Oregon Gov. Awards Disputed Jobs to ILWU

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Dec. 12 announced that a two-year dispute over specific work at the Port of Portland’s Terminal 6 has been resolved. The job of plugging in and unplugging refrigerated ships at the terminal is being assigned to International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers.

Historically the work, which involves plugging/unplugging and monitoring refrigerated containers at the terminal, had been performed by another union – the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers – since the early 1970s.

When the port transitioned control of terminal operations to ICTSI Oregon in 2011 under a 25-year lease, continuation of the IBEW work was included in the lease terms. However, the ILWU intervened, saying that its contract with the Pacific Maritime Association required the terminal operator to hire longshore workers.

The dispute led to work slowdowns by the ILWU in 2012, which in turn led to legal action by the port and National Labor Relations Board and an ILWU countersuit.

But according to Gov. Kitzhaber’s office, the Port of Portland and IBEW 48 have agreed to terms in transitioning the work from representation by IBEW Local 48 to workers represented by ILWU. Longshore union workers will perform the plugging and unplugging reefer ships as soon as the port’s able to contract with an ILWU employer for the work.

The agreement, however, neither impacts nor addresses the ongoing legal disputes between ILWU, ICTSI Oregon, the Pacific Maritime Association and the Port of Portland. The agreement settles the work assignment conflict “on a go-forward basis only,” according to the governor’s office.

However, as part of the agreement, the Port of Portland has said that no IBEW 48 members will lose work as a result, and that the electricians will be assigned other port-related duties. The port has also promised that future port-owned facilities would be serviced by Local 48, and the port and IBEW 48 will enter into a new apprenticeship arrangement to address the port’s long-term needs for skilled electricians.

The port currently employs about 60 Local 48 electricians, many of whom are approaching retirement age.

The Port of Portland’s also required provide weekly reports to the governor’s office regarding Terminal 6 productivity. The governor and his staff are to review the reports and intervene if needed, to maintain and improve terminal productivity.

“On behalf of the Port and the larger community of shippers and others who are concerned about the future of Terminal 6 and the vital role it plays in our regional economy, I want to thank the Governor for his leadership on this issue – it has been pivotal,” Port of Portland Executive Director Bill Wyatt said. “This doesn’t end all aspects of this dispute, but hopefully it is the beginning of the end.”

Container Volumes Climb at LA, Long Beach Ports

Overall container volumes at the Port of Los Angeles were up 17.3 percent last month compared to November 2012, while Port of Long Beach volumes increased a relatively modest 2.5 percent during the same period, according to newly released data.

Imports through Port of LA terminals jumped 18.7 percent, rising from 288,273 20-foot equivalent containers in November 2012 to 342,247 TEUs this past November. Exports jumped 23.3 percent, going from 145,344 TEUs in November 2012 to 179,175 TEUs in November 2013.

LA attributes the sizable increases in part to larger vessels calling at the port as well as improvement in the U.S. economy.

Combined, total loaded imports and exports for November increased 20.2 percent at Los Angeles, going from 433,617 TEUs last November to 521,422 TEUs in November 2013. Factoring in empties, which increased 8.7 percent year over year, the November 2013 overall volumes of 683,849 TEUs were an increase of 17.3 percent compared to November 2012’s 582,981 TEUs. However, despite the significant rise last month, during the first 11 months of 2013, the total container volumes of 7.21 million represented a 3.7 percent decrease compared to 2012’s 7.48 million TEUs during the same time period.

At the adjoining Port of Long Beach, cargo volumes climbed 2.5 percent in November compared to the same month in 2012.

A total of 569,599 TEUs moved through Long Beach terminals in November, according to data. Imports increased 6.5 percent to 296,638 TEUs and exports rose 9.9 percent to 151,950 TEUs – the port’s second best export total in 2013.

However, a sharp decline in shipments of empty boxes at the POLB nearly offset solid gains in both imports and exports of containerized goods. Empties were down a sizable 12.7 percent to 121,011 TEUs. For the first 11 months of calendar 2013, cargo container volume is up 12.1 percent at Long Beach – including 14.4 percent more imports, 10.8 percent more exports and 8.6 percent more empties.

More details on Long Beach’s past and present cargo numbers can be found at www.polb.com/stats. Current and past data container counts for the Port of Los Angeles are online:

http://www.portoflosangeles.org/maritime/stats.asp.

Jensen Maritime Upgrades Portland Fireboats

Jensen Maritime, the Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering division of Crowley Maritime, has completed concept designs and performance specifications for two new fireboats expected to join the City of Portland’s fire and rescue fleet in the first half of 2014.

The new fast-response fireboats are to provide emergency response on long stretches of both the Columbia and Willamette rivers, and are expected to have a 20-year service life, far more than the typical five to seven years found on similar vessels in the class.

Jensen says it designed the two new fireboats with a number of technologically rich elements, including automatic compensation for the recoil from the water cannons and fully integrated controls for fast and agile maneuvering.

The two 54-foot long by 16-foot wide fireboats will be powered by twin MTU 8V2000 M84 engines each rated at 1,085 HP at 2,450 RPM. The twin MTUs will turn ZF 665TS reduction gears and Rolls-Royce FF450S waterjets, which combine to give the vessels a top speed of about 40 knots.

Each vessel’s also designed to have a 3,500 gallons-per-minute fire pump on the front end along with three monitors – two on the bow and one on top of the cabin – and numerous hose connections both forward and aft. A unique integrated hydraulics system with a hydraulic bow thruster will also be featured on the vessels.

