Teamsters Win Organizing Drive at the Port of L.A.

May 22, 2012: The Teamsters Union scored a small but important organizing victory in April when drivers for the Toll Group at the Port of Los Angeles voted 46-15 to unionize. One driver predicted it would be the "beginning of a big war."

The Toll Group is an $8 billion a year logistics company based in Australia. The Transport Workers Union of Australia, which represents the Toll workers there, supported the Teamster drive.

There are some 11,000 port drivers in Los Angeles and Long Beach, and some 100,000 in the country. The vast majority are considered "independent contractors," which strips them of the right to organize and forces them to work long hours for low wages.

The way for this victory to be the "beginning of a big war" is to spread the movement to the majority of port drivers, to win changes in the unjust port system.

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