More than 100 port truck drivers launched a protest on Monday against what they say are widespread work violations, picketing three regional trucking companies and their rigs that haul freight at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
Picket lines went up shortly after dawn at multiple locations operated by three trucking firms in the harbour area, including Carson and Wilmington, reported Los Angeles Times.
Truck drivers, backed by Teamsters Local 848, at times blocked the driveways at the companies' truck yards, chanted slogans in Spanish and solicited honks of support from passing motorists.
The protest, which organisers said is intended to last 48 hours, also moved inside the two ports and briefly disrupted operations at one cargo terminal at the Port of Long Beach.
Justice for Port Truck Drivers, the union-backed group organising the walkout, has accused trucking companies of wrongfully classifying truck drivers as independent contractors, a designation that denies drivers workplace protections such as overtime and mandated work breaks. It also results in lower pay, the group said.
"We're here fighting for a better future for our families," said Dennis Martinez, a truck driver who moves cargo for Total Transportation Services, one of the three companies targeted by the drivers. The other two are Green Fleet Systems and Pacific 9 Transportation, both based in Carson.
Martinez, who has worked for Total Transportation Services for 21/2 years, said that he is wrongfully classified as an independent contractor and that he has filed a wage theft complaint against his employer with state labour officials.
Alex Cherin, executive director of the Harbour Trucking Assn and a spokesman for the trucking companies, criticised the drivers' actions and blamed the Teamsters and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, a worker advocacy group, for organising the demonstrations.
"Outside interest groups like LAANE and the Teamsters are continuing to spend their members' hard-earned money to battle an issue that a vast majority of harbour truck drivers have soundly rejected time and time again" by telling management they didn't favour union representation, Cherin said.
"There are literally hundreds of unfilled vacancies for company drivers throughout Southern California," Cherin said. "If a driver wants to become an employee rather than an independent contractor, he or she can do so."
Xiomara Perez, a driver at Green Fleet Systems, said the majority of company employees do not want a union and have resisted the efforts by other drivers who are pushing to organise. At that company, the question of whether to form a union also has been rolled into the protest.
"This is a very good company, and they provide us with many benefits," Perez said. "Why do we want to pay dues when we're being treated well already?"
Monday's demonstration, the largest yet by the group, escalates tensions between drivers and trucking companies. Industry experts estimate that only 10 percent of the region's roughly 12,000 short-haul truckers are directly employed by companies, and truckers who are classified as independent contractors have filed lawsuits and complaints with state and federal labour agencies to change their status.
The strike is the third in the last year, and more are planned in the coming months, organisers said. Previous actions took place only at the truck company sites.
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