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A crane at Terminal 6 with Hanjin containers stacked nearby.

(Benjamin Brink / The Oregonian)

The National Labor Relations Board has asked a federal judge to penalize the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and two local chapters for continuing a work slowdown at the Port of Portland's Terminal 6.

In a motion filed last week, NLRB regional director Ronald Hooks said the union has continued to "disobey and fail and refuse to comply" with a July 2012 court order to end the slowdowns at Terminal 6. He asked the judge to declare each union organization in contempt and to fine them up to $25,000 each, plus an additional fine for each day the slowdown continues. He also named individual union officials and asked for lesser fines for each of them.

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The longshore union has been locked in a bitter dispute with ICTSI Oregon, the company the Port of Portland hired in 2010 to operate Terminal 6 in the Port's Rivergate District, where the Willamette River flows into the Columbia. ICTSI Oregon, which operates the terminal under a 25-year lease, is a unit of International Container Terminal Services Inc., a conglomerate based in Manila, Philippines.

The longshore union said the filing was related to a dispute over work involving the plugging and unplugging of refrigerated containers, or reefers, that union workers had been doing at Terminal 6 since January. But, said spokesperson Jennifer Sargent, "What's really at issue on the ground at Terminal 6 is ICTSI's abysmal labor relations and an operation that is plagued by understaffing and equipment shortages. ICTSI would better serve the region and local community by improving its labor/management approach and providing a sufficient number of workers with enough equipment for them to perform their work."

While a 2010 Port newsletter quoted a longshore official as saying the union "will welcome (ICTSI) to Portland with open arms," the relationship soon turned sour. The union, which has said ICTSI Oregon is "incompetent" and manages Terminal 6 by intimidation, has sued and been sued by ICTSI and the Port, and has been the subject of two rulings by administrative law judges who said longshore workers had conducted work slowdowns. The union has filed exceptions to the rulings, so they are not considered final.

A central issue in the dispute at Terminal 6 has been which workers will be assigned the job of plugging and unplugging the power cords on reefers. Following intervention by Gov. John Kitzhaber last December, the Port agreed to assign the jobs – traditionally done by members of the electrical union – to workers represented by the longshore union. The Port has said it gave the jobs to longshore workers in hopes worker productivity at Terminal 6 would improve.

But last month, Port executive director Bill Wyatt told the longshore union he was revoking the assignment of the reefer jobs because union workers had become less, rather than more productive. Calling the workers' productivity at Terminal 6 "unacceptable," he said the longshore slowdown "negatively impacts all of the people whose livelihood is connected with working at or providing services to T6."

In an affidavit filed by the NLRB, Brian Yockey, ICTSI's manager at Terminal 6, said productivity has declined since January as longshore workers have engaged in slowdown tactics such as operating cranes more slowly than a trainee, showing up late for shifts and walking off their jobs.

The NLRB also filed an affidavit by Dan Pippenger, the Port's general manager for marine operations. Pippenger said the shift of the two reefer jobs to longshore workers has roughly tripled the Port's costs of performing the work. He estimated paying longshore workers dedicated to the two reefer jobs would cost the Port about $900,000 for a full year, up from about $300,000 when the work was performed by workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Pippenger also said the Port's subsidies to carriers Hanjin, Hapag-Lloyd and Westwood would reach about $4 million by the end of the year. Hanjin said in March it would continue calling at Terminal 6 despite its concerns about higher operating costs, but would review its decision quarterly.

Port spokesman Josh Thomas said the Port has "nothing new to report" about Hanjin's review. He said the Port remains focused on retaining the carriers' business and "keeping the cargo moving" at Terminal 6.

A hearing on the contempt motion will be scheduled soon, an NLRB lawyer said.

A spokesperson for ICTSI Oregon said the company hopes the NLRB's action "helps improve productivity at Terminal 6."

-- Mike Francis