Seattle Port Strike Challenges ‘Independent Contractor’ Lie

Truck drivers in the Puget Sound shut down ports for two weeks—and begin to shift the balance of power.

By David Bacon

SEATTLE--Employers say they're "independent contractors." Drivers call that a legal trick to deny them their rights--a nice-sounding label obscuring an ugly reality. For two weeks in February, this argument raged at terminal gates in the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. Hundreds of truckers, who normally [RETURN TO ARTICLE]

  • Reader Comments

    In every Pacific coast port, most drivers are immigrants. Seattle and Tacoma’s truckers are mostly East African, from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Kenya, along with Sikhs from the Punjab region of India.  yachtfinder

    Posted by Marc Wallberg on Mar 19, 2012 at 3:16 AM

    It doesn’t matter if they are employees or indepent contactors as long as they have the solidarity to demand better rates. Unions do not need to have rights given to them by those in power. They ARE the power.

    Posted by KentCDetrees on Jun 25, 2012 at 2:39 PM