How a fight over 2 jobs bankrupted union of 40,000 dockworkers
ILWU proposes handing over most of its remaining cash to ICTSI
Greg Miller Monday, October 02, 2023
In October 2021, Willie Adams, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), sat across the table from President Joe Biden at the White House. The two met again at the White House last month, celebrating the new six-year labor contract for America’s West Coast ports.
“I’ve known Willie for a long time,” said Biden after the latest meeting. “I was kidding him: I said I want to know who his haberdasher is. He looks awfully good, doesn’t he? I like that cut.”
Just a few weeks later, Adams is engaged in a far less prestigious task: securing Chapter 11 protection for his union in the Bankruptcy Court of Northern California.
Adams proposed a restructuring plan in a court filing Monday calling for the ILWU to hand over the majority of its remaining cash, save for “a reserve for working capital necessary to enable the ILWU to maintain its operations and rebuild.”
The recipient of the proposed payout: International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), a global terminal operator based in Manila, Philippines.
The irony is that the bankruptcy of one of America’s highest-profile unions, representing over 40,000 workers, whose president hobnobbed with Biden, began with a feud over two electrician jobs a decade ago at a niche container facility in Portland, Oregon.
New trial too expensive for ILWU to bear
A jury decided in November 2019 that the ILWU owed ICTSI $93.6 million in damages for unlawful practices including work stoppages, slowdowns and other coercive actions starting in 2013 at the ICTSI terminal in Portland.
The terminal lost its shipping line clients and ICTSI terminated its lease in 2017, paying over $11 million in penalties to get out early (it had signed a 25-year lease in 2010).
Oregon District Court Judge Michael Simon ruled in March 2020 that the jury award was far too generous. He set maximum damages at $19.06 million — if the two sides would agree. If not, there would be a new trial on damages. ICTSI didn’t agree.
The appeals process is over on arguments about guilt or innocence: By law, ILWU owes ICTSI. The new trial on damages was set to begin in late February 2024. ICTSI is seeking $48 million-$142 million.
The ILWU currently has $9.5 million in cash. It estimated that it would have to pay $8.5 million in additional legal fees during the new trial on top of any damages awarded, thus the Chapter 11 filing that halts the trial process.
More:
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-a-fight-over-2-jobs-bankrupted-union-of-40000-dockworkers