—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Los Angeles port truckers, warehouse workers strike

LOS ANGELES — Owen Vaea joined dozens of other Intermodal Bridge Transport drivers and California Cartage warehouse workers and drivers Oct. 25-26 in a strike to demand workers be treated as employees, not “independent contractors.”

“They said they were hiring drivers when I applied four years ago,” Vaea said. “I didn’t know I was considered an independent contractor until later. They pay us by the load, then deduct costs for insurance, leasing the truck and fuel.” The drivers get no pay for wait time, no health insurance and aren’t covered by workers compensation if hurt on the job.

“We took up collections for drivers who had a stroke but can’t get disability,” Vaea said. “Some drivers return to work against doctor’s orders to feed their families. When people began to fight it gave me hope.”

This was the fifth work stoppage by Cal Cartage workers and the 14th by port truckers and warehouse workers in recent years.

“We’re demanding better equipment,” said Cal Cartage worker Steve Hatch, who described having to drive unsafe forklifts and work in excessive heat. Workers at the company unload and move merchandise for major retailers Sears, Target and Walmart.

The strike coincided with National Labor Relations Board hearings of cases filed by several IBT drivers demanding to be paid as employees. Three K&R Transportation/California Cartage drivers filed complaints with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement earlier in the week demanding reimbursement for illegal deductions, unpaid wages and meal and rest break premiums employers have denied them.

— Laura Garza

Minnesota nurses end 44-day strike against Allina Health

MINNEAPOLIS — More than 4,000 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association returned to work at five Allina Health hospitals here Oct. 16. They approved a contract after voting down four previous ones and carrying out a 44-day strike, the longest in the union’s history.

At the center of the strike, which included a seven-day work stoppage in June and a longer strike that started Labor Day, was Allina’s demand that nurses give up their union health care plan in favor of the company plans. Earlier this year some 7,000 union nurses at five other hospital systems in the area ratified a contract that kept the union health care plan intact. Allina refused to do likewise, and hired 1,500 strikebreakers.

The new three-year contract, which includes a 2 percent annual wage increase, accepts the company’s health care plan, with a clause guaranteeing benefit levels through 2021 and adding up to $2,500 over the next five years into nurses’ health reimbursement or savings accounts.

“I’m definitely not happy with how it all panned out,” Katie Enright, a nurse for 10 years at Allina, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press Oct. 13. “I don’t know that we really got a fair contract. I voted yes because I want to get back to work.”

— Jacquie Henderson