ICTSI Portland's ongoing battle with the ILWU has cost the terminal operator its biggest customer. Hanjin has withdrawn from Portland previously, in January 2014, only to return again shortly afterwards when the port’s Harbour Commission agreed to incentives and other measures to cut costs. 

This time, however, the port does not appear to be in a position to make further concessions. It is already paying virtually all the rent it receives on the T-6 concession from ICTSI in carrier incentives. 

In a statement ICTSI Oregon said Hanjin was withdrawing due to the “sustained and deliberate actions of ILWU workers". With 20 years remaining on the concession it pledged to stay in Portland, continue serving remaining customers and aggressively pursue new business. It called on the ILWU to end its “more than two-year campaign against carriers, ICTSI Oregon and the Port of Portland.”

The origin of that two-year battle is a dispute over reefer work. As part of its concession ICTSI agreed to carry on all existing labour arrangements, including using labour from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for landside reefer work. The ILWU tried to argue that concessioning T-6 to ICTSI meant this work now came under its jurisdiction and embarked on a campaign to pressure the Port, ICTSI Oregon and shipping lines to agree. 

ICTSI Oregon said in 2012 a high ranking ILWU representative went as far as promising to send T-6 carriers, including Hanjin, “packing” if ICTSI Oregon did not assign the reefer work to ILWU members. “Since that time, the ILWU has embarked on a long-standing and continuing campaign of work stoppages, slowdowns and safety gimmicks calculated to drive away the terminal’s customers and put ICTSI Oregon out of business” it added.

ICTSI Oregon has been to the national Labor Relations Board on two occasions and obtained injunctions against the ILWU, which it has violated. In December 2014 the ILWU was found to be in contemp of court. 

“Despite legal rulings against its subversive tactics, the ILWU’s campaign to drive Hanjin out of Portland has intensified. Productivity has slowed to a crawl, and ILWU gangs have walked off the job on numerous occasions. Vessels have been delayed time ‎and time again by these tactics. As a result of the ILWU’s campaign, Portland has the lowest vessel productivity of any container terminal on the West Coast, and Hanjin has decided to cease its calls on Portland” 

“The ILWU’s long-term campaign to undermine the success of Terminal 6 has now cost Portland a major economic contributor to our local economy and will ultimately risk the jobs of rank and file union members” ICTSI Oregon stated.