The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU),
which handles every shipping container that crosses West Coast ports, had about 15,000 dockworkers as members when it took on the goal of wresting two jobs from a rival union. The chaos that followed their four-year campaign of staging slowdowns at the Port of Portland and flouting federal court orders resulted in the end of Oregon-based cargo service for exporters as far inland as Idaho’s Snake River.
The union’s tactics were so severe that the National Labor Relations Board called the conduct unlawful and a jury later awarded ICTSI Oregon, Portland’s former terminal operator, $94m in damages during a civil suit against ILWU and Local 8. 55% (or roughly $55m) of those damages would be paid by ILWU, which has $20m in assets, and the ramainder would come from Local 8, which has $150,000 in assets. The award, if not reversed in appeals, would bankrupt the union.
Read more about the court case and potential bankruptcy here.
