Three days later, the truck drivers were back on the job having yet to resolve their grievances.

Port authorities claimed that nine ships loaded with cargo had been diverted from the port because of the work stoppage, costing the employers hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

In issuing the order, U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz claimed that the port and Universal Maritime Services, a private terminal operator at the docks, would suffer “immediate and irreparable injury, loss or damage” unless the strike was ended. The judge set a July 15 hearing to determine if her injunction barring the strike would be made permanent.

The beginning of the shutdown in Miami by more than 700 drivers coincided with a strike and job actions by truckers at Port Newark, New Jersey, and at the Port of New Orleans. Smaller protests by truckers at Port Everglades, Florida, and at other ports on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts also took place. The Miami strike continued for more than a week after the other job actions ended.

Truckers here who transport cargo to and from some of the major ports in the United States called their work stoppage over low wages, rising fuel costs, an insurance surcharge imposed on them by port authorities that is deducted from their paychecks, antiunion laws, and long unpaid waiting periods. The truckers are demanding a pay hike of $50 per hour after a one-hour wait inside port premises, and an investigation into the skyrocketing rise in vehicle insurance they are being forced to pay. Currently truckers receive $50 per trip to the port loading or unloading cargo. They often have to wait four hours because of the more stringent security measures the federal government and local authorities are imposing, and new security checks required by new federal “anti-terrorism” laws.

Trucker Omar Valtodano, originally from Nicaragua, described why he and his fellow drivers walked out. Prices of diesel fuel, tires, oil, oil filters, and other parts and supplies necessary for maintaining the trucks are rising, he said, while the amount the truckers are paid per trip has remained stagnant.

“We feel exploited and that is why we are here on strike,” said Marvin Alvarado. This driver said he had worked for the port company Southern Ocean for more than eight years. “Eight years ago I was paid $420 dollars for a trip from the Port of Miami to Orlando,” he said. “Today they pay $380. Meanwhile, fuel prices keep going up.”

Diesel fuel for trucks has averaged $1.75 cents per gallon recently across the country, an increase of 32 cents in the last 12 months and 65 cents higher than six years ago. In California, diesel fuel costs more than $2 per gallon now.

Several truckers said the employers take cargo liability insurance out of their paychecks, and the wages they receive are too low to cover these escalating costs.

Luis Fernández, a 36-year-old trucker who is Cuban, told the Militant July 2 that “the bosses claim we will all go back to work on July 5, but here no one is going back to work.” Fernández said he left Cuba four years ago. “Here in Miami,” he added, “workers make very little money, and women make much less than men for the same job. It is not like this in Cuba.” The bad conditions and low pay forced them to go on strike, he said, and the drivers would continue the stoppage as long as necessary.

According to Channel 10 television here, the truckers also “want to be able to form unions and collectively bargain for better contracts from shipping and trucking companies that hire them out.” The trucking companies claim the strike is unlawful because the drivers are allegedly breaking anti-trust laws.

Truckers who are “owner-operators” are considered independent business people by the trucking companies and are “forbidden by federal price-fixing laws from negotiating and talking with employers together,” said Channel 10..

“The sad thing is that the trucking companies use us as employees, but don’t list us as employees,” Eduardo Vedayes, organizer of the Support Trucking Group that coordinated the strike, told the Miami Herald July 12. He added that the trucking companies had already advised customers at the port that they would be raising their rates by $25 for each trip, but there was no guarantee that the drivers would get any raise. “The transportation companies are the ones who are going to benefit from this,” he said. Truck drivers in South Florida organized a two-week strike four years ago around rising insurance and fuel costs. Their walkout coincided with efforts by the Teamsters union to organize independent truckers in South Florida, New Orleans, and Los Angeles at the time.
 
 
Related article:
Support union organizing
Maytag workers end three-week strike
Storm Lake, Iowa, meat packers file for union recognition  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home