Swift Transportation fires more truck drivers for union activites

Another corp that acts all high, mighty and and green but still sticks it to the little guy any chance they can get. In this economy and such bad unemployment here in Long Beach I think they have all too many chances.

Once again the Daily Breeze out does itself with liberal causes. It took a lot of investigation to find a truck driver with an American name like English. Since nobody down there speaks english....

Those were all good high paying jobs until the illegal alien truck drivers swarmed in and cut the wages of the "American truck drivers".$7.25 an hour? They deserve every penny. Those Americans who were run out because of low cost illegal aliens (who have since been amnestied)were the real people to get screwed.

Swift should be able to hire and fire whomever they want. Oh, and be sure to keep pulling the Democrat party lever for more of this to come! VBG

Just take a look at the employment section in this paper. If you are working keep your mouth shut. Timing is everything. And yes this so called owner/operator is a crock it's another way to pay an illegal under the table.

According to Gene "Taken together, the latest developments further dim the chances that the Port of Los Angeles program will achieve one of its stated goals: increasing wages and living standards for port truck drivers."

So Gene, did you think of that sentence by yourself, or did it come in the email you got from the union.

The only employees who are getting raises etc in this economy have government union jobs where they think they can tax their way to wealth.

Once again, the teamsters screw up a good thing. Instead of guys getting a guaranteed wage, which appears more than fair, they had to try to go for more by dragging in the teamsters. Asking for more benefits was obviously going to have an effect on wages. Gee, ya think Swift is gonna pay a high guaranteed wage AND benefits AND let the teamsters in to suck up even more money under threat of strike? Get over it and be glad you have a job. In this stinker of an economy, the last thing a business needs is over zealous union interference.

I wonder if the LA Mayor is kicking himself after having ARB give Swift all that money to purchase hundreds of "green" trucks and finding out they aren't going to allow unionization.

That's what you get Tony when you give all that dinero to an out-of-state trucking corporation. Should have stuck with the locals, huh?

By the way, how many of those trucks are parked?

Thank you Daily Breeze for exposing the truth. Poor Swift and the ruling class, instead of 3 private jets, they will only have 1. BooHoo. Thank you LA Mayor for standing for South Bay residents and our hard working port truckers.

Because of the radical right and the corporate agenda, we now have more poverty and pollution-Got De-regulation, we saw that worked for housing. CHEERS!

Gene, good work. Industry wants to move their goods through our communities in Long Beach, Wilmington and San Pedro. The rich elites in P.V. will hate on you for disturbing their wealth.

Our communities, our drivers, and our lives are at risk with dirty DIEsel trucks. Drivers shouldn't be fired for the American Right to have the American Dream. Hey Neo-CONS, have you heard of the Transportation Identification Worker Card? No more illegals to worry about.

Hey, who cut your grass last Saturday? Think about it. ;)

Did someone actually ask these workers not to complain because the economy is bad? what! no i think its especially important now for all of us who are workers, and i think most of us have a job, to fight for what is right. i mean you get paid to do your job not to let corporate america trample over your rights as a worker and person!!
Plus it is our work - as AMERICAN WORKERS - that makes these companies successful in the first place, the least they can do is pay workers for all the hours worked! i'm tired of hearing people cry for the 'poor' CEO.

Unions are nothing more that organized criminals. They collect money that get the union leadership and politicians rich

The anti-labor policy of Swift is egregious. I have witnessed, first hand, the dire situation anti-worker situatio at Swift and other trucking companies at the port. We cannot have a green port so long as trucking companies and the major shippers like Wal-Mart and Target, refuse to participate in a democratic and fair labor policy. So long as this part of the Clean Trucks Program remains broken, the entire LB community will be negatively impacted. It is time for the community of Long Beach to make it known that we want healthy, clean air, AND a just employment system for drivers at the port.

Jake Alimahomed-Wilson
Assistant Professor of Sociology
CSU-Long Beach

Please excuse my typos, I sent my above post too soon.

San Pedro is a union town.... that workers in the United States of America are still being fired for organizing is criminal....Most drivers are not considered employees of the trucking companies they drive for, but "Independent Contractors", which allows the companies to pay low wages and provide no health care benefits....would it surprise you to know that drivers considered independent contractors are prohibited, by law, from organizing, and bargaining collectively with their employers....The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is designed to fix that....I urge all of you to support a worker's right to organize and be paid a fair wage, a say in working conditions, health care benefits, and the right to representation in disputes....please contact your legislators and tell them to support EFCA and American's right to organize.......

