
   “It is time for the ILWU to accept the validity of the NLRB’s decisions and to work in a constructive manner with both ICTSI Oregon and the Port of Portland to get Terminal 6 back to full productivity, which is critical to our region’s economy,” he added.