Teamsters: Google delivery drivers seek to unionize

Meanwhile, drayage drivers at Pacific 9 Transportation continue their strike in an attempt to be reclassified as employee drivers.    A Teamsters local said more than 140 warehouse and delivery workers for Google Express Services in Palo Alto, Calif. are seeking to become unionized.
   Teamsters Local Union 853 said Google Express service, which is operated by the staffing company Adecco, has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a representation election. It added the workers “sought out the Teamsters for help with improving working conditions, treatment on the job and compensation.”
   Google Express Services provides products shipped from local businesses to consumers on a same-day or overnight basis. According to its website, in addition to the San Francisco/San Jose area, it operates in West Los Angeles, Manhattan, Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC.
   Meanwhile, the Teamsters said a strike by port truck drivers who work for the drayage company Pacific 9 Transportation in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is continuing.
   Pac 9 drivers will testify Tuesday afternoon at a hearing before the City of Long Beach’s Tidelands and Harbor Committee, according to the Teamsters.
   “I’m sick and tired of being misclassified as an independent contractor by my company and I can’t afford to put up with the wage theft for another day,” Daniel Linares, a striking port truck driver with Pac 9, said in a statement from the advocacy group Justice for Port Drivers. “That’s why I’m on strike, and will stay on strike, until they recognize my rights as an employee. With this hearing, I’m hopeful that the City Council and Mayor Garcia will hear our truth and ban these law-breaking companies from the Port of Long Beach once and for all.”