Truckers Rally for New Firm’s Founder
Thousands of truckers surged Friday to a defunct bowling alley in Lynwood to rally behind the onetime insurance agent at the vortex of the labor quarrel at the Los Angeles and Long Beach docks that is delaying trade.
Amid reports of renegade truckers returning to work and frustrated by the failure of Donald L. Allen’s start-up company to deliver the jobs he has been promising, about 2,000 drivers filled what was once a 34-lane bowling alley and met with Allen. Polled, they unanimously pledged their commitment to stay with his firm, Transit Maritime Assn.
“Allen told us we are free to pull our trucks at any time,” said driver Salvador Urena, “but we said, ‘No, we want to stay.’ We cannot go back to the old way.”
Independent truckers have driven their rigs to Fontana for appraisal by Allen’s firm, which has offered to buy them and then hire the newly unionized drivers at $25 an hour with benefits. Previously, drivers hired themselves out by the load to trucking companies at much lower wages.
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