This Is the Teamster Effort To Organize the Truckers at the Ports

Joe Weisenthal (0:10)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:16)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:18)

So Tracy, obviously we've done plenty on logistics and supply chains and the ports this year, but there's a pretty important perspective on all this that we still haven't hit directly.

Tracy Alloway (0:31)

I feel like we have done quite a few angles on ports and logistics and supply chain issues, but you're right, there is actually a big one that we haven't done in detail, although we've touched on it at various times. And that is what exactly is going on with the labor market, the truckers, be they over the road truckers or drayage truckers.

What exactly is going on there?

Joe Weisenthal (0:58)

Right, so we know, for example, that there's stress on all aspects of the human, the human aspect of the supply chain has been put under stress.

I know we did an episode last year with Craig Fuller of Freight Waves, talking about the sort of the two different trucker market. And there's the sort of over the road, long haul truckers that people most often probably associate in their minds with truckers. And a lot of them, at least some of them do pretty well. However, the pay and conditions for the port truckers, essentially the workers who line up at the ports to take the goods from a port to a more inland warehouse, not as well paid and very different conditions. And there's been stories about long wait times this year, long wait times where they're not technically getting paid for it. And so the sort of actual working conditions, wages for the various people at the ports is something we need to dive into further.

Tracy Alloway (1:54)

Yeah, and I feel like there's a lot going on specifically at the ports, obviously. And we've been speaking about that quite a lot. This idea of people showing up, they're supposed to be earning money, but then they have to wait for 10 hours or whatever until they actually get something to load and take somewhere else. And in the meantime, they're not actually earning anything.

But that said, there is this sort of broader trend that this fits into, which is the idea of, I guess, a shift in power or a swing back in the balance of power from capital to labor. And is it workers who have a lot of the bargaining advantage at the moment versus companies? And everyone, I guess everyone just seems to have been sort of stressed out by COVID, by the pandemic over the past two years. A lot of people in certain industries seem to be working very hard and under stressful conditions. And does that start to impact working conditions?

Joe Weisenthal (2:52)

Exactly right. So we are going to get the sort of the labor slash organized labor perspective. You know, we're gonna talk about the port truckers and other people who work within the ports complex.

But the port truckers in particular, there've been for years stories about wage theft, poor conditions. There's an amazing USA Today investigative piece in 2017 about the labor status of the port truckers. So, but without further ado, let's jump right into it. We're gonna be speaking with Ron Herrera.

He is the Teamsters National Port Director, and he is part of an effort to organize the port truckers. So Ron, thank you so much for coming on Odd Lots.

Ron Herrera (3:32)

Thank you, Joe. I appreciate it. Thank you, Tracy. And thank you for helping expose a entity in labor that definitely needs exposing.

Joe Weisenthal (3:44)

So before we even get into some of the specifics you're working on, why don't you talk to us a little bit about what your division of the Teamsters does generally and who within the port complex is and isn't organized or isn't a part of unionized labor. Like give us a feel for what you do and just the overall conditions there.

Ron Herrera (4:07)

Actually, it's pretty simple. So I oversee the ports in the country and the main focus is Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbour is because of the state of California and trying to affect change in one state to spread to others. But we're a national division with staff that puts out fires throughout the country.

We also monitor cross border trucking and imports of product through the utilization of old tractor trailer drivers, the entry from Ota Mesa, into the United States, from Mexico. It's very critical in this. So one of the things that we do is we oversee cross border trucking.

As far as the drivers go, you in the ports of Long Beach, I'll just talk specifically about Los Angeles and Long Beach. You have two basic categories of drivers. You have one that gets all the benefits of an employee, and then you have others that are misclassified and owner operators and receive no benefits for the work that they do from the trucking companies that they haul for. That's the basis of what we do. It's complicated in the sense that there are so many laws that are attached to this. And so we're constantly trying to create policies that help these drivers.