The strike and picket action by truck drivers who work at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach cranked up another notch on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
There were more people on the picket lines than on Monday and non-trucker workers were among them in a show of solidarity and shared interests.
Drivers with New Jersey-based Intermodal Bridge Transport (IBT) added their numbers to those of truckers who deal with two other firms – Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistics.
Warehouse Workers from the Los Angeles port warehouse California Cartage joined the action too. They are demanding what they call “a living wage”.
The truckers’ grievance relates to the firms’ insistence on classifying the drivers as “independent contractors” rather than “employees”. That distinction means the drivers are denied a swathe of benefits available to employees.
In what has been an ongoing dispute, the truckers say the companies are engaging in wage theft through this classification. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been representing the drivers in the dispute.
