An 86-year-old antitrust exemption for foreign-owned ocean carriers should be repealed because it drives down wages for truck drivers at the nation’s ports, says Teamsters President James P. Hoffa.

Hoffa testified before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee in support of H.R. 1253, the Free Market Antitrust Immunity Reform Act (FAIR) of 2001. The FAIR Act would remove the antitrust exemption.
“At present, these foreign-owned carriers reap billions of dollars in profits off the backs of American workers,” Hoffa said. “Complete elimination of the antitrust exemption, as called for in Chairman [F. James] Sensenbrenner’s bill, will help to end the systemic exploitation of America’s port drivers.”
Congress enacted the Shipping Act of 1916 to provide stability to international commerce. The Act allows ocean shipping carriers, port authorities and operators to collude and set rates jointly by providing them immunity from U.S. antitrust laws.
Currently, all major U.S. shipping carriers are owned by foreign companies. Therefore, Hoffa notes, non-U.S. shipping companies are the sole beneficiaries of this 1916 provision. A by-product of their collusion allows them to keep port drivers’ wages at poverty levels.
“There is a great imbalance in the economic forces at work here,” Hoffa said. “We are talking about David versus Goliath. This is a cases of a struggling port truck driver who bought a third or fourth generation used truck for $25,000 versus Maersk Sealand and the other ocean carriers.”
The Teamsters union is trying to organize the nation’s 50,000 port truck drivers.