Teamsters: California Port Drivers Treated Like Sharecroppers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/5658

Teamsters: California Port Drivers Treated Like Sharecroppers - 04/09/07

The Teamsters are working to organize and improve the lives of independent truck drivers at southern California ports. As Monica Lopez reports, the drivers are working as independent contractors struggling to make decent livings as new pollution control costs loom.

Independent truck driver Luis Ceja is fuming over what he and many other drivers see as the mishandling of container pick-ups and drop offs at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Southern California ports handle more than a third of all full international container traffic in the United States. Ceja says he spends an average of $500 dollars a week in diesel.

: “I put a pencil down the other day and wrote down how many hours I work, how much money I got and at the end I’m making $9 dollars an hour. Come to think of it, I’d rather be an employee because I’m making more money that way.”

Twenty-five years ago drivers were reclassified as independent contractors during a period of deregulation. Chuck Mack is the Director of the Port Division for the Teamsters. Mack likens the current relationship between owner-operators and trucking companies to that of sharecropping in the old south.

: “They survive, these trucking companies, by undercutting one another. And when they do that they drive the standards down. They routinely evade paying taxes, workers compensation for the drivers."

A group called the Coalition For Clean and Safe Ports is advocating for employee status for the truckers while also maintaining the goal of emissions reductions.

Monica Lopez, Workers Independent News service, Los Angeles.

AUDIO story here: http://www.laborradio.org/files/lo/winsheadlines.ram

[jody]

1. "sharecropping in the old south" was much better than starving to death. I'm completely familiar

with the practice of sharecropping in the 1930s -1950s and for illiterate, untrained men with a family and no jobs other than farming and no programs for the destitute it was the only jobs available.

Was sharecropping abused, absolutely and it was a form of economic slavery imposed on blacks and whites alike. Still, sharecropping was a big step above people who depending solely on odd jobs.

[sandnsea]

2. Slavery too?

:eyes: Honestly, why even say such a thing. Unless this is what you want the world to be.

[jody]

5. Who said anything about slavery. n/t

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. You obviously have no clue of what the truckers in the OP are up against.

For you to even SUGGEST that what they are currently experiencing is a "step above" ANYTHING ELSE demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the issue.

The guys that operate the cranes that lift the containers off the ships make well in excess of six figures annually. And they deserve it as it is a highly specialized, extraordinarily technical trade. The guys that drive the trucks around the port that haul those containers to and from the storage yards and to the wharf under the cranes make $60,000 up to $80,000/yr or more. The rail workers who load and unload intermodal trains on the port are making $65,000 - $85,000/yr to do their work.

The poor schlub that has to wait on line, sometimes for up to 3 or 4 hours to pick up a container out of the storage yard, clear Customs with it and then go and fight traffic on the freeway in order to deliver it across town to it's customer or to another freight forwarder for further shipment are the ones making $9.00/hour.

The Longshoremen have a lock on the docks and i'm glad they do, but the shippers are screwing the one link in the chain - the independent, local drayage driver - that has no collective voice.

These aren't "illiterate, untrained men". They are qualified heavy truck operators. That sort of skill is worth every bit of $20.00/hour if it is worth a dime. Even merely alluding to the idea that things could be worse is an insult to the vital service they provide.

By the way, the guy quoted as saying he added it up and figured he makes nine bucks an hour gets to watch his wages fluctuate with every penny change in the price of a gallon of diesel. No other worker on the port has to deal with that.

[jody]

4. You're right, I don't understand what truckers are up against. I also don't believe they and

economic conditions are the same as they were in the old south.

Using the term sharecropper is a bad analogy. :shrug:

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. Jody, you're a stand up Guy for saying so. I'm sorry if my tone was harsh.

Owning up to a mis-characterization or a misunderstanding of the facts is becoming too rare on DU these days.

Cheers!:thumbsup: :beer: :toast: :applause: