Officials believe they cannot replace ICTSI Oregon.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Port of Portland officials believe they cannot replace ICTSI Oregon.
Terminal 6 would be shuttered if the Philippines-based company decided labor-management issues are too big a hurdle to overcome, the Portland Tribune reports.
“We can’t afford to operate it,” Wyatt says of the loading and unloading facilities at Oregon’s only deep water port.
According to Wyatt, the port lost millions of dollars a year when it operated the port for most of its existence. When the port sought a private operator several years ago, ICTSI Oregon was the only company willing to do so. The port now has a long-term contract with ICTSI Oregon that cannot be broken except for cause. Under the contract, ICTSI Oregon is required to pay the port $4.5 million a year, regardless of the volume of shipments through the terminal. Years of disputes between ICTSI Oregon and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union local have taken their toll, however. Hanjin Shipping, the largest shipping line serving the terminal, pulled out earlier this month, reducing business there by around 80 percent. Wyatt says the bad publicity generated by the fights will effectively discourage any other operator from taking over Terminal 6.
Even though ICTSI and ILWU agreed on a contract to get West Coast ports operating again, the two parties continue to accuse each other of undermining the process.
ICTSI Oregon CEO Elvis Ganda said in a statement after Hanjin announced it was leaving Portland: “This will be a difficult task, given that the situation at Terminal 6 goes much deeper and has been going on much longer than the current labor dispute at other West Coast ports. We are hopeful, however, that the ILWU will cease its work stoppages and slowdowns and work with us in a cooperative venture to provide a thriving and productive container terminal for the good of the Columbia River region. We are certainly willing to work with the ILWU to that important end.”
In response, the union’s spokeswoman painted the terminal operator as a foreign entity looking to undermine American labor laws.
Here’s an excerpt from a ILWU statement:
“It’s a sad day when local port management thinks the best they can do is to have the Portland’s terminal run by a company that’s based in the Philippines and unwilling to respect U.S. working standards. It’s port management’s job to provide a gateway for cargo for our region, and it would be extremely irresponsible for them to throw in the towel based on its tenant’s failure to thrive. The port is a public resource, and it’s up to port management to step up and find a way to fix its failed privatization experiment with ICTSI,” Jennifer Sargent said.
READ MORE: Portland economist and Oregon Business policy columnist Joe Cortright argues that the state economy will do just fine without a profitable container terminal.
