Previous port trucker strikes produced mixed results. Truckers in Vancouver, B.C. blockaded the Canada-U.S. border back in June 1990, snarling container traffic for a week. Vancouver truckers struck again in July 1999 for a month. This time they came away with an hourly wage, an appointment system and improvements in efficiency that benefited everyone working at the port. But it was short lived, according to ILWU Canada President Tom Dufresne.
“The Teamsters did a heck of a job and we supported them,” Dufresne said. “But it only lasted a month or so, then they were back to cutthroat competition that drove rates down. Now their rates are worse than they were in 1999.”
Striking Canadian truckers met Aug. 14, 1999 with drivers in Seattle and Tacoma. Puget Sound area ILWU locals demanded the ports not handle diverted Canadian cargo. Two days later Puget Sound area truckers parked their rigs and didn’t move for two weeks. Some drivers got rate increases, but the main problem remains—they can’t negotiate enforceable collective contracts with the employers because legally they are considered independent owner-operators, not employees.
Truckers have been trying to improve their lot since trucking industry deregulation 20 years ago forced them to compete for the lowest pay. A weeklong strike in Miami by independent and ILA drivers got a small pay improvement in December 1990. Independent truckers got very little when they shut down large portions of container traffic in Houston, Galveston and New Orleans in April 1992.
Truckers shut down the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by as much as 90 percent in November 1993 during an organizing drive with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). They formed a union company which ended up going broke, leaving pro-union truckers in the lurch. That failed attempt haunted further drives for years. Teamsters organized protests against high fuel prices and poor working conditions at the eight largest U.S. ports in February 2000, but the truckers still had no leverage.
“They deserve to be treated like human beings, not slaves,” Dufresne said. “They have stood up for themselves, and they deserve to join a union.” —Tom Price
