About 1,000 owner-operators work at the two ports. They drive for more than 30 trucking companies and get paid a flat rate for each load they carry. The truckers include many recent immigrants from Russia, the Ukraine, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Somalia, and Morocco. According to a recently released AFL-CIO study, they earn an average of $8.50 per hour, out of which they must pay for their trucks, gas and other upkeep on the vehicles, Social Security tax, income tax, and all other expenses.

When things go wrong each operator is responsible. "Last year I figured I made $48,000," John O'Brien told the Militant. "My expenses were $46,000. I had a bad year — I blew an engine."

Waiting time is an especially critical issue for the truckers. A central demand of their fight is an hourly wage, something the owner-operators in Vancouver, British Columbia, won on August 21 of this year after a one-month strike at their port. The Vancouver drivers now receive Can$46 per hour (US$30), which will go up to Can$50 per hour on March 1, 2001.

Bob Hasegawa, secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 174, said that union officials decided to end the strike as a good faith gesture. In an article that appeared in the September 1 issue of the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Hasegawa is quoted as saying, "We wanted to show the union was willing to work together with the ports to find a long-term solution to better pay and working conditions.

"This was a victory for us, but now we feel it's a good time to stand back and see if the ports will respond to some of our requests in equal good faith. If they don't, we will reconvene the strike," Hasegawa continued.

At a noontime barbecue held by the union August 31, a number of drivers expressed surprise that the strike had been suspended.

"I was not happy with the decision to return to work, and I am not the only one," Kevin Merriott, a driver who works for McMillan Piper told the Militant in a phone interview. "I only found out about it from a phone call from someone who is not a driver. No one from the union talked to me directly.

"We had a very successful rally at Pier 5 and Pier 18 on Monday [August 30]," Merriott continued. "About 150 to 200 people came and we completely shut down the piers for a period of time. It is true that the companies were putting a lot of pressure on their drivers to return to work. It is also true that the 10 to 20 percent increase that some of the companies came up with convinced a number of owner-operators to come back to work, but the strike was having an effect."

The August 30 rally was one of a series of daily events drivers from Teamsters Local 174 organized. Each morning the truckers would meet and send informational pickets to most of the Seattle and Tacoma piers.

On several occasions Local 174 drivers picketed train crews from the Burlington Northern–Santa Fe railroad, often delaying their entry into the piers for hours, as the switchmen and engineers would not cross the Teamsters lines.

"We won some things and the strike was worth it," Ismail Alnouri, a driver from Morocco, told the Militant. "I have been back to work for a couple of days and the dispatcher is definitely treating us all better. Before he was always on us asking where we were and what we were doing.

"The trucking companies and the Seattle and Tacoma ports had a meeting one day ago and they agreed that the port employees would stop taking lunch, which always caused an hour delay. Now they will keep two gates open during lunch," Alnouri said.

"The company I now work for raised the price per load to $44 from $37," he continued. "The ports also promised to find one medical insurance for us that the truck companies will contribute to. This will be a big difference because most drivers now have no health insurance."  
 
 
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