By JoAnne Pow!ers
Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in Los Angeles and Long Beach were ordered to return to work Tuesday morning after walking off the job in solidarity with striking port truck drivers. After the longshore workers refused to cross the picket lines, a federal arbiter ruled that the action was a violation of their current contract. The 120 truckers are holding the Unfair Labor Practice strike over misclassification of the workers by three transportation companies as “independent contractors”, resulting in lower pay and fewer benefits than if they were properly classified as employees. The misclassification has been ruled a violation of U.S. labor law, and would prevent the workers from being able to form a union. The open-ended strike, supported by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, is the third, following two shorter walkouts earlier this year. While ongoing contract negotiations prevented comment from the ILWU, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Vice President and Ports Division Director Fred Potter feels that the rank-and-file longshore workers and other union members are deeply committed to helping the striking drivers:
[Fred Potter]: “The SEIU, UFCW, IBEW, the Steelworkers…we have rank and file members going down to Teamsters Local 848 hall, how can they volunteer to help? We’ve had hundreds and hundreds of picketers covering three shifts. The support from the labor community has been incredible. Labor works best when labor stays together and works together. ”
Potter sees the first two days of the strike as a huge success, crippling two of the nation’s busiest ports:
[Fred Potter]: “It’s not our intent to cripple the port. It’s our intent to bring justice to these workers, to have them recognized as employees, to return those workers who were fired simply for exercising their rights.”
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