The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.20           May 20, 1996 
 
 
6,500 Truckers Rally In Los Angeles  

BY CRAIG HONTS
LOS ANGELES - Truckers in southern California took action April 28 to reduce to a trickle the flow of goods out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. These ports are the two largest in the nation, and combined they are the world's third-busiest harbor. Two days into the strike by independent truckers, organized by the Communication Workers of America (CWA), some cargo carriers reported operations had slowed to 20 percent of their normal pace.

Usually 20,000 truckloads a day travel between the ports and major rail yards near downtown Los Angeles, where they are loaded onto trains for shipment east.

A spirited rally of 6,500 truckers launched the April 28 action, culminating an 18-month organizing drive by the CWA. Weekly union meetings have been drawing thousands of workers.

On the picket line at the big Maersk terminal in Long Beach, one trucker, José Barbaro, explained why they were striking. "It's gotten so that we can't make a living doing this anymore. We own our own rigs and pay for insurance, gas, tires, maintenance, registration fees, and taxes.

"They pay us $50 to go from the harbor to the Santa Fe Railroad yard and $25 for the return trip. That can take three hours or it can take all day. We can spend hours sitting in line at Santa Fe. It's real easy to lose money doing this. The companies we contract with have corrupt dispatchers who give jobs that make money to those operators that pay them off. This is why we need a union."

Another demand by many owner-operators was for an end to abusive treatment. The overwhelming majority of the operators working out of the harbor are Mexican or Chicano. Edwin Menjivar explained that whenever they raise a complaint, "Company officials will call us `wetbacks' right to our face and tell us to `go back to your own country if you don't like it here.' "

"This is a strike for our dignity and for the right to earn a living," Carlos Reyes, another operator, stated.

The Transport Maritime Association (TMA) announced April 30 it was signing a contract with CWA Local 9400 in which workers would get called to work out of a union hiring hall and have the option of selling their rigs and receiving a flat rate of $25 an hour for their work.

An estimated 4,200 truckers who own and operate their own rigs, roughly two-thirds of the truckers in the harbor, have signed up to work exclusively for TMA or other firms having contracts with the union. The trucking firms that haven't signed agreements with the union are being struck. Pickets are going up all through the harbor where these firms are attempting to haul for the carriers.

After the labor action began, the Press Telegram noted in a headline that trucking bosses were "nervous on May Day," expecting the heavily Mexican workforce to mark the international working- class celebration with widespread demonstrations. Their fears materialized, as pickets spread to every terminal at both ports that day.

Craig Honts is a member of United Transportation Union Local 1674 and works for the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad.  
 
 
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