Labor abuses didn’t end federal trucking contracts
Military hires haulers for Calif. port deliveries
The U. S. military helped fuel labor abuse at America’s largest ports by relying on trucking companies to move goods even after they violated labor laws and were found to have cheated drivers out of fair pay, aUSA TODAY Network investigation found.
XPO Logistics and California Cartage, both found guilty of labor infractions, and another company, Konoike- Pacific, accused of the samekinds of violations by a quarter of its drivers, continue to work as federal contractors or subcontractors.
The companies participate in multi- billion- dollar deals to ship military vehicles and commissary items overseas, raking in taxpayer dollars even after hundreds of driv-
ers leveled formal wage complaints against them.
Drivers at each company said in testimony and interviews they were forced to pay expenses for company equipment. Many drivers said their wages dropped to pennies per hour after companies deducted those costs from their weekly pay. Some said they worked past legal limits and to the point of exhaustion to keep up with the fees. The companies denied the allegations in court.
The Service Contract Act requires federal government contractors and subcontractors to pay their employees minimum wage, with benefits and guaranteed safe workplaces.
After learning of the government’s ties with port companies, prominent Democrats spoke out against any agencies funding them.
“The DoD shouldn’t be giving taxpayerfunded contracts to companies that cheat their workers out of wages or take shortcuts on safety,” said Sen. ElizabethWarren, D- Mass.
The Defense Department did not answer questions about what steps it has taken to root out abusive labor practices since USA TODAY Network began reporting on the port industry in June. “Contracts are only awarded to responsive and responsible offerors,” said Patrick L. Evans, a commander in the Defense Press Operations, which handles media inquiries to the Pentagon.
The USA TODAY Network previously reported that more than 1,100 California port truck drivers have filed labor complaints in civil court and with the state labor commissioner since 2008. That year, a California environmental law required trucking companies serving state ports to replace old trucks with cleaner rigs.
To avoid the cost, may companies pushed their independent drivers into lease- to- own contracts. When drivers got sick or fell behind on payments, trucking companies fired them, seizing their trucks and tens of thousands of dollars they had paid toward buying them.
Driver Reyes Castellanos took home only $ 21,000 of his $ 94,000 gross income in 2015 after making truck payments to his employer, according to his tax returns. He had to choose between house payments and buying food. “So we lost the house,” Castellanos said.