Update: Port Truck Drivers Strike in Los Angeles/Long Beach, California

Hundreds of truckers who haul freight from the California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach voted this past Saturday to launch a strike on Monday against four ground-shipment companies. This move could very well a revive labor tensions at the nation’s busiest cargo hub.

The drivers, as reported by American Shippers, have targeted Intermodal Bridge Transport, Pacific 9 Transportation (Pac 9), Pacer Cartage, and Harbor Rail Transport. Area drivers have long claimed they should be classified as employees, not independent contractors, and, as such, are being subjected to “wage theft.”

Teamsters spokeswoman Barb Maynard, said that delegations of drivers notified the companies of their intent to strike at 6 a.m., with picket lines going up immediately at the companies’ truck yards. The strikers also plan to picket marine terminals, rail yards and other locations where the companies dispatch trucks.

About 500 port truckers have filed wage claims with state labor officials accusing their companies of misclassifying them as freelancers and charging them to lease the trucks they drive.

Additionally, according to Reuters, the labor-backed National Employment Law Project has estimated that thousands more drivers have yet to file claims, and national port-trucking companies could be liable for wage and hour violations of up to nearly $1.4 billion annually.

Sources: American Shipper, Reuters