Sandro Lerro

Port Truck Driver
Naivit Transportation
Miami, Florida

Campaign: Ports Protection

Since 2000, Sandro Lerro has worked for 15 harbor trucking companies in Miami hauling 80,000 to 95,000 pound containers packed with goods imported from Asia and South America. He has switched from one small motor carrier to the next because each one did not treat drivers with any dignity or respect. Born in Cuba, Sandro came to the United States at the age of 16 after living in Panama for five years.

He is proud of being a professional driver and of the work he does to keep the economy running. But it is extremely hard and stressful work. Sandro puts in 14 to 16 hour days, averaging 70 to 80 hours per week driving. Frequently, he hauls containers to and from Savannah Georgia, which requires him to leave his wife and ten-year-old son in the middle of the night to deliver his load. 

Driving in hazardous weather and handling overweight containers is scary and stressful. It's nerve-wracking, knowing that at any moment he could blow a tire, flip over and cause a fatal traffic accident because of an overloaded container. Injuries occur often at the port. One time a drum broke in half from a truck's chassis, flew in the air and almost went through his father's windshield, who was driving the truck behind Sandro.

Sandro has been leading the fight to unite port drivers in Miami because he does not get paid enough to support his family. Currently Sandro works at Naivit Transportation, the only company he has found in the Miami area that will hire him because of his union organizing activities. But, like most port drivers he is not an employee. He is hired as an independent contractor, which allows the company to save substantial sums of money and prevent their employees from having any rights on the job.

As a contractor, Sandro is paid either by the number of containers he moves or by the mile. "After paying for all my truck expenses, including fuel, tires, repairs, and maintenance, I average $6 an hour," he complains. "I cannot afford to buy health insurance for myself or my family, and I have no retirement benefits."

Last year Sandro led more than 800 drivers to form a caravan on the highway leaving the port to demonstrate their frustration with poor working conditions and to demand that companies hire them as regular employees so that they can be represented by a union. With a union Sandro believes port drivers will gain the decent pay, benefits, dignity and respect they deserve.