Contractor Scam

It looks like the working people who used to think they were contractors were scammed by their bosses, who kept the workers from earning a living wage and having union representation. They convinced these workers it was better to be independent than "work for the man." Someone (Teamsters) ran this up the flag pole at the National Labor Relations Board and guess what—the NLRB ruled that the Port truck drivers were employees and that they had the rights of union representation. The truck drivers have lost millions of dollars these past years because of this scam of being contractors’ status, which was just pure unadulterated bull crap. Unfortunately, the workers believed the scam to be true. At this time about two-thirds of the 75,000 port drivers in the U.S. are misclassified as contractors. This is not the only place where bosses try to beat the system by classifying workers as contractors. I found while organizing for the sheet metal workers that on prevailing wage jobs, such as government work, people tried to use the contractor scam to beat prevailing wages. I always enjoyed catching them in the act. So, kudos to the port truck drivers and all the unions who supported them. We all must stand together as workers and support our toilers the word over just like the old International Workers of the World advocated. What is happening in the ports of California and Washington state does reverberate in other countries, like Ukraine, Turkey, Spain, France, UK, South America, and Hungary—all the places where toilers toil to eradicate inequality.