San Pedro is a union town.... that workers in the United States of America are still being fired for organizing is criminal....Most drivers are not considered employees of the trucking companies they drive for, but "Independent Contractors", which allows the companies to pay low wages and provide no health care benefits....would it surprise you to know that drivers that are considered independent contractors are prohibited, by law, from organizing, and bargaining collectively with their employers....The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is designed to fix that....I urge all of you to support a worker's right to organize and be paid a fair wage, a say in working conditions, health care benefits, and the right to representation in disputes....please contact your legislators and tell them to support EFCA and American's right to organize.......

Just to be clear ALL port truck drivers are legal residents or citizens of the United States. All MUST have a Class A driver’s license and a TWIC card (federal ID) to work as a port truck drivers! google it and see for yourself!
Can we please stop the ignorant, racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
The real issue is the fact that AMERICAN WORKERS are being shortchanged and exploited by AMERICAN companies. AND that companies are not taking responsibility for the pollution their businesses cause and hurt AMERICAN communities. Where is the patriotism?

Ok let’s just think about this for a second...... If you work 60hrs a week would you be ok receiving payment for only 40hrs??? Second if you demand to be paid for the hours you worked is it ok to be fired for doing so??? Gene Maddaus grate job on this article. I'm glad to see not everybody is scared to shine a little bit of light on the truth. A worker deserves to get paid for the services rendered bottom line. If it where you the one not getting paid for time worked I'm sure you would not have the same opinion. I guess its ok as long as its not happening to you right? All the people who don't agree that people should be paid for their services should come work for me, I want employees who do not like to get paid for their services?

This is absolutely crazy. Just one more reason why we need the Clean Trucks program. We need clean air and respect and dignity for the workers.

To: "Jose Wilmington"

The reason the wages of the trucking industry have dropped and the working conditions have suffered is NOT because of "immigrants". On the contrary, it is because the trucking industry was deregulated. Deregulation effectively shut the unions out of the industry, and turned harbor trucking into virtual sweatshops on wheels. This also has had dire consequences on the air that we both breathe. I would genuinely like to invite you, or anyone else on this comment board, to come down with me to the port some time. I would love to show you around so you can see some of these issues up close and in person. The port complex is a very interesting place.

Thanks, Jake

Jake Alimahomed-Wilson
Department of Sociology - CSULB
jbwilson@csulb.edu

Jake Alimahomed-Wilson wrote:

The anti-labor policy of Swift is egregious. I have witnessed, first hand, the dire situation anti-worker situatio at Swift and other trucking companies at the port. We cannot have a green port so long as trucking companies and the major shippers like Wal-Mart and Target, refuse to participate in a democratic and fair labor policy. So long as this part of the Clean Trucks Program remains broken, the entire LB community will be negatively impacted. It is time for the community of Long Beach to make it known that we want healthy, clean air, AND a just employment system for drivers at the port.
Jake Alimahomed-Wilson
Assistant Professor of Sociology
CSU-Long Beach

So what's democratic about the big Green Labor Coalition promoting their silly ban on hard working owner-operator truckers? I'm an O/O trucker and I don't want any part of this Teamster backed program to take away my right to own equipment. The majority of port truckers feelings are hidden behind the true agenda of this fake clean truck campaign created by the Green Labor Coalition. This Ricardo Hidalgo (teamster organizer) mentioned in the article is a lap dog for the Change-to-Win labor bosses who control the Green Coalition group. Hidalgo never spent any time in a truck, knows nothing about what it is to make a living trucking, or any history of this business. He makes a nice union salary for causing trouble then walking off while innocent truckers pay the price for his stupid decisions. He is a professional liar using the drivers for his own promotional goals within the union. We are sick of the claims by the Teamsters that we as truckers are backing them in their campaign to do what they are doing to us. This is not true. Maybe the media can take an accurate pole on how many truckers actually want to join this labor group who desperately wants to put us each out of business. They lie when they say it takes company owned trucks with employee drivers to clean the air at the harbor. It's also another lie that owner-operator truckers cannot join a union without giving up their ownership status because we can. There are owner-operator members in several unions now including the Teamsters operating while under a union contract while working for the carriers they lease to. Employee recognition from the employer is the key so what really gives here with this employee-mandate to ban the owner-operator trucker? It appears the Teamsters/CTW labor group want complete control over truck driver labor without any ownership status blocking their grip. Ricardo Hidalgo along with his corrupt handlers doesn't want any drivers asking these type questions so he labels the rest of us as trouble makers.