The Port of Portland's going to try to revive container shipping out of its dormant Terminal 6. Half a dozen years or so ago, they hired a company based in the Philippines to run the terminal, but the local ILWU boys didn't like 'em:
Though Wyatt said ICTSI had a strong first year in 2011, it eventually became embroiled in disputes with the Local 8 of the ILWU that brought productivity at T6 to a standstill.
Ships that should have been in and out in less than a day were forced to wait a week or more as the union boys staged work slowdowns or simply walked off the job. So the shipping companies called it quits.
In February 2015, Hanjin Shipping — a Korean-based carrier service that at the time accounted for about 80 percent of T6's container volume — announced it would cease calling on Portland. German carrier Hapag-Lloyd followed suit a few months later.
No vessels have called T6 since last May, when Puyallup, Wash.-based Westwood Shipping announced it was leaving the Portland market.
Farmers and other producers since have had little choice but to send their containerized products by truck to Seattle and Tacoma, where there were longshoremen who were actually willing to work. That's more expensive for the producers, and increased issues on already-congested I-5. As a result, the Port's releasing ICTSI from its long-term contract and will attempt to re-start container shipping out of Terminal 6. Be nice if they could manage that without the ILWU boys from Portland.
