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Source: Huffington Post
Source: Mother Jones
Source: AFL-CIO
Source: AFL-CIO
Union says Port’s giveaways of public funds to private corporations violate federal law and Oregon Constitution; demands all funds remain in public hands
PORTLAND,OR (August 16, 2012) – Today, the ILWU filed a federal lawsuit against the Port of Portland and Bill Wyatt, its Executive Director, for unlawfully gifting nearly $5 million in public funds to a private Philippines-based company, ICTSI Oregon, Inc., and tens of thousands more to ocean carriers. The ILWU lawsuit seeks an injunction against the expenditures and demands that the illegally granted funds remain in public hands.
“The Port violated the trust of local taxpayers when it gave $4.7 million in public funds to a private company that made $135 million in profits last year and whose CEO is worth $3.6 billion,” said Leal Sundet, ILWU Coast Committeeman and resident of Clackamas County. “The Port’s handout to ICTSI is not only illegal, it’s wrong. Our lawsuit aims to stop the Port’s direct interference in a private labor dispute and to keep the money in public hands, where it can be invested in local infrastructure and for other purposes that serve the public good.”
Sundet also blasted the Port for...
Virginia’s top transportation official said late Monday two more companies want to buy the rights to run the state’s ports, but the public will have to wait a week and a half to learn the identity of the bidders.
The proposals come three months after the state announced an initial bid from APM Terminals to run state port facilities in Norfolk, Newport News and Portsmouth. APM is a division of Danish conglomerate A.P. Moller Maersk and owns of a state-of-the-art container terminal in Portsmouth.
Norfolk (Norfolk, Virginia) The state solicited competitive proposals after receiving APM’s bid, which the company said would last 48 years and be worth up to $3.9 billion.
From Newport News, Daily Press
News that the military has withdrawn from Puerto Quetzal port in Guatemala and that privatisation plans have been temporarily put on hold as a result of an agreement between the government and the port workers’ union STEPQ (Sindicato de Trabajadores de Empresa Portuaria Quetzal) has been welcomed by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) today (13 August).
Under the agreement, a 30-day period will allow government-mediated talks to take place between the Port of Quetzal (EPQ) and STEPQ. During that time, EPQ must suspend all actions against the union and the port operators will return to work.
Following the revelation last week that secret talks had taken place between the TCB (Barcelona Container Terminal) and the Guatemalan government to privatise Puerto Quetzal, and the news that the deal was to be officially announced on 7 August, the STEPQ reacted angrily and stopped port operations. The union had only just agreed a contract with the port on 11 July, without any knowledge of the privatisation talks.
Senior STEPQ representatives met Guatemalan President, Gen. Otto Perez Molina, and were told that they had 10 days in which to consider the...
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