STRIKE & PROTEST * Canada - Vancouver Truckers Protest Low Pay

More than 400 owner-operators demonstrate on highway

Vancouver,BC,Can -The Journal of Commerce Online, by Courtney Tower -Nov 30, 2010: -- More than 400 owner-operators drove their trucks in a massive protest convoy on Highway 91 outside of Vancouver last Friday... They said rates in their industry are being forced to the bottom by companies hiring drivers at cut-rate levels, far below the minimum rates enforced for a dwindling few... Restive truckers demanded an end to what they called widespread rate undercutting in container trucking at Port Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, similar to practices that set off a damaging six-week shutdown in 2005. The Port Authority denies the allegations... The required minimum rates are for owner-operators working for companies without a collective union agreement. There was no union in container trucking in 2005, but some 350-375 drivers are now in CAW and 80-100 drivers are in the Teamsters union. The great majority of Vancouver's container truckers are the 1,500 or so non-union company drivers. They may take whatever rates companies offer them. Non-unionized owner-operators are supposed to get the minimums, but Uppal says they employ various ruses to falsify records and take less... (Photo by Les Bazso, PNG, from vancouversun: Hundreds of Container Truckers Association Local 2006 container trucks rally along Highway 91 in Delta Saturday, Nov. 27, to protest the actions of Port Metro Vancouver and the failure of the provincial and federal governments to step in to ensure rate stability)