Across the country ports are implementing clean truck programs that are forcing low-income truck drivers, earning an average of $28,783 a year, to take on more debt just to keep their jobs. Large trucking and shipping companies, along with giant retailers like Target and WalMart, are engaging in a cruel experiment: misclassify port truck drivers in order to skirt responsibility for cleaning the air – and it’s making national headlines.

Unfortunately, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey is ignoring this industry scheme that violates federal laws. That’s bad news for truck drivers, taxpayers, and everyone who wants clean air and good jobs from coast to coast.

Tell the Port Authority to stand up for the workers and the community, not side with the industry that brought us dirty air and dead-end jobs!

USA Today reports: 

A report last week by the National Employment Law Project concluded port trucking firms misclassify most of their workers. Will Cantrell, 38, a truck driver at the Port of Oakland in California, says he’s bound by contract to work exclusively for one company but gets no health and other benefits, and he must lease his own truck and pay fuel and other expenses. ‘I come in when they say, I do loads when they make the schedule,’  he says.

The new study, The Big Rig: Poverty, Pollution, and the Misclassification of Truck Drivers at America’s Ports, found that the typical U.S. port truck driver  is a regular employee being disguised as an “independent contractor” by corporations seeking to cheat on taxes, deny workers fair compensation and labor rights, and  shirk financial responsibility for the new low-emissions and alternative fuel vehicles our communities need.

From the Wall Street Journal:

“The drivers are required to lease or buy their own trucks and pay maintenance and operational costs that drain their gross pay, the study says. As a result, drivers treated as independent contractors net 18% less than employees and are more than two times less likely to have health insurance and retirement benefits…”

Tell the Port Authority to stand up for the workers and the community, not side with the industry that brought us dirty air and dead-end jobs!

On January 1, the Port Authority will phase in new regulations that put the cost of greening the fleet of 7,000+ port trucks onto the backs of misclassified port truck drivers, pushing their families deeper into poverty and debt. We can’t let the industry get a free ride!