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''One day doesn’t kill you…we will recover fully,'' says one terminal operator

LOS ANGELES - 05/02/06 - The volume of container cargo moving in to and out of terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach was cut by as much as 80% yesterday as the independent truckers that serve the ports' cargo terminals followed through on their promised work stoppage in support of full US citizenship rights for illegal immigrants.

The one-day work stoppage, in effect, defused the threats made late last week by some truckers who threatened a "recognition strike" that would close down the two ports "for at least a week."

The action by the so-called "troqueros" - the largely Hispanic independent truckers who dray cargo moving through both ports - resulted in several of the ports' busiest terminals reporting significant reductions in truck activity.

One terminal, the APL Global Gateway South facility at the Port of Los Angeles, reported about 40 trucks an hour were moving through the terminal's gates yesterday morning, compared with 175 during the same period last week.

The nearby Trans Pacific Container Service Corp. (TRAPAC) terminal moved 600 containers compared to the an average of about 3000 during the entire day, according to Frank Pisano, vice president of terminal operations, who downplayed the impact of the work stoppage.

"One day doesn't kill you," said Pisano. "We were down to about 20 percent of our normal volume yesterday, but we will fully recover today."

Several other terminal operators were equally upbeat saying that the impact of the action would be minimal because any backlogs of container cargo would be cleared over the next several days with some companies that anticipated the stoppage moving their cargo through the ports over the weekend.

The work stoppage didn't impact the actual loading and unloading of ships by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) with a number of containers moving out of some of the ports' terminals that have on-dock rail capability. 

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are ranked as the first and second-busiest ports in the country. Together they handled more than 14 million containers last year, or more than 40% of the country's total imports and some 80% of its imports from Asia.

At the Port of Oakland, several hundred members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and six other unions rallied late last week on behalf of the independent truck drivers serving the port, describing them as among the nation's "most exploited workers."
 
The demonstration by the, along with similar events at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, was part of a larger effort called "Make Work Pay" aimed at organizing the independents into a union that would affiliate with the Teamsters.

The truckers are independent contractors, not employees of trucking companies.

Federal antitrust laws prevent contractors from engaging in collective bargaining that could lead to union representation.

They are paid by the number of loads they haul, and normally don't get health and welfare coverage, pensions, workers' compensation, holidays, sick leave, vacations, unemployment insurance, employer-paid Social Security contributions, or other benefits.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a pro-labor Democrat seeking the party's nomination for California state treasurer, spoke at the rally, saying in an interview afterward that he believes that if the ports and business interests would agree to it, "collective bargaining could be possible notwithstanding federal law."

The system, he said, "must be changed. These drivers are treated like indentured servants.''

The Teamsters are part of "Change to Win," a coalition of seven unions that broke away from the AFL-CIO last summer, saying the federation had not been aggressive enough in organizing new members.

The Port of Oakland had 2.2 million containers move through its terminals last year making the port the fifth busiest in the US and the major port serving Northern California.

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