Submitted on Sat, 08/19/2006 - 1:24am
By Ernesto Nevarez, Port of Aztlan, [email protected] - Turning the Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist Action, Research & Education, Volume 19 Number 4, July-August 2006
The City of Los Angeles has issued 9 Franchise Contracts to taxi companies which allow them to work LAX. These companies have permission to use about 3,000 drivers. Most are poor immigrants from a variety of countries, such as Iran, Russia, Congo, Pakistan, etc. The companies have banded together and have invented a non-standard workplace with characteristics that have been institutionalized and accepted as the "standard" and which the workers have fatalistically believed was their reality. That was until the Nick Search Decision!
Submitted on Sun, 06/04/2006 - 3:35pm
Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.
By Chris Kutalik - June 2006
During the countdown to Los Angeles truckers struck in solidarity with immigrants and over their own working conditions. Photo: Axel Koester the May Day immigrant walkouts, transportation industry commentators worried about the impact that immigrant strikes would have on the nation?s ports. Many feared repeats of the 2004 and 2005 strikes by mostly immigrant Latino port truckers (or troqueros), which crippled freight traffic up and down the West Coast.
Submitted on Fri, 04/28/2006 - 8:19pm
The Los Angeles Troqueros Collective is trying to organise a nationwide truck strike for Monday May 1, 2006. (4/27/2006)
The strike would likely impact drayage activities around the Los Angeles and Long Beach marine terminal complexes and the rail ramps in the area, which have been specifically targeted.
The strike will not affect marine terminal activities, and DHL Global Forwarding (DGF) expects the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) labour to continue to work the vessels in port. It also will not affect on-dock rail operations, which are also manned by the ILWU.
While not all drivers will honour this call for labour protest, it is difficult to predict what percentage will show up for work Monday. It is expected that pickets will form at many of the marine terminals.
Submitted on Thu, 04/13/2006 - 3:10pm
Disclaimer - This campiagn is unofficial; it is posted here in solidarity with the organizers.
May 1, 2006 - All U.S. Ports and Rails; The Community, Truck Drivers, and Students United!
“A Day Without Immigrants”
The March 25 Coalition has made a call for a GENERAL STRIKE for the entire nation to protest against HR 4437 and to show the power if the immigrant community. Los Angeles truck drivers will shut down and are asking for the solidarity of ALL truck drivers across the country. Amnesty for all immigrants!
The right to form labor unions!
An immediate SALARY increase of 25%
The Community and Students have spoken. Now it is our turn. WE have to show what we are worth and demand fair incomes. WE have to begin an era of strikes until the Ports and Rails enter into collective bargaining agreements with us. Until then, we must continue to form collectives at every company and support each other at the terminal, port and national levels. We ask all truck drivers to meet at the ports, rails, truck stops, and usual gathering locations.
Submitted on Fri, 12/16/2005 - 1:58am
By IWW - Industrial Worker, December 2005
On Nov. 1, Local 810 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters lost an NLRB election for the roughly 300-worker transportation department of New York City internet grocer FreshDirect, LLC. The local had lost an election in 2004 for the same unit. Despite having won the support of over 100 workers who could have been organized into a powerful union presence, Local 810 abandoned the field after that election.
FreshDirect, of course, soon broke the promises it had made during the campaign. Transportation workers grew increasingly dissatisfied, and, in June of this year some of them contacted the IWW's New York City General Membership Branch. New York Wobblies mapped out an ambitious industrial campaign to line up the entire FreshDirect workforce - about 1,200 workers - along with workers in other nearby wholesale and retail foodstuffs establishments. With help from other members of New York's rank-and-file May Day Coalition, the Branch began gathering contacts and agitating for the union.