Truck drivers and warehouse workers from companies serving America’s Long Beach and Los Angeles ports have gone on strike to protest against work contracts which they say deny them the same rights as employed workers.

The strikes involve several companies that handle transport business at the ports, but the protest has apparently also been expanded to all of the marine terminals and the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility-Port of Los Angeles.

But reports coming from the ports say that the strikes have had “minimal’ effects on operations.

Phillip Sanfield from the Port of Los Angeles told Port Strategy that operations have been minimally effected by the trucker strikes and all longshore workers and affiliated unions are working as usual.

“All cargo terminals are open and cargo is flowing. There are hundreds of trucking companies that do business at the port complex and thousands of truckers are moving through the complex. The action this week is targeted at a relatively small number of trucking companies,” he said.

He added that the Los Angeles Port Police force has increased its presence at terminals so the port can make sure that pickets remain safe in heavy traffic zones and can express their First Amendment rights.

“We are also making sure that cargo continues to flow in and out of the gates at the terminal. We’ll continue to do that as long as truckers continue to assemble at the gates or on port property,” he added.

The truckers said in a statement that they are protesting against “exploitation by greedy corporations using predatory subcontracting schemes, including misclassifying employees as independent workers in order to lower wages, deny them benefits such as health insurance, unemployment and workers’ compensation.”

This strike is the 15th at the ports in the last four years, with action being seemingly driven in part by companies subcontracting out work.

But troubles also seem to have been aggravated by the goal to achieve zero truck emissions at the ports by 2035 under the Clean Air Action Plan.

A spokesperson from Teamsters Local 848 told NBC that elements of the plan, for example the Clean Truck Program launched in 2008, have seen the corporations passing on the costs to the workers by requiring them to lease a truck in order to get hired and work as independent contractors.

In reply, Mr Sanfield said that the Port of Los Angeles truck programme included an employee mandate programme for drivers, but that portion of the Clean Truck Program was challenged by the trucking industry.

He said that after a long and costly legal battle, the courts ruled that the port could not enforce the employee mandate portion of the programme.

Source: Port Strategy