Teamsters Applaud California Attorney General Brown's Crackdown on Misclassification...

Teamsters Applaud California Attorney General Brown's Crackdown on
Misclassification of Port Drivers
Brown Launches Lawsuits Targeting Suspect Trucking Companies

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Teamsters Union applauds
California Attorney General Jerry Brown for filing of lawsuits today against
trucking companies that service the Ports of LA and Long Beach and engage in
the misclassification of port truck drivers to circumvent state employment
taxes and deny the workers their basic rights and protections as employees,
including disability and worker's compensation.
Two lawsuits, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, are the first round of
what Brown has pledged to be a series of similar suits against trucking
companies that have allegedly gained an unfair advantage over competitors in
the industry by treating their haulers as "independent contractors" instead of
employees.
"By unlawfully labeling the port drivers independent contractors, these
trucking companies exploit the system to deny workers and their families their
right to benefits and fair compensation," said Jim Santangelo, Teamsters
Western Region International Vice President. "Attorney General Brown is doing
the right thing by standing up against these trucking companies who cheat the
harbor communities out of good middle-class jobs."
A recent study by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found that only 9
percent of the 16,800 drivers that work out of the Ports of LA and Long Beach
are directly employed by a trucking company. Nearly 88 percent are called
independent contractors, but are often denied the freedom to haul for more
than one company. Truly independent contractors might be expected to have
multiple clients, however, five out of six drivers only work for one trucking
company at a time (84 percent), Greenberg found.
"This is an exploitive practice that exists in every port across the
country," said Chuck Mack, International Vice President and Director of the
Teamsters Union Port Division. "It is our hope that these lawsuits will be the
beginning of the end of this independent contractor scheme."
Recently the Port of Los Angeles adopted a new environmental program that
would require companies to only hire employee drivers so companies could
assume responsibility for clean and alt-fuel trucks that will be required at
the terminals.
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4
million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto
Rico.
SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Galen Munroe, +1-202-624-6904, gmunroe@teamster.org