Seattle Teamster organizers sure hope so. A new policy implemented this month by the Vancouver Port Authority dictates that trucking companies doing business at the port must pay a fair wage to non-company truckers -- "independent owner-operators" in trucking lingo -- or lose the license to operate there.

Rob Hickey, the Teamsters' organizing director for Seattle's Local #174, is betting that the Seattle Port Commission can do pretty much the same thing -- or possibly go much further -- in regulating trucking companies. "Our legal research shows that the port can take a role in taking long-term action," he says. The Vancouver port's initiative comes at a crucial time, too, amid threats from #174 of using "guerrilla strike tactics" to disrupt port business if union demands aren't met.

The plight of the independent owner-operator has been well publicized. As non-union drivers, they are often beholden to the trucking companies. These companies -- like Elliott Bay, MacMillan Paper, and Conex, to name a few -- are responsible for negotiating their salaries with the shipping companies. Overwhelmed by competition, however, the trucking companies frequently underbid contracts, jump-starting a spiraling "race to the bottom" that hurts the drivers, but not the trucking companies, according to Hickey.

Without benefits, pensions, or vacation time, these drivers are underpaid and underappreciated. Teamsters say union drivers make up to four times more money in net wages.

Ever since deregulation in the early 1980s, though, unions have had a tough time organizing independent owner-operators. By mimicking Vancouver and getting the Seattle Port Commission involved, Teamsters believe they can reform the entire industry -- an ingenious back-door approach that sidesteps the companies.

The Vancouver port's new rules do just that -- and it's working. One major trucking company, PRTI, at first refused to cooperate with the new licensing policy, according to Jamie Lamb, manager of government relations for the Vancouver Port Authority. After that company was denied the right to operate out of the port, it quickly relented. "We are changing the way the industry does business to a certain extent," Lamb says.

Furthermore, if the truck drivers at the Vancouver port do not believe they are getting a fair wage from companies that are already licensed, they can complain to the Port Authority, which promises to investigate problems diligently.

Vancouver is Seattle and Tacoma's sister port. A three-week walkout that started in Vancouver in mid-July helped serve as a catalyst for a job action that occurred in both cities in mid-August. Now Hickey is hoping Vancouver's victory will spill over into Seattle's port as well, forcing some radical, pro-union reform from the Port Commission. His union has produced a list of demands, the so-called 10 Points of Justice. Instead of indirectly seeking more union members, the Teamsters are demanding instant, industry-wide union recognition for owner-operators. That involves fair wages, job security, pensions, and benefits like health coverage and unemployment insurance.

If the Port Commission won't cooperate, Hickey says, the union will carry out a guerrilla approach to disrupt business at the Seattle port. This includes "surgical strikes" against individual trucking companies or at individual terminals. "This is a strategic approach," he says. "[We want] to keep continued pressure on the ship lines and rail lines. We have to be smarter to keep up the long-term pressure." A full-fledged strike can't be sustained since the Teamsters only represent a small portion of truckers at the port, and since owner-operators can't afford to lose wages for too many consecutive days.

Hickey's threats may be falling on deaf ears. Seattle's port commissioners, while sympathetic to independent owner-operators, would rather stay out of it. They seem to see the drivers' concerns as a fight that should really take place between unions and the rest of the trucking industry. At the last Seattle Port Commission meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Tom Tierney provided a legal rationale for not getting involved. "Our in-house council believes that we have no authority to do many of the things we were asked to do," he told commissioners.

Instead, Tierney and Steve Sewell, the port's managing director of the marine division, provided updates on a plan for improving efficiency at the port. This isn't a totally unrelated issue. Independent owner-operators don't get paid by the hour, they get paid by the haul. The truckers are losing a lot of money at the port just waiting in line.

Hickey left the meeting disappointed but unswayed. "We aren't opposed to any methods to improve the efficiency of the dock system," he said. [But the commission] is only patting itself on the back and saying things are getting better. We need the 10 Points of Justice, not a Band-Aid fix."