International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents 32,260 workers on Pacific Coast docks, warehouses, and at Powell’s Books, filed Sept. 30 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Chapter 11 isn’t the kind of bankruptcy where an organization liquidates its assets and goes out of business; it’s a procedure for asking the court to relieve it of debt.
ILWU is seeking bankruptcy protection because it’s unable to pay $19 million in court-awarded damages to ICTSI, the Philippine stevedoring company that operated Portland’s Terminal 6 from 2010 to 2017.
ICTSI was part of the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), and ILWU’s agreement with PMA gave it jurisdiction over most jobs on the docks, including the work of plugging in refrigerated shipping containers when they were unloaded from ships. At Terminal 6, that work had historically been done by members of IBEW Local 48 because they worked for the Port of Portland, and the Port ran publicly owned Terminal 6 directly until 2010. When ICTSI refused to give the work to ILWU, the union went to war. According to the National Labor Relations Board, ILWU members engaged in a sustained slowdown in 2012. ICTSI sued ILWU in federal court to recoup its losses, and a jury awarded $93.5 million in damages in 2019, an award later reduced by a judge to $19 million. ICSTI didn’t accept that reduction, and went back to court, with a court date set for February 2024.
In its bankruptcy filing, ILWU proposes to turn over virtually its entire bank account to ICSTI, $9.5 million, but then return to normal operations.
“While we have attempted numerous times to resolve the decade-long litigation with ICTSI Oregon, Inc., at this point, the Union can no longer afford to defend against ICTSI’s scorched-earth litigation tactic,” ILWU president Willie Adams said in an Oct. 1 press statement.
