Close to 100 drayage truck drivers and warehouse workers serving the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex plan to go on strike from June 19-23, the two groups said Thursday at Port of Los Angeles headquarters.
Southern California drayage truck drivers and warehouse workers who serve the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex are going on strike June 19 in their latest protest against what they say are “greedy corporations” that are “illegally exploiting them,” the workers announced at a news conference on the front steps of the Port of Los Angeles’ headquarters Thursday morning.
The labor action is the latest in more than a dozen that have been held at the port complex the last few years as workers attempt to gain recognition as employees by the companies they work for, instead of being treated as independent owner-operators or contractors.
Eric Tate, secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters Local 848, told American Shipper the strike is expected to last five full days, from June 19-23, and that close to 100 drivers and warehouse workers are expected to participate.
According to Justice for Port Truck Drivers, the Teamsters-backed group that’s been trying for years to have the workers classified as employees so that they can unionize, drivers working for third-part provider XPO Logistics plan to picket the company’s locations in Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego on the strike’s first day, and while drivers for other port companies are expected to do the same the following day.
Other protests in Los Angeles and Long Beach are also planned for throughout the week, Tate said.
This will be the 15th short-term strike that the Teamsters have helped organize in the past four years, according to Justice for Port Truck Drivers.
The latest labor action comes partially in response to a June 12 joint announcement by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia that they intend to set new goals for reducing emissions, including requiring zero-emission trucks by 2035. The disgruntled drivers say the new rules will likely mean a greater financial burden for them, as was the case when the ports approved a Clean Air Action Plan in late 2006 that included a Clean Trucks Program, which set limits on the amount of emissions that drayage trucks moving goods in and out of the ports were allowed to produce.
Independent owner-operator truckers at that time were stuck footing the bill when it came to truck upgrades or purchasing new rigs to comply with the updated port standards.
“The mayors’ announcement of a second Clean Truck Program was silent on who would pay for the new technology,” Justice for Port Truck Drivers pointed out in a statement.
Terry Ellis, a truck driver with Shippers Transport Express and a Teamsters Local 848 shop steward who was previously independent drayage truck driver, said she previously leased a truck and had to pay all the expenses associated with it.
“I was subjected to the uses and abuses of the industry,” she said. “This type of business model will never allow any human to make it due to the heavy costs associated with operating their business.”
Ellis said that due to the low rate of income in the industry, drayage truckers are “forced” to work far more than 40 hours a week just to keep themselves and their families afloat financially.
“The heavy overhead placed on the drivers through unreasonable leasing term agreements and illegal paycheck deductions means they are forced to deal with making these decisions on a daily basis – decisions on which bills they can pay, if they’re able to pay their truck note, or whether they have to pay their rent.
“Los Angeles and Long Beach needs clean air, but not on the back of the drivers,” she said.
Domingo Avalos, who has been a warehouse worker with XPO Logistics for over five years, said he’s striking because he’s tired of being denied his true rights as a worker.
“We want, as employees, that they treat us with dignity,” he said through a Spanish interpreter. “While these companies continue to thrive, we workers at the ports continue to struggle.
“We ask these mayors to keep these companies accountable and to not violate our rights and to provide us the benefits that we deserve and the right that we deserve as workers to be treated as employees,” he said, as chants of “si se puede,” Spanish for “yes we can,” were chanted by workers in attendance.
“The owners get richer and richer by diminishing the humanity of the workers,” Zoe Nicholson, a Buddhist Monastic leader and supporter of the workers said during the strike announcement. “The workers are disrespected by being illegally misclassified as independent contractors, allowing them to be paid low wages, with illegal deductions from their paychecks, denied benefits, social security, unemployment (insurance) and workers’ comp.
“Fair wages for fair work – it’s the most basic of rights,” he added.
The Harbor Trucking Association (HTA), which represents trucking companies near the ports, has blamed the labor unrest on the Teamsters, which has been trying for years to gain employee status for the drivers so they would then be eligible to join the union.
The HTA has argued the Teamsters and other outside interest groups don’t represent the majority of drivers, and that independent contractor status offers drivers flexibility and the opportunity to own their own small businesses.
Notably, the strike has not gained the support of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, which has not honored the truckers’ picket lines.
Management of the two ports have largely stayed out of the fray over the years, saying that the matter is something to be worked out between the workers and the companies they work for. After the news conference, Port of L.A. spokesman Phillip Sanfield told American Shipper that the port would not take any action to curtail next week’s protests.
“The Port of Los Angeles will assist in making sure that truckers are able to express their First Amendment rights while also making sure the port continues to operate safely and efficiently,” Sanfield said.
L.A./Long Beach port drivers, warehouse workers to strike
