Laura ClawsonFollowforDaily Kos Labor
Short haul truck drivers at the Port of Seattle have to cope with low wages and long work days; "a Port study in 2006 found the median take-home pay was $28,500 for drivers, who reported working an average 11 hours a day." Environmentalists are also concerned about the truckers' working conditions, since the aging trucks that are the only option for such low-paying work are a major source of emissions.
So when the American Association of Port Authorities held its convention in Seattle the other week, it was met by a rally, as well as the flash mob you can see in the video above. Organizers also made a mock agenda slipped under all the doors in the hotel the convention was held in.
Port of Seattle officials are not pretending things are awesome for the drivers:
"The working conditions of the drivers are abysmal," acknowledges Port Commissioner Gael Tarleton. "Like in any labor force, any market, there are groups who enter at the lowest level and ... . You know why we have immigrant drivers? It's the one thing they can do where they don't need to speak the language well."
But that doesn't mean they're changing a thing, arguing that if they don't mistreat their drivers the most, Portland might take their business. And after all, these are the immigrants at the lowest level, so abysmal is apparently not a problem. That's even though, according to Change to Win, short-trip hauling accounts for less than 1% of retail prices, so a reasonable wage for drivers would have almost no effect on prices.
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