
Meanwhile, on Jthe Supreme Court refused to hear a case filed in August 2021 by the California Trucking Association (CTA) challenging the legislation. Mainly, the court ruled that the proposition limited the legislature’s constitutional power to extend workers’ compensation benefits to app-based drivers. In August 2021, Proposition 22 was declared unenforceable as a whole by a Superior Court judge on the basis of two of its sections being unconstitutional. Their intent was for the corporations to dodge the cost of important employment benefits (health insurance policies and contributions to privately managed retirement accounts, paid vacations and sick leave) and tax contributions on workers’ behalf (payroll tax, Social Security and Medicare tax contributions). In November 2020, app-based ride-share delivery services Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart launched a ballot measure, Proposition 22, to the tune of $200 million, to maintain the “independent contractor” classification of their workforce. In September 2020, AB2257 rewrote some of the requirements and exempted a slew of professionals, such as photographers, editors, freelance writers, content contributors, translators, fine artists and musicians from the classification requirements. Under my own authority I would likely be struggling or already out of business.”ĪB5 was signed into law in 2019 and went into effect on January 1, 2020. Under my own authority, I would have much more expensive ‘new venture’ insurance, lower discounts, lower revenue and zero backend office support. My carrier and a lot of others just canceled the lease of any owner-operator living in California. With the concentration of capital, large corporations would defeat any small business competition.Ī trucker from out of state told the WSWS: “AB5 makes what I do illegal in California. Obtaining an authority implies a number of costs, risks and requirements (clients not paying, maintenance and repair costs, insurance coverage) that big carriers can defray and amortize more easily than an individual owner-operator. The options for independent truckers are therefore to either pursue a “trucking authority,” move out of state, or sell their truck and become a company driver. This means that for an owner-operator being leased to a carrier would become illegal in California. In particular, point B above establishes that the contracting company (carrier) cannot be in the same line of work that the contracted company is being hired to do.
U.S. TRUCKERS STRIKE 2022 FREE
A: The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact.

This would include two-thirds of the state’s port truckers, potentially compromising transport and logistics in crucial hubs responsible for more than 40 percent of US imports.ĪB5’s three-prong requirements would regulate, for the most part, the relationship between owner-operators and carriers.

A broader movement is underway against substandard pay and benefits, runaway inflation, overwork and unsafe working conditions.Īccording to estimates, 70,000 truckers are owner-operators and at risk of losing their ability to work in California under AB5. However, the truckers’ actions show the enormous potential for a joint struggle linking up dockworkers, truckers, railroad workers and other crucial sections of the working class in US supply chains. Meanwhile railroad workers have voted by 99.5 percent in favor of a strike, but the Biden administration is likely to intervene and appoint an emergency board to prevent a walkout. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has been meeting in secret with the port administrators and the Biden administration in a bid to prevent a strike. The picketing takes place as West Coast dockworkers have been working without a contract since July 1. The protest is expected to spread to Oakland and Northern California, where protests are anticipated next Monday. Truckers are opposing the California State Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), whose stated goal is to establish employee status classification for some gig workers and which establishes a three-factor test to determine whether workers are independent contractors or employees.
U.S. TRUCKERS STRIKE 2022 DRIVERS
Hundreds of truck drivers protested and picketed on Wednesday at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in demonstrations that sprawled along the 110 Freeway, bringing traffic to a halt.

Truckers gather to protest AB 5 at Port of Los Angeles, J
