Filipino company ICTSI sought to undermine the collective bargaining agreement and multi-employer system that has benefited the industry and economy for decades

ICTSI leased Terminal 6 in Portland in 2010.

”ICTSI’s attack on the decades old collective bargaining relationship between the ILWU and its own employer association, PMA, demonstrates ICTSI’s arrogance and complete disregard for the rules of engagement here in the United States, but we have come to learn the hard way that this company will do whatever it takes to operate with the type of control and lawlessness that it operates in other parts of the world,” said ­­­Leal Sundet, Coast Committeeman. ”U.S. antitrust law simply does not go where ICTSI wanted it to go here, and the court made that clear.”

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (April 1, 2014) – A federal judge overseeing several cases in the labor dispute at Portland’s Terminal 6 has thrown out two lawsuits brought by Filipino company International Container Terminal Services, Inc. and the Port of Portland.

On March 24, 2014, Federal District Court Judge Michael Simon dismissed ICTSI’s antitrust claim against the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association. ICTSI’s antitrust claim constituted an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the collective bargaining agreement and the multi-employer system that has benefited the maritime industry, labor, and the West Coast economy for decades. In his Opinion and Order, Judge Simon upheld firmly established and historic exemptions from federal antitrust scrutiny of traditional union activities, and he acknowledged the ILWU’s legitimate interest in engaging in activities normally associated with labor disputes. The Judge also rejected ICTSI’s groundless monopoly claim against the ILWU and PMA, an employer association with over 70 member companies that compete with one another up and down the West Coast, and recognized the valid work preservation intent of applicable sections of the ILWU-PMA contract.

In addition to dismissing ICTSI’s antitrust claim, Judge Simon dismissed the Port of Portland’s claim that the ILWU and PMA had intentionally interfered with the Port’s contractual relationships.

The Pacific Maritime Association, representing waterfront employers, and the ILWU, have a collective bargaining agreement dating back to 1934. When ICTSI leased Terminal 6 in 2010, it joined the PMA and agreed to follow its collective bargaining agreement. ICTSI subsequently turned around and violated the ILWU-PMA contract by refusing to assign work that was clearly covered by the collective bargaining agreement to ILWU-represented longshore workers.

In June 2012, the ILWU and PMA sued ICTSI to seek court enforcement of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. ICTSI then took the extreme and radical step of suing the PMA and ILWU for alleged federal antitrust violations.

“ICTSI’s attack on the decades old collective bargaining relationship between the ILWU and its own employer association, PMA, demonstrates ICTSI’s arrogance and complete disregard for the rules of engagement here in the United States, but we have come to learn the hard way that this company will do whatever it takes to operate with the type of control and lawlessness that it operates in other parts of the world,” said ­­­Leal Sundet, a longshoreman who resides in Mulino, Oregon, and who serves as elected Coast Committeeman for the ILWU at the international headquarters in San Francisco. “U.S. antitrust law simply does not go where ICTSI wanted it to go here, and the court made that clear.”

— ILWU Coast Longshore Division news release