Driven to Poverty: The Seattle Port Truckers

By Rev. Monica Corsaro and Erica Garrecht-Williams

Imagine for a second being an independent contractor. You’re free to work for whom you choose, you negotiate your rates, you work as much or as little as you want. Sounds pretty good, right?

Wrong. In the port trucking industry, you are called an independent contractor, but your working reality is far from independent. You wake up before dawn, work overtime and make less than minimum wage. You can only haul for one company and they can pay you whatever they want. You have no health insurance and you pay for all your expenses out of pocket. On top of that, you spend countless hours waiting in traffic inhaling toxic diesel fumes.

Since the Port trucking system was deregulated and in the 1980’s, it has become one of the most exploitative industries in the nation. Port truck drivers, who move goods from the Port to freight trains bound for retail stores, used to enjoy a middle class living, but the age of globalization, cheap labor and corporate conglomerates has drastically lowered standards for these drivers, most of whom are immigrants. Retailers like Wal-Mart are fueling a race to the bottom among trucking companies by seeking rates below the actual cost of moving goods. Trucking companies compete by undercutting each other. Drivers compete to get loads. And what our society gets is a system based on cheap labor and the knowledge that there is always “someone” who will do it for cheaper. Billion-dollar corporations benefit. Who loses? The drivers who actually move the goods.

While Wal-Mart might pay the trucking company around $350 dollars per delivery, the drivers only see about $40 of that money, a rate that hasn’t changed in fifteen years. Drivers also have to pay all the expenses of maintaining their trucks: gas, insurance, tonnage fees and all repairs. Since they are technically classified as “independent contractors,” they are not paid an hourly wage, have no benefits, and can’t legally organize a union. Their pay amounts to about $400 a week after expenses. Many drivers are barely scraping by. One driver interviewed said, “Sometimes I have to choose whether to put gas in my truck or food on the table.”
After years of pressure from community and environmental groups, the Port of Seattle passed a plan to ban the oldest trucks from the Port. However, this plan doesn’t the root causes of truck pollution. The truth of the matter is that drivers simply cannot afford to buy and maintain clean new trucks. Our solution is a comprehensive clean trucks plan that requires the trucking companies to own and maintain a clean truck fleet and grant drivers employee status with a living wage, healthcare, and the right to organize a union. We at Puget Sound Sage and the Church Council have been building partnerships of allies who support the truck drivers and want to fix this broken system. Many port neighbors, organizations, and several elected officials are on board.

However, trucking firms are lobbying hard to keep things the way they are. The American Trucking Association blocked a similar plan from passing in L.A. We are fighting back. A national coalition of labor, faith, environmental, and community organizations came together in Washington D.C. in May to lobby for the drivers at a Congress subcommittee hearing restoring the power to regulate. Truck drivers finally got a chance to talk about their horrendous working conditions in front of attentive members of Congress. WA Representative Rick Larson listened to several Seattle drivers tell their stories of exploitation and intimidation. Shocked committee members pledged to investigate Port labor abuses and change the system.

Now, we are inviting local faith leaders to get involved. Several clergy and imams went on a “Port Toxic Tour” in March to see first hand the working conditions drivers face every day. One Lutheran pastor named it “modern-day slavery.” In June, the Church Council held a Prayer Breakfast in honor of the drivers. Christian and Muslims, black, white and everyone in between came together for one purpose: to be unified in our passion for change on behalf of the truck drivers. We as people of faith believe in the power of prayer to make change. We know too that prayer can happen in the streets—as such, we’re hosting a prayer vigil for the drivers later this summer. To getting involved, contact us. We need to work together to right this wrong.
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(Rev. Monica Corsaro is Director of Social Justice Ministries, Church Council of Greater Seattle (mcorsaro@thechurchcouncil.org). Erica Garrecht-Williams is Outreach and Communications Coordinator, Puget Sound Sage. erica@pugetsoundsage.org)

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