U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has written a letter to President Trump calling for an end to the exploitation of American port truck drivers.
Sanders Asks For Executive Order To Stop Port Trucking Labor Abuse
In a letter dated on November 9, 2017, Sanders asks Trump to keep his promises to the nation’s truck drivers by signing an executive order that would end the exploitation of truck drivers by port trucking companies.
Sanders writes, “Truck drivers are the backbone of the American economy. They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, not like modern-day indentured servants. Yesterday I sent a letter to President Trump asking him to sign an executive order to end the exploitation and abuse of port truck drivers. The federal government should not be rewarding trucking companies that exploit and abuse their own workers. If the president is serious about his support for our nation’s truck drivers, he should sign an executive order to deny government contracts and subcontracts for trucking companies that misclassify workers as independent contractors, force workers to lease the trucks they drive and engage in other abusive labor practices.”
The call for action by the President to protect truck drivers was sparked in part by an investigative report that ran in USA Today in June entitled “Rigged: Forced into debt. Worked past exhaustion. Left with nothing.” The article detailed startling claims of labor abuse by port truck drivers and explored the ways that companies use predatory truck lease purchase programs to turn drivers into indentured servants.
In Late June, the USA Today report also spurred five Democratic senators to reach out to port trucking companies to demand that they address the alleged labor abuses.