Truck drivers sue container terminals at ports of L.A./Long Beach

A group of 31 truck drivers filed a complaint against a half dozen container terminals or shipping lines at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, claiming they were denied access to terminals during Teamster-led strikes.    A group of 31 truck drivers have filed a complaint against a half dozen container terminals or shipping lines and their employees at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, saying they were denied access to terminals during strikes organized by the Teamsters.
   In a complaint filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, South District, the truckers claimed the terminals “cooperated and conspired with the Teamsters in order to insure peace with the Teamsters and avoid additional strikes.”
   The drivers said they are independent owner operators who contract with transportation companies to pick-up containers from terminals in the two ports and bring them to locations for companies such as Target, Sears, Puma, Nike and New Balance, as well as small retail stores.
   The Teamsters have been working for years to have independent owner operators in Southern California recognized as employees and let them join unions. Periodically, workers seeking to be recognized as employees have held strikes targeting one or another of the various logistics companies that provide drayage services from the port with the support of the Teamsters and its affiliate Justice for Port Drivers.
   The lawsuit said that between June and October of this year, the Teamsters called for and organized “rolling strikes just outside of the gates of the Defendants’ terminals.”
   It said the companies named in the lawsuit “acting in concert with the Teamsters, denied access and locked out only the plaintiff owner operator drivers and not other trucking companies’ drivers or union drivers” for up to three days.
   The lawsuit accused the terminals of conspiring to destroy the drivers’ businesses and denying their “constitutional rights to earn a living.”
   The plaintiffs said they have suffered losses of at least $120,000.
   Consequently, they have asked for an injunction against the terminals and their employees for denying access to the terminals, and a civil penalty of $2,500 against each terminal and each individual defendant for each violation of a provision in California’s Unfair Competition Law.
   They have also asked the court to “assess additional civil penalty for conspiracy against trade” in the amount of $1 million against each defendant terminals and each named individual defendant.
   The companies named in the lawsuit include: Everport Terminal Services, Pacific Container Terminals, APM Terminals, Maersk Line, California United Terminals and SSA Terminals/Shippers Transport.