The collapse of Q1 GDP has been placed squarely on the shoulders of weather (too hot, too cold, and definitely not just right) and the dockworkers strike which shut 29 seaports. As Q1 GDP plunged, so Q2 was lifted hockey-stick-like to keep the growth dream alive but so far in Q2, data has not shown the bounce expected... so we are going to need a bigger excuse.
[3]
We have found one!
[4]
As NBC Los Angeles reports [5], truck drivers who haul goods from the nation's busiest port complex in Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike Monday in the latest action as part of a long-running labor dispute (it wasn't immediately clear how many of the 16,000 truckers would walk off the job).
About 200 of the estimated 500 drivers associated with the four companies were on the picket lines Monday, and the job action will expand to cargo terminals later in the day, a Teamsters union representative said during a morning conference call announcing the strike. Some secondary picketing will target specific trucks as they arrive at other locations.
The strike involving drayage firms, which specialize in short-haul tansport, is not expected to shut down all port business. All port terminals remained opened Monday morning.
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About 16,000 drivers work at the ports, most of them independent contractors for trucking companies. The truckers say they face shrinking wages and want to become employees of the trucking companies, which they say would mean better wages and workplace protections.
The drivers have been subjected to "persistent wage theft," said Teamsters spokeswoman Barb Maynard. Striking truckers argue they are improperly classified as independent contractors.
It was too soon to say what, if any, effect a work stoppage would have on business, said ports representatives.
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Trucking companies have argued that driver pay is good and picketing at the ports did not represent the majority of drivers. They object especially to the timing of the unrest as the port is still recovering from a dockworkers strike.
"I believe now is a horrible time to introduce any slow-downs to the supply chain," Weston LaBar, executive director of the Harbor Trucking Association, said in a statement late last week. "If they want to be a part of the real solution perhaps they should suspend these efforts until we get closer to a normal flow of cargo in the San Pedro Bay. We don't want to put any more jobs in our region in jeopardy."
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