Union not hopeful Hanjin will remain at Port of Portland

PORTLAND — The union that loads and unloads containers at the Port of Portland is not hopeful Hanjin will stay in the area.

The shipping company announced last month that it would leave by the end of the year.

The head of the Port of Portland, Bill Wyatt, has returned from a trip to Asia saying union workers need to increase productivity or Hanjin is likely to leave.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union disputes there’s a slowdown. And committeeman Leal Sundet is not hopeful about negotiations, “I don’t see Hanjin staying in Portland in the short run,” he said.

“They may come back, they’ve been to Portland before and they’ve left and come back. It’s easy for carriers to come and go and they’ve always done that in Portland and they always will.”

The relationship between management and labor has been rocky since Philippines-based International Container Terminal Service took control of Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland in 2011.