port terminal 6

A longshore union member uses a reach stacker to move a container at the Port of Portland's Terminal 6. Consultants are checking reach stackers, trucks, cranes and other equipment as part of a review requested by Gov. John Kitzhaber, who wants productivity to increase at Oregon's international container cargo hub.

(Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian)

An analysis Gov. John Kitzhaber requested of the Port of Portland's container terminal is off to a rocky start, as the longshore union opts out, insisting the review is biased.

A consultant and two subcontractors chosen by the Port have begun inspecting cranes, reach stackers, trucks and other equipment at North Portland's Terminal 6. They will review maintenance schedules, staffing levels and repair procedures as part of a $100,000 study expected to conclude with a late-April report.

The point, according to Port spokesman Josh Thomas, is to find ways of speeding operations at Oregon’s only deep-draft container yard. Slow work, labor disputes and cargo-handling interruptions have backed up trucks, delayed and rerouted ships, spawned lawsuits and almost persuaded Hanjin Shipping Co. to end its weekly Portland vessel calls.

“The audit is not about placing blame or pointing fingers,” said Thomas, who described the project as an unbiased analysis. “It is about identifying root problems and opportunities for improvement that will assist productivity to return to historic levels.”

But it's difficult to see how such a review can be performed, let alone improvements made, if the International Longshore and Warehouse Union doesn't collaborate. Their members operate the cranes, drive the trucks, run the container-handling equipment and fix much of the machinery when it breaks – or doesn't.

Kitzhaber requested the review in February to cut through a circular debate in which the longshore union blamed terminal operator ICTSI Oregon Inc. for failing to provide enough working equipment – and longshore workers were accused of orchestrating problems by "red-tagging" machinery in good condition, sidelining it for repairs.

Cardno TEC Inc., a Virginia-based consulting company, is the prime contractor for the review launched late last week. Subcontractors on the project are equipment manufacturer Kalmar and crane experts Parker Messana & Associates Inc.

Jim Reed, a Cardno TEC principal in Seattle, said Tuesday that his team members wouldn't necessarily look at who's right or who's wrong. "We're making a judgment on how well the system is functioning," Reed said.

In 2009, Cardno TEC assessed Terminal 6 when the Port was seeking a private company to lease and operate the yard, which had been losing money. International Container Terminal Services Inc., based in The Philippines, signed a 25-year lease in 2010 to run the terminal, forming an Oregon subsidiary.

Portland Local 8 longshore leaders initially welcomed ICTSI Oregon, which was expected to invest in the terminal, attract more shipping lines and boost container volume. But relations soured as labor and management vied for authority. Lawsuits proliferated amid a dispute over which union workers, longshoremen or electricians, got to handle refrigerated containers.

, president of the San Francisco-based longshore union,

that his organization would not take part in the Terminal 6 review. He wrote that the governor had “unwittingly instituted a sham review process that both the Port and ICTSI will use to strengthen their legal claims against the ILWU.”

“The Port and ICTSI’s damages claims would not survive if it were proven that ICTSI’s management of terminal operations, and not the ILWU, was responsible for production levels at Terminal 6,” McEllrath wrote in the letter. “The Port has a lot riding on the finding that the ILWU is the source of low production levels at Terminal 6.”

In years past, Terminal 6 cranes moved more than 25 containers an hour on and off ships. Most weeks between Oct. 7 and Jan. 19, container moves fell well below that, Port statistics show.

ICTSI Oregon is fully cooperating in the review, according to a spokesman. As for the ILWU, “Our position hasn’t changed,” said Jennifer Sargent, a union spokeswoman.

-- Richard Read