Southern California Truckers Strike Enters Second Day
Truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach continued a strike against four fleets, including two controlled by XPO Logistics, for a second day April 28.
The Justice For Port Drivers group, which is attempting to organize drivers to make them eligible for Teamsters union membership, announced the action April 27 against XPO’s Pacer Cartage and Harbor Rail Transport units as well as Pac 9 Transport, i in Carson, California and Intermodal Bridge Transport, a New Jersey-based company.
There have been no reports of interruption of cargo flow at the nation’s two largest ports.
A statement from the driver group said picketing is continuing at company offices and yards.
The driver group said there was “major disruption to the operation of the trucking companies and their retail clients” because most terminal operators were barring those four companies’ trucks from entering their facilities. That statement couldn’t immediately be confirmed by Transport Topics with terminals, fleets or customers. Port Strike Day 2
Los Angeles and Long Beach have a total of 13 cargo terminals with a daily cargo volume of as many as 30,000 containers moved by an estimated 10,000 drivers. Several hundred drivers participated in the April 27 walkout, according to organizers who didn’t announce the number of participants April 28.
The action is the latest step that could disrupt the cargo flow in the nation’s two largest ports. Cargo flow was cut by about half in the days leading up to a tentative agreement between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union that was reached two months ago.
“These are some of the biggest trucking companies in the port,” said Barbara Maynard, a spokeswoman for the group. “It is up to these companies to say ‘Yes, we will follow the law.’ The picket lines could come down in a matter of hours if the companies say they will follow the law.”
Some drivers seeking employee status at Pacer have won court cases, claiming they were misclassified as independent contractors. Those cases are being appealed.
“Independent contractors are used widely throughout the trucking business,” said a spokeswoman for XPO, which ranks No. 12 on the Transport Topics’ Top 50 list of the largest logistics companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico. “We are in regular dialogue with our independent-contract drivers and believe the vast majority of them value the significant benefits of operating independently. We’re committed to helping them succeed.”
Maynard said that the pickets at port terminals and rail facilities were “informational”, and targeted solely at drivers from the four fleets who were entering the terminals.
There has been no indication that the action has spread to other drayage fleets.
The last port truckers’ strike was in November.
