NEW YORK – Protests by truck drivers angered over fuel price increases are expected to continue Monday at container terminals in Newark and Elizabeth, N. J.
The Teamsters union was already planning to hold similar demonstrations around the country this week in its effort to organize port drivers.
Meanwhile, trucker strikes at Port Everglades in south Florida reportedly turned violent. At least two trucks were shot at, while several others were vandalized at warehouses throughout the region.
The situation in New Jersey was muddled late Friday, as truckers vented their frustration for a second consecutive day over the rising cost of diesel fuel and the delays they encounter in picking up and dropping off containers at the port complex.
“The protest is still going on. People are driving around the port at about five miles an hour, ” said Ron Carver, a spokesman for the Teamsters union.
Brian Maher, chairman of Maher Terminals, the port’s largest terminal operator, said it was handling about half the trucks that it normally does.
Carver said there would be a meeting at 9 a. m. Monday with shipping lines and trucking industry leaders, but that the demonstration will continue until 1 p. m.
Meanwhile, it was unclear who exactly will participate in the meeting. Sam Cunninghame, executive director of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, had been expected to meet with the truckers on Friday, but chose not to do so because he couldn’t get any consensus from them.
Cunninghame said he has asked the independent owner operators to select three representatives to meet with the Bi-State Harbor Carriers Council, a unit of the association.
The council, composed of some 80 trucking companies, is the right venue for the truckers to share their grievances, he said, adding that it has already been working on all the issues presented by the truckers except for the fuel price increase.
Meanwhile, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which owns the marine terminals but does not operate them, is attempting to forge a compromise.
“We respect the truckers’ right to voice their concerns, but disrupting activity at the port is not the way to go about it, ” said Lillian Borrone, director of port commerce for the port authority.
“Although the port authority is not a party to this dispute, we are trying to help resolve it by offering to bring together the marine terminal operators andrepresentatives of the independent truckers to find a more productive meansof addressing the truckers’ issues, ” she added.
The New Jersey protests were planned by independent owner-operators, but Teamsters officials took advantage of the demonstration as part of their effort to organize port drivers nationwide.
“We’re building a national port Teamster organization. It’s our aim to bring port Teamsters throughout the country under contract and end the abuses, ” Carver said.
The union official said more than 1, 000 drivers participated in Thursday’s daylong protest. Teamsters organizers brought 1, 000 pledge cards with them on Thursday but ran out of them before the day was over. The cards, printed in English on one side and Spanish on the other, state that the signatories support the Teamsters campaign and want to join the union.
Teamsters officials also distributed fliers calling for a port driver bill of rights. Besides fair wages, health and pension benefits, the flier also calls for drivers to be paid for waiting time, maintenance and repair time, and the time it takes to move within the port.
Other items include safe and road-ready equipment; properly labeled containers; information on the content of containers and ironclad whistle-blower protection for reporting improperly labeled containers or the unauthorized transport of hazardous materials.
But Cunninghame said it was unclear whether the Teamsters would be able to sign up the independent truckers unless the union could prove that they were actually employees of the trucking companies. The question has important tax implications.
