Post by canhauler on Nov 12, 2008 21:02:51 GMT -5
Trucking Firm Says AG’s Suit Is Teamster Driven
11/08/2008
Pac Anchor Transportation - a Long Beach-based drayage company accused by California Attorney General Jerry Brown of misclassifying employees as independent contractors - filed its answer in Superior Court on Wednesday. The company claims that the Attorney General was motivated by "political gain" in an effort to force Pac Anchor to hire employees instead of contracting with owner-operators.
Pac Anchor was one of five harbor-area trucking companies and individuals targeted by Brown in a series of lawsuits accusing the companies of misclassifying employees in order to gain a competitive advantage and to cheat the state out of payroll taxes.
Attorney Neil Lerner of the Los Angeles law firm of Sands Lerner noted that the Attorney General's suit was accompanied by a press release, laying out the allegations, and resulting in widespread media coverage. He said that the treatment was unfair.
The company said Brown filed the suit in an attempt to force the company to use employee-drivers "so that the Teamsters (to whom the Attorney General is beholden) can unionize the newly transformed employees and transform them into Teamsters." The goal, according to the filing, is to "impermissibly re-regulate the interstate motor carriage industry and to force a reduction in number of small, minority owned and operated motor carriage companies in favor of a few large motor carriage companies whose employees will be controlled by the Teamsters..."
11/08/2008
Pac Anchor Transportation - a Long Beach-based drayage company accused by California Attorney General Jerry Brown of misclassifying employees as independent contractors - filed its answer in Superior Court on Wednesday. The company claims that the Attorney General was motivated by "political gain" in an effort to force Pac Anchor to hire employees instead of contracting with owner-operators.
Pac Anchor was one of five harbor-area trucking companies and individuals targeted by Brown in a series of lawsuits accusing the companies of misclassifying employees in order to gain a competitive advantage and to cheat the state out of payroll taxes.
Attorney Neil Lerner of the Los Angeles law firm of Sands Lerner noted that the Attorney General's suit was accompanied by a press release, laying out the allegations, and resulting in widespread media coverage. He said that the treatment was unfair.
The company said Brown filed the suit in an attempt to force the company to use employee-drivers "so that the Teamsters (to whom the Attorney General is beholden) can unionize the newly transformed employees and transform them into Teamsters." The goal, according to the filing, is to "impermissibly re-regulate the interstate motor carriage industry and to force a reduction in number of small, minority owned and operated motor carriage companies in favor of a few large motor carriage companies whose employees will be controlled by the Teamsters..."