PORTS OF LOS ANGELES/LONG BEACH, CA – Starting on Monday, Oct. 1, port drivers and warehouse workers at the gateway of the U.S. supply chain will carry out 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. This is port workers’ 16^th strike in five years – a clear indication that, despite the unwillingness of America’s largest port complex to ban law-breaking trucking and warehouse companies from doing business on public property – port drivers and warehouse workers will not recede into the shadows and accept the rampant abuse and illegal working conditions they have endured and contested for decades.

 

WHO:    

 

WHAT:  

Picketing at company facilities, marine terminals, rail yards, customer warehouses and distribution centers; leafleting at customers’ retail outlets (details TBA)

 

WHEN:  

Starting Monday, Oct. 1 at 7:00 am (more specifics TBA)

 

Actions planned for the greater Los Angeles area, San Diego, Inland Empire, and High Desert (call or email for specific locations)

 

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. It is estimated that there have been legal misclassification claims pursued on behalf of at least half of the misclassified drivers at America’s largest port complex, either by drivers filing individual wage claims or being part of class action lawsuits. Upon investigating the facts, multiple agencies and courts at both the state and federal levels have determined that drivers are, in fact, employees and therefore protected by employment and labor laws. Read more

 

XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO) is a global logistics company with revenue in excess of $15 billion. XPO Port Services, which specializes in moving goods to and from the ports, and XPO Cartage, which moves goods to nearby intermodal rail yards, are together among the top trucking companies servicing the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. There are approximately 280 alleged misclassified drivers working for both companies in their LA-area locations and about 160 additional drivers in XPO Cartage’s San Diego facility. XPO and its subsidiaries are facing multiple legal and enforcement agency actions for alleged wage theft due to misclassification of their drivers as independent contractors. Read more

 

NFI Industries is one of the largest goods movement companies in America, with warehouses and port trucking operations across the U.S. In 2017, NFI purchased the California Cartage family of companies, which were – and continue to be – the largest drayage and warehousing operating at the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach.

The NFI/Cal Cartage family of companies includes five major trucking operations at the Ports of LA and Long Beach. The four largest – K&R Transportation California LLC; Cal Cartage Transportation LLC, Container Freight Transportation LLC, and CMI Transportation LLC – have been facing multiple claims in the courts and government agencies for misclassifying their drivers. Combined, more than 600 alleged misclassified drivers work for these companies. Cal Cartage Container Freight Station in Wilmington is a warehouse and freight center on Port of LA property and employs approximately 500 workers, with 40-50 percent of the workforce being employed through a temp agency. The company has been cited for serious health and safety violations twice in the past three years, and workers face serious retaliation resulting in unfair labor practices charges and five strikes. Read more