Tuesday striking port truckers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach joined a coalition of community, labor and clergy leaders for a rally and march through Long beach with elected officials. The strike is part of a long campaign by port truckers, backed by the Teamsters, to end mis-classification of truckers as independent contractors instead of employees. The truckers are also demanding union rights. Fred Potter is a Teamsters Vice-President and head of the union’s ports division. he says congestion and inefficiency are also problems with trucking at the Los Angeles and Long beach port.

Fred Potter: “There’s no incentive for the terminal operators or the port to operate efficiently because these guys – when they’re mis-classified – they’re not paying for the time they’re sitting there.

We think that the movement to company employees is actually gonna cause the port operators to operate more efficiently.”

The Teamsters say “American corporations have pushed tens of millions of American truck drivers, warehouse workers, and service sector workers into poverty through greedy subcontracting schemes designed to increase CEO pay.” So the port workers and the Teamsters want to see these workers get unions and become company employees.
http://bit.ly/2sYUowK