A QUARREL over which union should control two full-time jobs was not settled as expected by US District Court Judge Michael Simon, who instead appointed former Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski as "special master for settlement", charging him to end the dispute that has crippled container operations at the Port of Portland.

Mr Kulongoski, who is also a former Oregon supreme court judge, will meet the parties on Monday. His salary will be paid 50 per cent by the terminal operator, Manila-based International Container Services Inc (ICTSI), 25 per cent by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and 25 per cent by the employers group, the Pacific Maritime Association, which sides with the union in this matter.

The dispute, which has resulted in a longshoremen's go-slow causing mile-long truck queues outside the port, hinges on which of the two conflicting contracts takes precedence - the labour contract or the lease agreement.

The collective agreement between the ILWU and the PMA assigns the two jobs to the longshoremen's union, and this is a contract to which ICTSI as a PMA member is bound. Against this is the 25-year lease agreement between ICTSI and the Port of Portland, which provides the jobs to members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), who plug and unplug reefer containers.

The PMA employers group sides with the ILWU as a fellow upholder of the collective labour contract while the Port of Portland sides with ICTSI as fellow upholder of the lease agreement, which they both signed.