Local 848 Members Fight Back Against Illegal Misclassification
(PORTS OF LOS ANGELES/LONG BEACH, Calif.) – In direct and flagrant violation of California's Assembly Bill 5, which unequivocally makes it illegal to misclassify California’s truck drivers as ‘independent contractors,’ multi-billion dollar logistics company Universal Logistics Holdings has fired up to 70 employee port and intermodal drivers in at least three subsidiaries – Universal Intermodal Services, Universal Truckload Services, and Roadrunner Intermodal Services. Drivers report that the company told them that if they buy their own trucks then they can come back to work as independent contractors. Universal’s morally reprehensible action happens just weeks after 28 employee drivers at Universal Intermodal voted overwhelmingly to be represented by Long Beach-based Teamsters Local 848, all of whom have now been fired. It appears they are being replaced by misclassified independent contractors, in flagrant violation of federal labor laws.
