Owner-operators face not only rising fuel prices but increasing maintenance costs. In some cases, independent truckers have to hire workers to unload large containers with the expense coming out of flat fees they get from the companies they sign a contract with. Leasing agreements allow these companies to determine what they pay drivers for a trip. While the bosses have been collecting fuel surcharges from customers, these funds never get to the drivers.

Lincoln was one of more than 100 owner-operators who attended a meeting the Teamsters organized here for port drivers October 15 to discuss the union-organizing campaign. Also attending were truckers who support the union from Miami, and Savannah, Georgia.

After the Teamsters opened a hiring hall in Miami September 17, more than 500 independent truckers signed up with the union and are being dispatched to jobs in the area. This initial success has given impetus to expand the organizing efforts elsewhere along the East Coast.

The meeting was held at the headquarters of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), where the Teamsters will be setting up a hiring hall.

Larry Lee, a port trucker who came up from Savannah, has been driving since 1972. “I’ve been at it for a long time,” he said. “In 1997 we shut down the port for five weeks. I lost my job over it. We don’t want to take what’s not ours, but what is ours.”

Referring to the union-organizing effort in his city, Lee said, “In Savannah the drive is coming along.”

Jim Stewart, an international representative of the Teamsters Port Division, described the challenges the union is facing in organizing independent truckers in Charleston and Savannah, where about 4,000 owner-drivers work. “Everyone is fighting us,” he said, “the shippers, the steamship companies—especially the trucking companies.” In spite of this, Stewart added, the Teamsters are planning to open hiring halls here and in Savannah sometime before the end of the year.

Anti-trust laws prevent independent truckers from joining a union. For that reason, in order to join the Teamsters owner-drivers have to terminate existing contracts with shipping firms and sign up with the union as employee owner-operators. The union then uses its hiring hall to dispatch the new members to jobs with companies that have registered with the Teamsters.

Stewart explained that port drivers would face an additional challenge October 17 at Port Wando. In the name of “homeland security,” the containers coming off ships will be scanned after truckers pick them up, he said.

“Time spent waiting in line will be unpaid time,” said Stewart. “There will be more back-ups, all put on the back of the trucker.” This will add further incentive for drivers to organize, he added.

Stewart encouraged all interested drivers to contact the union, which can be reached here at 1142 Morrison Drive, Charleston, SC, 29403. Tel: (843) 853-5080.  
 
 
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