The way forward for West Coast port truck drivers
By
Dan Conway and Jerry White
4 July 2017
The Teamsters union ended a four-day strike by 100 truck drivers at Southern California ports on June 23. The union shut down the strike, the 15th such walkout over the last four years, without resolving any of the critical issues demanded by the drivers.
The trucking bosses, backed by the port owners and giant retail chains, have essentially expanded the cheap labor global supply chain from consumer goods factories in Asia to the container ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which process 43 percent of all cargo entering the US, worth some $1.3 billion each day. Companies like XPO, Cal Cartage, CMI, Intermodal Bridge Transport, and others have reduced the port drivers to the status of indentured servants who bear all the costs of the “privilege” to work, including truck lease payments, maintenance, fuel, accident insurance and IRS taxes.
These corporations, like other “Gig Economy” schemes such as Uber, Lyft, and TaskRabbit, falsely label their workers as “independent contractors” or “owner operators” to skirt any payments for health benefits, unemployment or workers compensation insurance. The companies are also exempt from minimum wage, overtime laws and many workplace safety requirements.
Port truckers are compelled to work 12 to 20 hours each day. They work while sick and even avoid taking bathroom breaks for fear of losing assignments. As if these conditions were not onerous enough, many drivers report getting shorted on pay. According to a USA Today investigative report last month, 140 trucking companies had been accused of wage theft since 2010.
The misclassification of workers as “independent contractors” has exploded after the 2008 financial…