50 Port Truck Drivers Walk Picket Lines At Otay Mesa Toyota
Source: KPBS
About 50 local port truck drivers walked picket lines at an Otay Mesa Toyota facility today as they and their counterparts in Los Angeles and Long Beach continue their strike against the companies for which they work.
As the strike went into a fourth day, workers and their supporters rallied at the Japanese automotive manufacturer's operation on Siempre Viva Road, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Drivers working at the ports in San Diego, Los Angeles and Long Beach are striking in an effort to end alleged "wage theft" stemming from being misclassified as "independent contractors" rather than employees entitled to normal employee rights and protections. They claim the misclassification allows companies to pay them less than minimum wage, a spokeswoman for the drivers said in a statement.
The failure to pay drivers as employees has created an annual $850 million in liability for the industry stemming from wage and hour violations, according to the truckers. A single driver can end up being shortchanged up to $60,000 a year, their statement said.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/apr/30/port-truck-driver-strike-enters-fourth-day/
