Headline News

RLN: Exploited Port Workers In America

townhallweb.jpg

Port truck drivers and warehouse workers from XPO Logistics, K&R Transportation and Cal Cartage recently held a town hall in Carson, California, to talk about the daily exploitation they face from their employers due to misclassification.

Fred Potter, Teamsters Port Division Director said, “The Teamsters’ obligation is to represent its members, but we also work to help the oppressed and to organize unorganized workers,” Potter said. “Without collective bargaining, workers are at the mercy of corporate greed, abuse, and wage theft…. Our mission is to get these workers with tools to fight for justice.”

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders spoke about  how, “These are some of the most exploited workers in America. The story of what these truck drivers are going through has got to be told from one end of this country to the other. You know, we ended slavery 150 years ago; it’s time we ended it at the ports right now.”

One of the port truck drivers who spoke was Gustavo Villa from Cal Cartage Express. “Misclassification denies workers compensation, and unemployment benefits, it denies us Social Security, Medicare and the right to earn the minimum wage … and denies us the right to form a union,”

The read the entire article from RLN, click here.