Truckers at Area Ports Demanding Wage, Health and Pension Benefits

Thousands of truck drivers are expected to join a convoy today from local ports to Los Angeles City Hall, where they will present a “bill of rights” demanding a fair wage, health and pension benefits, and pay for hours spent waiting for loads.

The action, to be duplicated at half a dozen cities on both coasts, is part of an ambitious, months-long effort by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to organize drivers at the nation’s ports.

Similar rallies this week have drawn thousands of drivers in Boston, Houston, Miami, New York and New Jersey, where Teamsters officials said they slowed or shut down port operations for the day.

“This is catching fire around the country,” said George Cashman, a Boston union leader who was appointed by Teamsters President James Hoffa to direct the port effort. “The [shipping] industry is taking advantage of these drivers, it exploits them daily, and they are starting to get desperate.”

Harbor officials and representatives of shipping lines said they did not expect the action to disrupt operations. “No one is really worked up over this,” said Suzanne Nault, a spokeswoman for the Steamship Assn. of Southern California, which represents 47 shipping lines, terminal operators and stevedore companies. “Friday is a slow day in the harbor, and we don’t think there will be that big of a turnout for the demonstration.”

Karsten Lemke, vice president of West Coast operations for Zim Container Services in Long Beach, estimated 30% of the 11,000 drivers would miss work today. He said, however, that cargo should move smoothly because working drivers will have faster turnaround times.

There have been organizing drives and strikes at many ports in recent years, including at Long Beach, the nation’s largest container port, and at Los Angeles, the second-largest. Most recently, the Communications Workers of America launched an organizing drive in 1994 that lasted for years and included at least one strike, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

But Teamsters officials said there has never been a coordinated national effort backed by such a prominent union. The Teamsters is among the largest unions in the nation.

Port trucking once provided well-paid union jobs, but that began to change after the truck industry was deregulated in 1979. Cashman said shipping companies began to hire nonunion drivers to reduce costs, then about 10 years ago started contracting out the work to independent owner-operators. There is high turnover, with thousands of new drivers buying trucks and trying to make a living every year, Cashman said.

Drivers at Los Angeles-Long Beach and many other ports are primarily Spanish-speaking immigrants with limited job options. They line up by the thousands every day for work, and often spend hours waiting for a load, for which they are not paid.

Recent court documents show drivers may take in $40,000 to $70,000 a year, but much of that is spent on fuel, insurance, maintenance and the cost of the truck. They may spend 12 hours a day making trips to and from the port.

The drivers’ status as owner-operators has been a major obstacle to organizing in the past. Because they are not employees, they are not an eligible bargaining unit under federal labor law.

Teamsters officials said they believe they’ve found a way around that, but aren’t giving details. One possibility would be to set up a company that becomes the employer of record, giving the drivers status as employees. The CWA tried a similar strategy in Long Beach in 1997, but the venture fell apart because it was underfinanced.

Cashman said that the campaign is already well-developed in a dozen ports, from Baltimore to Seattle, and that he would “not rule out” the possibility of a coordinated nationwide strike.

Nault of the Steamship Assn. said some shipping companies have been trying to address the truckers’ concerns, such as rising costs for fuel and insurance as well as the long delays at terminal gates waiting to pick up and deliver cargo.

“We want to resolve these issues if we can,” Lemke said. “Where we can help, we will be glad to do something.”

Officials for the Port of Long Beach said surface streets could be clogged as the demonstration moves from the Port of Los Angeles to the Port of Long Beach’s headquarters, which is near the Queen Mary. The protest is set to begin at 8 a.m., with the move to Long Beach expected to happen by 11 a.m. Drivers will then form a convoy from Long Beach to City Hall in downtown Los Angeles.