Vol. 79/No. 28      August 10, 2015

Forty drivers have filed wage theft claims totaling more than $6 million against Pac 9. Hearings began before the California Labor Commissioner July 27. “Last year, the DLSE [Division of Labor Standards Enforcement] ruled that three of my co-workers are misclassified and ordered Pac 9 to pay them a quarter million dollars in back wages and penalties,” said Daniel Linares, a striker who has filed a claim, according to a July 21 union press advisory. “We have every reason to believe that the DLSE will make a similar ruling for us.”

The Pac 9 drivers are part of a larger fight being carried out on both U.S. coasts. Teamsters-supported drivers testified at a state Senate hearing in Savannah, Georgia, July 21 protesting misclassification there.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the biggest in the country, use more than 10,000 drivers from 560 companies, almost all misclassified as independent contractors. A 2014 report by the National Employment Law Project says approximately 80 percent of port truck drivers nationwide are labeled independent contractors and estimates that 80 percent of those, or 50,000 workers, are misclassified. The report says the shift to the independent contractor model, which occurred with the deregulation of the trucking industry in the 1980s, “is correlated with a 30% decline in wages between 1980 and 1995.”

On July 8 the 88 drivers at Eco Flow Transportation unanimously voted to join the Teamsters. This brings the total number of unionized drivers in the ports to 450 at four companies — Eco Flow Transportation, Shippers Transport Express, Toll Group and Horizon Lines.

The establishment of Eco Flow in May showed the impact of the port truckers’ fight. The new company, which hires drivers as employees and does not oppose Teamsters representation, was founded by Saybrook Capital, which also owns Total Transportation Services, one of the companies Teamsters have struck several times over the last two years.

The May 4 press conference announcing the new company was attended by Saybrook Capital’s co-managing partner, Jonathan Rosenthal; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; and Teamsters representatives.

Teamsters Local 848 will now negotiate its first contract with Eco Flow as it also enters into negotiations with Toll Group and Shippers Express, whose contracts expire at the end of the year.
 
 
Related articles:
Movement to raise minimum wage gains ground across US
Steel bosses push for steep concessions in contract talks
Verizon workers in 9 states and D.C. authorize strike
On the Picket Line
 
 
 
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