The port drivers’ seventh strike at Los Angeles and Long Beach in recent years is targeting Pac 9 Transportation in protest over alleged independent contractor misclassification.
Truck drivers went on strike against the container drayage company Pacific 9 Transportation (Pac 9) for the sixth time in a row on Tuesday morning, saying that they are protesting their misclassification as independent owner-operators.
Drivers at the company, who are also pursuing claims against the company before the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) said they do not plan to return to Pac 9 until they are “properly classified as employees and provided safe trucks to drive,” according to a press release from the Teamsters Port Division and its affiliate Justice for Port Truck Drivers.
As part of a drive to organize drivers and have companies recognize them as employees instead of independent owner operators, there have been seven strikes against various trucking companies or multiple companies in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in recent years.
The Teamsters now represent unionized drivers at four drayage companies — Eco Flow Transportation, Shippers Transport Express, Toll Group, and Horizon Lines.
In addition, some other companies have switched from independent owner operators to having employee drivers. Hub Group, for example, has classified its drivers as employees.
Asked if other companies were being targeted, Barb Maynard, a spokesman for Justice for Port Truck Drivers, said “we are looking to change the entire industry, so this effort is really absolutely port-wide at every company.”
“This week Pac 9 is the target, we see this company as the poster child for what is wrong with the industry for misclassification,” she said.
According to Maynard, Pac 9 reached a settlement agreement last year with the National Labor Relations Board in which it said drivers were employees, but never implemented the agreement.
Maynard said drivers who work for Pac 9 will picket the company’s office in Carson, Calif. and its trucks at Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach marine terminals. They will be joined by other Teamster members who will participate in the protests during their non-working hours.
Forty PAC 9 drivers have wage and hour hearings scheduled in upcoming days before the California DLSE.
Pac 9 did participate in talks with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti last November in an attempt to work out a settlement, and Maynard said there have been sporadic meetings since then, but they have not borne any fruit.
Earlier this month the California Labor Commissioner said that a California Superior Court judge sided with its office in finding that another Los Angeles trucking company misclassified an employee as an independent contractor.
The court affirmed that LACA Express Inc. owes driver Ho Woo Lee $179,390 in back wages and expenses unlawfully deducted from his paycheck.
LACA Express was one of several companies targeted in a protest in November by the Justice for Port Truck Drivers and the Teamsters.
“The Labor Commissioner determines the employment status of an individual based on the facts of each case,” said Christine Baker, director of the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR.) “This decision shows the laws are in place to ensure that workers are properly classified.” The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, also called the Labor Commissioner’s Office, is a division of DIR.
In his December 2012 claim filed with the Los Angeles Labor Commissioner’s office, Lee said LACA Express unlawfully deducted $83,292 from his paycheck in violation of Labor Code section 221. Lee’s claim included more than $80,000 in weekly lease and insurance payments that were deducted from his paycheck for a truck that LACA repossessed after terminating Lee’s employment. The Labor Commissioner’s Office issued an Order, Decision or Award (ODA) in Lee’s favor for $161,205.
LACA appealed the ODA, and the Labor Commissioner’s Office represented Lee in the Los Angeles Superior Court case. Judge Ross Klein determined that Lee was owed $179,390 plus costs and attorney’s fees for unlawfully deducted wages, reimbursable expenses (such as fuel and truck repair costs), interest and penalties.
“Judge Klein’s ruling will go a long way toward making Mr. Lee whole for the unlawful behavior of LACA Express,” said Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su. “The judgment will also serve as a deterrent to wrongful misclassification of workers and other forms of wage theft.”
Truck drivers strike Southern California drayage company
