LOS ANGELES — Port haulers and warehouse workers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, plan to strike Monday, October 1 over what they say is continued “misclassification” as owner-operators rather than company drivers, the Teamsters Union announced Friday through its Justice for Port Drivers organization.
Specifically, the union and port drayage drivers are taking issue with XPO Logistics and NFI Industries for labeling the haulers as independent contractors rather than company drivers and as a consequence, are shorting them wages, among other things.
According to a Teamsters news release, the workers will be striking at company facilities, marine terminals, rail yards, customer warehouses and distribution centers, and retail outlets.
“Drivers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have been challenging their misclassification as ‘independent contractors’ and exercising their rights as employees by engaging in collective action in the courts, in their truck yards and at the ports, including 15 strikes in the last five years,” said the release.
This 16th strike is projected to begin at 7 a.m. Monday, in what the Justice organization said will be “a series of escalating strikes and actions to build worker power and expose a crooked industry that has been built on exploitation, wage theft and discrimination.”
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