Despite the initial contract deal reached by U.S. West Coast terminal operators and dockworkers last Friday that ended the months-long labor dispute, Hanjin Shipping Co. is reportedly pushing through with its planned withdrawal from the Port of Portland next month.
The South Korean shipping line, Portland’s largest container carrier, announced earlier this month it is terminating its service to the city from March.
In a notification letter to its customers, Hanjin Shipping, which handles nearly 80 percent of the container volume at the port’s Terminal 6, said it will withdraw its services on March 9.
Last Friday, management represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and dockworkers belonging to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) agreed to end the nearly nine-months-long deadlock over contract negotiations that has led to severe congestion at the 29 ports along the West Coast.
Port operations returned to full swing on Saturday as dockworkers set out to remove the backlog of containers that is expected to take at least three months to clear.
But the situation at the Port of Portland is still said to be far from smooth, with relations between the longshore union and ICTSI-Oregon, the Philippines-based company that operates Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland, having been historically often strained.
In a statement on February 17, ICTSI-Oregon said its top priority now is to retain and attract new carriers to Terminal 6, but added that this will be a difficult task, “given that the situation at Terminal 6 goes much deeper and has been going on much longer than the current labor dispute at other West Coast ports.”
Port officials and others claimed that longshore workers had deliberately slowed operations at the terminal, while the workers said that productivity declines were the fault of ICTSI and the conditions it maintained at the terminal.
Efforts to soothe the longstanding tensions had, at various times, involved a governor, a former governor, federal arbitrators, the National Labor Relations Board and the Port of Portland.
However, ICTSI-Oregon in the statement said it is willing to work with the ILWU towards a more cooperative relationship to “provide a thriving and productive container terminal for the good of the Columbia River region.”
On Saturday, ICTSI-Oregon said it is gathering information about the agreement and will offer updates later.
Photo: Kelly_point_park
