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Vol. 79/No. 28 August 10, 2015
LA port drivers advance fight
for union, wage hike
BY BILL ARTH
LOS ANGELES — Port truck drivers at Pacific 9 Transportation in nearby
Carson July 23 took down their picket line after a two-day strike over
misclassification. The drivers are fighting to be recognized as
employees and to join the Teamsters union. They accuse Pac 9 of wage
theft by misclassifying them as independent contractors, pushing the
costs of truck maintenance and waiting time on them. This was their
sixth strike against the company, and the seventh by drivers in the
area, in the last two years.
Forty drivers have filed wage theft claims totaling more than $6 million
against Pac 9. Hearings began before the California Labor Commissioner
July 27. “Last year, the DLSE [Division of Labor Standards Enforcement]
ruled that three of my co-workers are misclassified and ordered Pac 9 to
pay them a quarter million dollars in back wages and penalties,” said
Daniel Linares, a striker who has filed a claim, according to a July 21
union press advisory. “We have every reason to believe that the DLSE
will make a similar ruling for us.”
The Pac 9 drivers are part of a larger fight being carried out on both
U.S. coasts. Teamsters-supported drivers testified at a state Senate
hearing in Savannah, Georgia, July 21 protesting misclassification there.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the biggest in the country, use
more than 10,000 drivers from 560 companies, almost all misclassified as
independent contractors. A 2014 report by the National Employment Law
Project says approximately 80 percent of port truck drivers nationwide
are labeled independent contractors and estimates that 80 percent of
those, or 50,000 workers, are misclassified. The report says the shift
to the independent contractor model, which occurred with the
deregulation of the trucking industry in the 1980s, “is correlated with
a 30% decline in wages between 1980 and 1995.”
On July 8 the 88 drivers at Eco Flow Transportation unanimously voted to
join the Teamsters. This brings the total number of unionized drivers in
the ports to 450 at four companies — Eco Flow Transportation, Shippers
Transport Express, Toll Group and Horizon Lines.
The establishment of Eco Flow in May showed the impact of the port
truckers’ fight. The new company, which hires drivers as employees and
does not oppose Teamsters representation, was founded by Saybrook
Capital, which also owns Total Transportation Services, one of the
companies Teamsters have struck several times over the last two years.
The May 4 press conference announcing the new company was attended by
Saybrook Capital’s co-managing partner, Jonathan Rosenthal; Los Angeles
Mayor Eric Garcetti; and Teamsters representatives.
Teamsters Local 848 will now negotiate its first contract with Eco Flow
as it also enters into negotiations with Toll Group and Shippers
Express, whose contracts expire at the end of the year.
Related articles:
Movement to raise minimum wage gains ground across US
Steel bosses push for steep concessions in contract talks
Verizon workers in 9 states and D.C. authorize strike
On the Picket Line
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