I support port truck drivers who deliver us the world but are having their wages and rights stolen. As stewards of our nation’s two largest port complexes where roughly 40 percent of our country’s imported goods land on our shores, I call on you to end the port trucking industry’s profiting from lawbreaking.

Raising the minimum wage is only part of the solution if employers can evade compliance by classifying their workers as “non-employees”, or independent contractors. For port truck drivers, their employers have tried to disown them, making them orphans, telling them that they are “independent contractors” so they can shift the cost of doing business onto their employees.

Wage theft has enabled port trucking companies to get away with preventing their drivers from qualifying for ANY assistance that every day Americans rely on. For example, if a port driver gets laid off, the trucking companies fight to prevent drivers from receiving unemployment benefits because the companies have not been paying their unemployment insurance taxes. If a driver gets injured on the job, they are not covered by workers’ compensation. Nobody should work under those conditions. Frankly it is unconscionable that this unjust misclassification scam has been left intact.

The port drivers who deliver us the world should not work in those conditions, but instead should be able to deliver what will become the shoes on our feet, the clothes on our backs or the food on our table with pride and dignity. By addressing this problem, you will send an important message of hope that we can rebuild the American Dream: if you work hard and play by the rules, you can earn enough to take care of your family and not live in poverty.