Judge orders truckers back to work in Miami for seven weeks
A federal judge extended until Sept. 3 a temporary restraining order against an independent trucker boycott that has virtually shut down two-thirds of the Port of Miami during the past two weeks.
At a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz extended by seven weeks the temporary restraining order she issued July 9 in order to let the truckers find an attorney to fight the efforts of Miami-Dade County and terminal operator Universal Maritime Services for an injunction prohibiting any type of strike, according to the Miami Herald.
Seitz issued the temporary restraining to open the port. It is expected to take many days to draw down the backlog of containers that have piled up in the port with nowhere to go. The Port of Miami will clear the containers on a “first arrived, first served” basis, according to a customer bulletin from FedEx Trade Networks.
The truckers took to the work action to protest low haulage rates, congestion, and the refusal of trucking companies they contract with to pass along fuel surcharges collected from shippers to offset the high cost of diesel.
Antitrust law bars non-union workers from striking in order to affect prices, but the owner-operators are expected to try and show that they are not independent actors because they are treated in many ways like regular employees.