Cargo Business Newswire

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Port truckers launch 48-hour strike at L.A./Long Beach

A two-day strike by port truck drivers who work at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach began Monday morning at a trucking company in Carson, California.

Approximately 100 truck drivers, backed by Teamsters Local 848, are picketing at three trucking firms for alleged workplace violations. Picketers are reportedly following trucks from Green Fleet, Pac 9 Transportation, and Total Transportation services as they pick up cargo loads from the port terminals, and demonstrating outside the trucking companies' headquarters.

The union-sanctioned group that organized the strike, Justice for Port Truck Drivers, accuses truck companies of erroneously categorizing truck drivers as independent contractors, a classification that refuses drivers workplace protections such as overtime and required work breaks and results in lower wages, according to the group.

"There are literally hundreds of unfilled vacancies for company drivers throughout Southern California," said Alex Cherin, a spokesman for the trucking firms and executive director of the Harbor Trucking Association. "If a driver wants to become an employee rather than an independent contractor, he or she can do so."

The California Department of Industrial Relations said truck drivers that work the port have filed more than 500 complaints of wage theft related to misclassification. The agency reports that 32 drivers have won decisions against 13 trucking firms, for a total of $3.8 million in wages and penalties.

For more of the L.A. Times story: latimes.com