Port of Seattle Truckers Stage Work Stoppage
by Tamra Fitzpatrick and Polly Lane
The Seattle Times, August 18, 1999

Independent truckers seeking union recognition began picketing at the Port of Seattle today, shutting down operations at several shipping terminals in their bid for higher wages. At least 70 truckers this morning were asking others to join their protest at various port terminals. It was unclear how many owner-operators would go along with a work stoppage, but even if 100 of the 1,000 truckers do, it could shut down shipping operations at the Port of Seattle, said Bob Hasegawa of Teamsters Local 174, which has been trying to organize the owner-operators.

Depending on how long the job action lasts, the level of disruption would depend on several variables, Port spokesman Imbert Matthee said. Shipping operations in Seattle would be completely shut down only if pickets went up at all five container terminals, and independent truckers and members of the longshore union participated.

At least three terminals were shut down this morning after longshore workers, supporting the owner-operators, stopped working. The longshore workers were expected to go back to work today, but they planned to continue a sympathy work slowdown initiated this morning at all terminals.

Not everyone is going along with the picketing. Frank Douglas, an owner-operator in line at Terminal 18 this morning, said he won't join the picket or the union. "They better stay out of my way," he said. "My job is to get this load to the pier, and that's what I'm going to do."

Seattle Stevedoring Services, which provides dockside services for several shipping companies, said this morning the pickets were not blocking its gates, and work was progressing as usual. The owner-operators plan to demonstrate at the Port of Tacoma tomorrow. There was no action there this morning, said Rod Koon, Port spokesman.

The independent, nonunion drivers get paid by how many containers they move, rather than by the hour. Drivers at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma wait in long lines for the cargo, making it difficult to move much in a day.

Unionized workers on Seattle's waterfront can earn as much as $100,000 a year. But some independent drivers, after paying expenses, earn as little as $7 an hour. Truckers at the Port of Vancouver, B.C., have been on strike since July 22 over similar issues.

Yesterday, 15 of the approximately two dozen British Columbia trucking companies involved in the dispute agreed to pay drivers an hourly wage, but the rate had not been determined. The owner-operators will now vote whether to send the plan to binding arbitration.

"They won in Vancouver," said Rob Hickey, director of organizing at Teamsters Local 174. "Vancouver is going to be a union port." And, he added, "We're going to make Tacoma and Seattle union ports."

Hickey said the 1,000 independent truckers at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are employed by some 35 trucking companies that contract to ship from the ports. He said a soon-to-be-released study of the industry found that the drivers earn approximately $8.50 an hour.

"Owner-operators are considered independent contractors," he said. "It's this whole thing of creating the new American work force of contingent and throwaway workers, where they aren't covered by many laws, including the National Labor Relations Act (because they're not employees)."

If they were covered under the act, he said, the truckers could simply schedule a union election as a group. As it is, they must persuade each of their companies to allow them to unionize. A majority of the owner-operators at Seattle and Tacoma ports have signed with the union.