Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Striking truck drivers at L.A.-Long Beach go back to work for "cooling-off" period
Striking truck drivers and employers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach agreed to a truce Saturday, brokered by the mayor of Los Angeles, after picketing for five days and creating cargo delays at port terminals.
Drivers will return to work on their regular shifts.
Both sides agreed to Mayor Eric Garcetti's "cooling off" period, with the drivers voting unanimously for it on Saturday. The trucking companies agreed to accept all drivers back to work without retaliation and said they would not force them to sign away all future rights in new truck leases.
"Following the city's meetings with both sides, the Teamsters have agreed to pull down their pickets and enter a cooling off period to allow the harbor commission time to investigate the serious allegations regarding worker safety, poor working conditions and unfair labor practices," Garcetti said in a statement. "Business at the port is back to normal, and the city will facilitate a dialogue among the parties in the weeks ahead."
Garcetti said late Thursday that he was directing the harbor commission to investigate allegations of health and safety issues raised by union representative and drivers at Thursday's Harbor Commission meeting.
The demonstrators are protesting the trucking firms' misclassification of drivers as independent contractors instead of employees, which they say allows companies to ignore labor laws and deduct fuel, maintenance and other fees from their wages.
The trucking companies have denied any wrongdoing and have maintained that the Teamsters triggered the protests in an effort to unionize truck drivers.
On Tuesday, three terminals at the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles shut down for up to two hours when longshore workers honored the picket lines, but the dockworkers were ordered back to work when an arbitrator's ruled it was an unlawful work action.
For more of the Press-Telegram story: presstelegram.com
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