Report Questions Costs of Port Trucker Status
A new report issued by three organizations said that classification of port truckers as independent contractors rather than employees is costing $1.4 billion in lost tax revenue and wage and hour violations.
Curtis Whalen, who heads American Trucking Associations’ Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference was dismissive of the report from the National Employment Law Project, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and Change to Win Strategic Organizing Center.
The report, which aligns with the Teamsters union’s ongoing campaign to make port truckers into employees, labeled the independent contractors an “industrywide scam.”
The $1.4 billion total comes from a combination of lost revenue to various government agencies who usually receive taxes from employees and employers, along with wage and hour violations, the groups said, “with non-quantified costs likely exceeding the figure significantly.”
“The [Teamsters] are just trying to generate interest and concern for their cause,” Whalen told Transport Topics. “They have been very, very unsuccessful in convincing independent truckers to become employees, so they are making up facts and figures. This is an ongoing battle that shows the desperation of the union.”
Whalen said members of his group have been harassed in states such as California with requests for driver-related data, though there has never been substantiation of charges against the fleets.
In a statement, Teamsters Vice President Fred Potter, who heads the union’s organizing effort, said that companies are “harassing, intimidating and even firing drivers who have filed claims with the government.”
