Seattle Port Strike Challenges ‘Independent Contractor’ Lie

http://inthesetimes.com/article/12775/seattle_port_strike_challenges_independent_contractor_lie/

SEATTLE–Employers say they’re “independent contractors.” Drivers call that a legal trick to deny them their rights–a nice-sounding label obscuring an ugly reality.

For two weeks in February, this argument raged at terminal gates in the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. Hundreds of truckers, who normally ferry huge shipping containers from dockside to waiting trains and warehouses, refused to get behind the wheel and drive. Instead, they caravanned to the terminal gates and appealed to their coworkers to climb out of their cabs and join their strike.

Port managers claimed that it was business as usual on the docks. Standing in front of the BNSF rail yard, though, the strikers could see stacks of containers that weren’t going anywhere. When they wouldn’t drive, the “cans,” as they’re called, stacked up on ships, in rail yards, and at warehouses. The port’s lifeblood slowed to a crawl. Cargo has to move for shippers and trucking companies to make money. A still container, a waiting ship and an idle truck all mean lost profits. It was clear the strike was costing employers a lot of money.

Finally, after the standoff had gone on for two weeks, on February 14 the two sides basically declared a truce, and drivers went back to work. In their eyes, however, it was only a step, not yet an agreement that resolved their problems. They had made their point, however, by showing the trucking companies they work for–and the huge shipping corporations behind them–that drivers have power over the movement of cargo. And they could and would use it to bring about the changes they demanded.