Miami port truckers are ‘scapegoats,’ says city report

A blue ribbon commission’s report sympathizes with the grievances of owner-operators working Miami’s port, and its recommendations include reclassifying these truckers as employees.

Tomás Regalado, the Miami City Commission chairman heading the panel, said at a Feb. 21 press conference that the report was being released “because we want to apply maximum pressure on the county, the port and the terminal operators to correct the problems we have found before this coming summer.” He called the truckers “scapegoats of a broken system.”

Early today, hundreds of Teamsters were scheduled to rally near the port entrance in support of the truckers.

The commission noted truckers’ low compensation and recommended that all parties in the shipping industry consider reclassifying owner-operators as employees instead of contractors, which would allow collective bargaining for higher pay and better benefits.

As alternatives, the commission said the Port Authority could demand that carriers using the port operate with owner-operator “employees,” or the port could provide a hiring hall to “level the playing field.”

Because owner-operators are leased as “independent contractors,” they do not fall under the authority of the National Labor Relations Act, which protects employees’ right to organize and bargain collectively.

Seven hundred owner-operators working the port shut down their trucks June 28 after obtaining a permit to demonstrate for two weeks. Port representatives enjoined the truckers from protesting, but once the shutdown ended, the Port of Miami and the operators of the two largest marine terminals sought punitive damages and a permanent injunction that would prevent future trucker protests.

Those lawsuits against the truckers should be dropped, the commission stated.

About 500 of the drivers were represented by the non-profit Support Trucking Group, and many are Cuban immigrants.

At a Sept. 27 hearing, the commission heard the truckers’ concerns over skyrocketing diesel prices, unsafe chassis and extensive wait times without compensation. They stated they are forced to haul overloaded containers.

“The companies they drive for share most of their grievances against the port and terminal operators, and the motor carriers, the companies these drivers work for, issued a written warning six months before July’s protest predicting a port shutdown if the drivers got no relief,” Regalado said at the press conference. The truckers showed documentation of years of repeated attempts to resolve the problems.

The commission said the truckers’ concerns are the city’s, too, because their safety affects everyone.

The commission cited pollution caused by drivers who spend more than half a day in line idling. In its national survey of port air quality, the National Resource Defense Council gave Miami an F, the commission noted.

The commission illustrated the problem of unsafe chassis by pointing to two high-profile accidents. Shauna Pender, Miss Florida 2003, was driving on a Miami highway that November when an overweight container truck of avocadoes overturned onto her Lincoln Town Car, critically injuring her.

“Though there are plenty of scales on our port terminals, the terminals refuse to weigh the containers before assigning them to the drivers,” Regalado said.

Also, Grammy winner Gloria Estefan was severely injured after a trucker crashed into her tour bus in 1990. The Pennsylvania State Police found three of the four brakes on the truck’s trailer were inoperable, although the terminal certified it in working condition earlier that day.

In response to truckers’ grievances voiced at the hearing, the commission recommended the hiring of more port personnel and said that both Port of Miami Terminal Operating Co. and Universal Maritime Service Corp. should ensure that no unsafe chassis or overweight containers leave the port. The port should weigh arriving containers before assigning them drivers, the commission said.

While the commission has no legal ability to enforce its recommendations, it will monitor the situation “to ensure that they don’t continue to make these immigrant drivers scapegoats of a broken system,” Regalado said.

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