About a month ago I was part of a group that toured the Port of Seattle. More than a million containers worth more than $33 billion of goods filter through our port on their way to other destinations. To move the container from the ship to the railroad requires the agency of a trucking company. And that's why I was touring the Port. I wanted to meet some of the truckers who do the infrastructure work that facilitates this massive $33 billion a year business.
What I found was depressing. The truckers, originally full of the idealism of owning their own business, many of whom are immigrants to our country, are caught in a trap that is holding them in poverty both materially and spiritually. Essentially the issue is this: Big trucking companies hold the contracts that move the freight from ship to rail. These trucking companies refuse to enter into serious negotiations that would share profits with the truckers. Rather, they sub-contract the work to independent contractors who compete against each other in a downward economic spiral at a time of increasing costs. The trucking companies are fat and happy. The truckers are emaciated and close to death.
As independent contractors, truckers are living the dream of owning their own business. They own their own trucks, provide the upkeep and maintenance, hold their own health and vehicle insurance, and hustle their own jobs and rates. But the dream is becoming a nightmare because their business, while necessary and potentially profitable, takes on a form closer to indentured servitude rather than independence.
When I think of truckers I think of hard work rewarded with big bucks. But that is not the case for the 1,800 truckers of the Port. The hard work is there but most of the truckers are driving old vehicles that are high polluters in need of constant repair. Making an average salary under $30,000, they cannot afford to upgrade to a newer low-emission vehicle at costs well into six figures. They cannot afford to even maintain their aging trucks. This then becomes a health concern for the entire city. What is needed is quite clear. The trucking companies need to hire truckers as employees, and the employees need to be able to build power so that they can stand on their own two feet rather than walk stooped over.
In other words, right here in our profitable Port, we are witnessing the ongoing class struggle between capitalists and labor. We are seeing the results of the obese squashing the undernourished. Some eat at tables overloaded with abundance, while others beg and receive only enough crumbs to keep alive to beg once more.
There are spiritual issues here. As a city we need trucking companies and we need truckers. Justice requires that both be treated with dignity, that both be well fed so that both can thrive.
Want to help the truckers?
Go to www.pugetsoundsage.org.