The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has filed for bankruptcy as a way to shield itself having lost a long running battle over labour issues at the Port of Portland.
The ILWU lost a court case eight years ago over a work slowdown situation at a Portland terminal run by Manila-headquartered International Container Terminal Services, Inc (ICTSI) and was initially told to pay $94m in damages, a total that was subsequently reduced to $19m.
In a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in California last week, the union which covers dockworkers at US west coast ports, said that its assets came to $11.6m, $7.4m shy of what it owes.
“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,” Willie Adams, ILWU’s president, said in a statement Sunday announcing the bankruptcy in federal court in San Francisco.
“We intend to use the Chapter 11 process to implement a plan that will bring this matter to resolution. The officers are confident that we are taking the right step to put our organization on the best path forward — and we are optimistic for all that is ahead,” said ILWU’s leadership in a statement.
The ILWU will ask the bankruptcy court to preserve its cash management system and allow it to continue meeting its employee and payroll obligations.
ICTSI originally signed a 25-year deal with Portland back in 2010, paying $4.5m a year after an initial downpayment of $8m. In 2017 it quit the port with no major clients – and considerable labour issues – at its Terminal 6 facility. A court ruled later that the local chapter of the ILWU had sabotaged shipping traffic at the terminal through years of labour slowdowns and stoppages.
