More than two dozen owner-operator truck drivers are suing six container terminals or their affiliates in Los Angeles-Long Beach, charging that the terminals blocked their entry to the facilities during Teamsters demonstrations in the harbor this summer in order to ensure peace with the union.
The Teamsters allegedly told the terminal operators that if they denied access to the 31 owner-operators who opposed Teamsters’ efforts to unionize drayage drivers, the union would agree not to picket those marine terminals, according to the suit filed Monday with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles. The terminals allegedly allowed pro-unionization drivers from the same two or three trucking companies to access the facilities while blocking access to the drivers who didn’t want to be unionized. “Plaintiffs are informed and believe that the Teamsters together with the defendant terminals conspired and continue to conspire to destroy the businesses of the plaintiff owner-operator drivers who for periods of up to three days were denied access to defendants’ terminals and therefore were denied his/her constitutional rights to earn a living,” the lawsuit stated. The suit asks the court to assess a civil penalty of $2,500 against each terminal, an additional civil penalty for conspiracy against trade of $1 million against each terminal, and not less than $120,000 for economic and non-economic damages. The suit also seeks an order preventing the terminals from committing further acts of unfair competition. The complaint identified about 500 container moves the owner-operators were denied during the Teamsters’ job actions that took place in Los Angeles-Long Beach from June through October. Attorney Jewels Jin said Thursday in an interview the suit does not include the Teamsters, but she may add the union as a defendant at a future date. Fred Potter, vice president of Teamsters, released the following statement, “We haven’t seen the lawsuit but understand it alleges collusion between the Teamsters and terminal operators. Nothing could be further from the truth.” The lawsuit sheds light on the complex conditions of harbor trucking not only in the largest US port complex, but at container ports across the nation. When trucking in the United States was deregulated in 1980, it evolved relatively quickly from an industry dominated by employee drivers, many of whom belonged to the Teamsters union, to a business model that relies upon independent-contractor drivers. By law, independent contractors in any industry can not be unionized. For much of the past decade, the Teamsters have focused their harbor activities on getting drayage companies to operate on the employee model and to hire the owner-operators as direct employees. The Teamsters would then be free to attempt to organize the drivers. The situation is complex because at many drayage companies some of the drivers want to be unionized because of the stable pay and benefits that come from employee status, but others prefer being owner-operators and say they can actually earn more money as independent contractors. Harbor trucking companies, even those that favor the owner-operator model, have maintained over the years that the most important element at work in the harbor should be freedom of choice for the drivers, without any “bullying” involved. “These legal actions prove the will of drivers to be independent contractors is strong,” said Weston LaBar, executive director of the Harbor Trucking Association, which represents about 100 drayage companies in Southern California. “These guys want to have their rights to work as independent contractors and to not be forced into a unionized employee role,” he said. Marine terminal operators are caught up in the struggle involving trucking companies, the Teamsters, those drivers who want to be unionized, and those who want to remain independent. That struggle often plays out in front of terminal gates, where the Teamsters for months have been conducting random “strikes” against whichever of the hundreds of Los Angeles-Long Beach trucking companies they are targeting. The Teamsters usually target only two or three trucking companies at a time, and those companies account for only 100 to 200 truck moves per day at a terminal that may regularly do 3,000 gate transactions each day. Therefore, when the Teamsters bring their picketing to the terminal gates, operations slow down and yard congestion increases, and this can quickly spread to the vessel-unloading operations. The terminal operators say they are innocent third-party victims of a labor dispute that involves the Teamsters, trucking companies, and drivers, none of whom the terminals employ or have contracts with. Interested in sharing JOC.com content? Please view our current Copyright and Legal Disclaimer information, as well as our Frequently Asked Questions to ensure proper protocol is followed. For any questions, contact the Customer Support team at our Help link. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter: @billmongelluzzo. |