There is no dispute that both unions were entitled to the work under their contracts, and the parties further agreed that the employer cannot award the work to one union without breaching its contractual obligations to the other.
The Ninth Circuit, in an en banc decision, held that an ILA work-preservation is not a defense to an unfair labor practice charge under Section 8(b)(4)(D), and overruled the passage in Kinder Morgan that stated otherwise. The appeals court observed that allowing the ILA work-preservation defense to defeat a Section 8(b)(4)(D) charge for failing to abide by a Section 10(k) decision would frustrate the scheme that Congress enacted to conclusively resolve jurisdictional disputes. Accordingly, the appeals court denied petitions for review by the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association and granted the NLRB’s cross-petition for enforcement of its order awarding the right to perform maintenance and repair work for SSA Terminals to the IAM (International Longshore and Warehouse Union v. NLRB, Nos. 23-632, 23-658, 23-780, and 23-793 (9th Cir. Aug. 20, 2026)).
SSA Terminals operates container terminals in the Port of Seattle. The terminal uses specialized equipment to load and unload cargo from large container ships. The terminal is responsible for maintaining the specialized equipment and assigns that work to union-represented employees pursuant to separate collective bargaining agreements.
Maintenance and repair work. SSA Terminals’ CBA with the...
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