—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

LA Pac 9 port truckers win ruling, advance fight for union

LOS ANGELES — After two years of strikes and organizing, port truck drivers at Pacific 9 Transportation here scored a victory when the California Labor Commissioner ruled Dec. 14 that they should be classified as employees, not independent contractors. The ruling orders the company to pay them $6.9 million in wages lost due to the misclassification. The average individual award to the 38 drivers who filed the complaint is $182,270.50.

The decision means the truckers may join the Teamsters union and will be paid by the hour instead of the load, increasing their income. Workers at Pac 9 have struck six times, and in July began an indefinite strike. Many drivers now work for other companies and picket Pac 9 on their days off.

The stakes are high. There are some 600 trucking companies at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, employing about 12,000 drivers. Bosses profit by classifying most of them as independent contractors, forcing the workers to shoulder fuel and maintenance expenses and unpaid waiting time. There are some 50,000 misclassified drivers nationwide.

The ruling angered the bosses, whose Harbor Trucking Association issued a statement saying employee status “means loss of freedom and control over working hours, schedule, whether to work or not, and assets and equity such as a $100,000 truck and lucrative contractual relationships with trucking companies.”

“We demand a union and wages,” Victor Molina, who has driven for Pac 9 for three years and was suspended along with 11 others for striking, told the Militant. “The company was cheating a lot, so we began to fight. We’ve had a lot of strikes, but I think the last one was stronger. We had support from other workers and from the Teamsters.”

“It isn’t just a handful of drivers that are misclassified — it’s all of us,” Daniel Linares, one of the 38 drivers, said in a Dec. 23 Teamsters news release. “We aren’t going to back down now. We’ll continue suing and striking these companies until they abandon the misclassification scheme.”

“They control everything,” Linares told the Militant. “They tell us which loads to pick up and where to drop them. There’s no money for us, just the companies. But a lot of drivers know about the situation, and little by little the word is getting spread.”

“We anticipate a flood of other drivers coming to the Teamsters to find out how to file a claim,” said Barb Maynard, a spokesperson for the union. “Momentum is on the drivers’ side.”

— Daniel Huinil and Bill Arth

Pa. Steelworkers support unionists locked out by ATI

BRACKENRIDGE, Pa. — On Dec. 30, I delivered a 400-pound carload of canned goods, nonperishable food and $360 to the United Steelworkers Local 1196 union hall. Members here and at 11 other mills in six states have been locked out by Allegheny Technologies Inc. since Aug. 15.

The donation from Steelworkers Local 1165, my local, was part of a solidarity effort by USW locals at ArcelorMittal mills in several states. Their contracts covering some 13,000 members expired Sept. 1. ArcelorMittal, like ATI, is demanding steep concessions.

We took the contributions to Brackenridge because there is coordination between 1196 units and other ATI locals.

My father, Vonie Jr. (I’m Vonie III), went with me. Dad is a retired 40-year Steelworker.

Before we reached the hall we drove up to a picket shanty at a main gate of the facility, located in the shadow of the recent $1 billion upgrade to the plant.

We introduced ourselves and joined six brothers at the burn barrel. Steady traffic passed us, honking their horns and giving the thumbs up.

At the hall we were greeted with many thanks as we stacked the car’s contents onto a banquet table that bowed under its weight.

Mark Miecznikowski, Local 1196-01 unit chair, walked us through the hall explaining the local’s activities there, at the picket locations and throughout the communities. ATI’s footprint runs through several boroughs along the Allegheny River. He proudly showed us a large archive display dating back to 1942 when the USW was formed and to its predecessor, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, which was part of the labor battles of the 1930s.

Then he accompanied us to many of the picket locations.

The locked-out sisters and brothers said they appreciate the support shown by other unionists, and are trying to find optimism in recent National Labor Relations Board decisions favorable to them and in the tentative agreement between U.S. Steel and the USW.

Every picket location now has an enclosed shanty and wood burner.

We ended up back at the union hall where we had a hot meal and coffee with a few sisters and brothers coming from or preparing for picket duty.

— Vonie Long, USW Local 1165 president, Coatesville, Pennsylvania