Teamsters: Pac 9 driver wage hearing to begin next week

In the meantime, port truck drivers continue to strike the drayage firm Pacific 9 Transportation at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, claiming independent contractor misclasification.    The Teamsters said on Tuesday that the California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, reversed a temporary stay on wage and hour hearings for as many as 40 drivers working for Pacific 9 Transportation (Pac 9). The hearings were originally scheduled to begin on Monday, July 20, before the California Labor Commissioner.
   “The swift reversal enables the striking port truck drivers to finally get their day in court, where they will present wage theft claims worth in excess of $6 million, or about $150,000 per driver,” the Teamsters said in a press release. “The hearings are now scheduled to begin on Monday, July 27, 2015.”
   Meanwhile, a strike by truck drivers who work at the Carson, California-based Pac 9 is continuing today in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
   Company drivers participating in the protest and their supporters plan to continue picketing the company’s offices and conduct “ambulatory picketing” at marine terminals in the Southern California ports when Pac 9 trucks appear.
   Barbara Maynard, a spokesman for the drivers, said this is the sixth strike against PAC 9 and the seventh directed against drayage companies in Southern California as part of a drive by Justice for Port Truck Drivers and the Teamster Port Division to get drivers recognized as employees, rather than independent owner operators, and allow them to unionize.
   While past strikes against drayage companies have ended after a week or several days, Maynard said the strike against Pac 9 this time would be truly “indefinite,” with drivers having the ability to continue their legal fight to recoup wages and many able to support their families by working at one of four companies that have been organized by the Teamsters.
   There are four drayage companies at the ports that are now organized by the Teamsters: Eco Flow Transportation, Shippers Transport Express, Toll Group, and Horizon Lines.
   The Teamsters said in a press release that three terminals in the ports “were reported to have turned away trucks from Pac 9. Those terminals that did accept trucks from Pac 9 experienced dramatic truck lines due to ambulatory picketing by strikers.”