MANILA's International Container Services Inc (ICTSI) operation in Portland, Oregon, reports that longshore productivity is no better than before, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce.
ICTSI North America CEO Elvis Ganda, who runs Portland's container terminal, said that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 8's crane productivity remains at 14 moves an hour versus the usual 24 to 26 moves an hour.
Crane productivity has been stuck at about that level for two and one-half years since a jurisdictional dispute arose in June 2012 over two jobs monitoring, plugging and unplugging reefer boxes at Portland's Terminal 6.
On March 13 a US District Court ruled that the ILWU had to pay US$60,000 to the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) for engaging in illegal work stoppage. The money does not go to ICTSI, which suffered the damage, but to pay NLRB legal fees,
ICTSI has filed its own claims for damages against the ILWU, which could total in the millions of dollars if the courts eventually rule in the company's favour.
The dispute has cost Portland the loss of Hanjin Shipping, which handled 78 per cent of the port's box trade, and which warned all it would abandon the port if productivity did not return to historical levels.
Hapag-Lloyd and Westwood Shipping continue to call in Portland, but Mr Ganda said crane productivity on those vessels has not improved.
Productivity fell in 2012 when the ILWU claimed jurisdiction over the reefer work, which had traditionally belonged to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
ICTSI said its contract with the port authority required the use of IBEW labour. The ILWU said that when ICTSI took over operation of Terminal 6 three years ago, that work should go to the ILWU because ICTSI is a member of the Pacific Maritime Association, which negotiates and administers the coastwide waterfront contract.