Drivers end strike against five drayage companies

Teamster-supported strikers end labor action in Southern California,    Port truck drivers have ended a strike against five drayage companies that serve the Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach and nearby rail ramps.
   The Teamster-affiliated organization Justice for Port Truck Drivers said on Thursday striking draymen at LACA Express, QTS and WinWin Logistics have returned to work “after beginning productive conversations with their employers.”
   On Friday, they took down picket lines against two other companies, Pacer Cartage and Harbor Rail Transport – both owned by XPO Logistics – and made an unconditional offer to return to work and the two companies accepted the drivers back.
   Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said that the three companies and the Teamsters “have each separately agreed to continue discussions to resolve outstanding issues between them. All sides have expressed an interest in sitting down and continuing confidential discussions of these issues and challenges facing the drayage industry. QTS, Inc., LACA Express, Inc., and WinWin Logistics, Inc., each respect drivers’ right to choice with regard to unionization.” Drivers are also continuing talks with three other companies that were the target of earlier strikes — Total Transportation Services Inc., Pacific 9 Transportation and Green Fleet Systems.
   Barb Maynard, a spokesman for Justice for Port Truck Drivers, said she did not know how many of the drivers have been involved in the strikes, nor what percentage of the workforces of the eight companies have been involved in the strikes. Drivers are seeking to be recognized as employees and not independent contractors.
   Curtis Whalen, executive director of the Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference of the American Trucking Associations, said, “If you take a look at the number of trucking companies that they are organizing, it’s certainly a small number.
   “I think they have tried to use the congestion crisis at the port to potentially make their impact a lot larger,” he continued.  “If you are one of the companies that they are moving after … they are disrupting your activities.”
   He continued, “I still don’t understand, as a lawyer, how an independent contractor can strike or be organized by a union; that used to be the whole issue — if you are an independent you can’t be unionized,” he said. “I think there has been a huge misuse of words in this, and I really can’t understand what is going on other than it is mixed up within the congestion activity and the overall shadow cast by the continuing lack of progress in the ILWU negotiations.”
   California’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement has said it is “committed to attacking mis-classification” of employees including port truck drivers.
   Whalen said he felt the “Teamsters are getting desperate; they have been working on this for quite a number of years. Lots of money and time has been spent, and while they win some of these — and you can look at some of the recent FedEx and Con-Way activity; they win some votes, and lose some votes. But that is not going to establish national policy.”
   He continued, “One of the problems with this is the historic understanding of what an independent owner-operator is and what is now claimed is two different things.” He said in any area of the country where there is congestion, there are many jobs available for drivers both as employee drivers or independent owner-operators.
   “This concept that you are stuck doing one or the other is definitely not the case,” Whalen said.
   While some companies such as Hub have decided to make drivers employees rather than independent owner operators in California, Whalen notes that the company has expressed confidence that the employees will not become Teamsters.
   “Just because you are an employee does not mean that you will vote to be a Teamster,” he said.