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 About the Division
Ports in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico
are the economic engines of regional economies employing hundreds of
thousands of workers. Ninety-five percent of the goods imported to our
countries flow through our ports.
Shipping is a super-growth industry with volume projected to double every seven years. Teamsters are among the best-paid port workers. Our jobs include truck driving, warehousing, stevedoring, operating and repairing ferries and tugs, and building ships. Our division is also committed to organizing the unorganized. Owner-drivers hauling intermodal containers are the most exploited truck drivers. We will harness Teamster power to secure good union contracts for these brothers and sisters.
From Anchorage Alaska to Jacksonville, Florida; Los Angeles to Montreal; From Vancouver, BC to San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Teamsters represent thousands of intermodal container drivers. Yet since the early days of truck deregulation in the United States, the majority of the 100,000 intermodal drivers have remained unorganized. The time is ripe for change. The Port Division, assisted by the Teamsters Legal Department, has developed strategies to bring these drivers back to the Teamsters where they rightfully belong. Working with the Organizing, Government Affairs, Strategic Research and Campaign departments, we are mounting an aggressive campaign to improve the working conditions and wages of port drivers. In the past few years, we have passed state and local legislation to protect drivers and negotiated contracts setting a new standard for this industry.
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