Jensen provided the vessels’ design, and Donald L. Blount and Associates produced the final hull form. The boats are being constructed at Portland-based Oregon Iron Works.

Other Jensen Maritime-designed fireboats include a 108-foot fireboat and 50-foot fast-attack fireboat for the Seattle Fire Department; three 40-foot fireboats for the Los Angeles Fire Department; a 40-foot fireboat for the Los Angeles County Fire Department and a 37-foot, 40-knot patrol boat and 44-foot patrol boat for the Seattle Police Department.

Pacific Northwest Ports Set Emissions Reduction Goals

The ports of Seattle, Tacoma and Metro Vancouver, Canada have approved a clean air strategy in which they aim to cut diesel emissions by 75 percent per ton of cargo moved by 2015 and 80 percent by 2020.

The goals are part of the 2013 Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy Update, which the ports adopted Dec. 12. The update is to the 2007 Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy, a ground-breaking partnership between the three ports and five regulatory agencies that was aided by cooperation from customers, tenants, shipping lines and environmental organizations. The 2013 update commits the groups to work together through 2020.

In addition to diesel emission reductions, the ports have set goals to cut greenhouse gases by 10 percent by 2015 and 15 percent by 2020, per ton of cargo moved. All reductions would be based on a 2005 baseline.

The 2013 update was built on the results of the 2011 Puget Sound Maritime Air Emissions Inventory, which found maritime-related air pollution has decreased since 2005, due in part to significant investments by the maritime industry and government agencies in cleaner technology, cleaner fuels and more efficient systems of operation.

To develop and implement the 2007 strategy and this 2013 strategy update, the three ports partnered with various Pacific Northwest governmental agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington State Department of Ecology and Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

The full Clean Air Strategy update can be seen at http://www.portseattle.org/Environmental/Air/Seaport-Air-Quality/Documents/NWCleanAirUpdate_2013_FINAL.PDF.

Port of Portland Gets New Deputy Executive Director

The Port of Portland Commission has approved the appointment of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s chief of staff to a newly created position as the port’s deputy executive director.

Curtis Robinhold, whom the nine-member port commission accepted for the job Dec. 11, was nominated to the job by port Executive Director Bill Wyatt.

The position was never announced by the port, and no search to fill it was conducted.

Wyatt, who also once held the position of Kitzhaber’s chief of staff, told The Oregonian newspaper that the appointment is part of a long-term succession plan, although he doesn’t have plans to retire yet.

“I proposed Curtis to the officers after discussing this with them because I thought he was the ideal candidate,” Wyatt, 63, told the newspaper.

Wyatt, who makes $382,950 annually, was Kitzhaber’s chief of staff in the 1990s before coming to the port 12 years ago.

Robinhold, 45, became Kitzhaber’s chief of staff in 2011. Prior to that, he was chief executive of Portland-based energy efficiency finance company Energy Resource Management Corp. He was also managing director of thermal power for BP Alternative Energy in London.

Robinhold, who is expected to start at the port in early 2014, is set to initially make $285,000 a year in his new position. Kitzhaber’s office announced in mid-November that Robinhold would be leaving to take the port job.

Judge Approves Port of Grays Harbor Land Purchase

Superior Court Judge Gordon Godfrey on Dec. 9 approved the sale of the manufacturing assets of former Satsop Business Park tenant NewWood Corp. to the Port of Grays Harbor for $1.3 million.

The NewWood facility at the business park sits on a 19.67-acre site with more than 290,000 square feet of warehouse space containing millions of dollars in manufacturing equipment. The sale includes manufacturing equipment located in a port-owned building, as well as intellectual property used in the process of turning scrap plastics into building material.

New Wood Corp. has been in receivership since November 2012. The sale required that all equipment be free of liens and that personal property taxes owed to Grays Harbor County be paid from the proceeds of the sale.

The Port of Grays Harbor Commission took action in November to authorize the purchase with the intent to work with companies to find a viable operator for the facility.

“We are committed to getting the facility up and running and by purchasing these assets we are in a better position to control our own destiny,” Grays Harbor Executive Director Gary Nelson said.

The Port of Grays Harbor is Washington’s only deep-water port located directly on the Pacific Ocean. The recent addition of the Satsop Business Park increased the port’s properties to more than 1,000 acres of industrial properties and an additional 1,300 acres of sustainably managed forestland.

Port of Tacoma Extends Industrial Site Bid Deadline

Potential buyers of a 745-acre industrial site that the Port of Tacoma is looking to sell have a little more time to put in a bid. The proposal deadline for the Thurston County property has been extended from Dec. 6 to Jan. 17.

The port bought the property near Maytown in 2006 for $21.25 million as a potential site for rail system enhancements. However, because of political resistance to the port’s idea of using the site as a rail marshaling yard for trains bound to and from the port, the land was sold for about $8.5 million in cash and another $8.5 million in sand and gravel, in 2010.

However the purchaser, mining company Maytown Sand & Gravel, relinquished the property to the port in early October 2013 after deciding it could no longer operate the site.

Company principal Steve Cortner announced the decision in an Oct. 3 letter to Port of Tacoma which said Thurston County’s delay in issuing a special-use permit was among the main reasons the company was giving the property back to the port.

“This horrible delay completely depleted our working capital and we have not been able to recover so that we can make required payments to the port,” Cortner wrote at the time.

The port says the deadline extension for bids is to give those who might not have time to put together a proposal during the holiday season more of an opportunity to participate in the process.