BIG LABOR, BIG LOSS: Jury Rules Against ILWU in Portland Container Terminal Case.

After more than seven years of civil litigation, a federal jury has ruled that a dispute over which union got to plug and unplug reefer containers was a substantial part of the reason that the port of Portland, Oregon lost all of its containerized ocean freight services.

In a judgement entered in part on Monday, the jury ruled that alleged unlawful labor practices by the International Longshore Workers’ Union and its Local 8 were a substantial factor in causing $94 million in damage to Portland’s container terminal operator, ICTSI, which pulled out of its contract with the port in 2017.

The National Labor Relations Board previously determined that the ILWU had organized slowdowns at ICTSI’s Portland terminal in order to force the Port of Portland to give longshoremen the work of plugging and unplugging reefers – a task normally assigned to the Port’s union electricians, IBEW Local 48.

This kind of work-rules crap went a long way towards putting American carmakers into their longterm decline.