The International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents approximately 40,000 dockworkers up and down the West Coast, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Saturday night, according to a FreightWaves article by Greg Miller (a.k.a. Miller Time):

“The ILWU ‘will continue to operate as usual throughout the restructuring process,’ the union said in a statement on Sunday morning. It plans to ‘continue honoring its employee and payroll obligations in the ordinary course of business.’

“The bankruptcy filing was precipitated by a massive damage award and ongoing litigation in a long-running dispute between ILWU Local 8, the union chapter in Portland, Oregon, and terminal operator ICTSI Oregon.”

I’ve written a great deal over the years about what the ILWU pulled at the Port of Portland. Over two jobs that never even belonged to the union, the ILWU slowed down port operations so much container ships could no longer call on the port.

Those two jobs, plugging and unplugging reefer containers, always belonged to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). However, in its bid to control every job up and down the West Coast ports, the mighty ILWU flexed its muscle to punish the terminal operator for daring to leave those two jobs in the hands of the union that had always performed them and warn all the West Coast ports of the possible consequences of not handing over any other jobs that had always been performed by other unions.

The ILWU’s actions, which were found to be unlawful, damaged the port, its terminal owners, IBEW, local truckers, shippers, and itself – which is quite obvious as now it has filed for bankruptcy protection….

Keep reading in Universal Cargo’s blog.