Business and trucking interests are criticizing a union-backed labor bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Among other things, the bill would rewrite how independent contractors are defined along the same lines as the controversial new AB5 law in California, which would upend trucking’s longstanding use of owner-operators.
The six-week strike at General Motors impacted the delivery of certain components to Navistar’s Springfield, Ohio truck assembly plant, causing the company to suspend the delivery of 5,000 vehicles.
Members of the United Auto Workers union have ratified a new four-year collective bargaining agreement with Mack Trucks, covering 3,500 employees at the company’s manufacturing facitlities.
Mack Trucks and the United Auto Workers union have reached a tentative agreement on the terms of a new four-year labor agreement that would cover approximately 3,500 employees, ending a strike.
About 3,500 Mack Trucks employees who are members of the United Auto Workers union went on strike at six manufacturing facilities while the two sides negotiate new wages and benefits.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 18 signed Assembly Bill 5 into law, a measure that trucking interests in the state say will wipe out the ability to use owner-operators.
A regional less-than-truckload carrier has shut down abruptly, apparently unable to face obligations from a legal settlement regarding charges of being a chameleon carrier.
Even as multiple developments in California have made it harder for trucking companies to use owner-operators, at the federal level, the Trump administration has backed off of the Obama administration’s get-tough stance on misclassification.
The California attorney general’s office has fired back at legal challenges to a state Supreme Court ruling that may make it impossible for trucking companies to use independent contractor drivers in the state.
Trucking companies that use owner-operator independent contractors may not be able to rely on arbitration clauses to protect them from lawsuits in the wake of a new U.S. Supreme Court decision.