During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Monday, President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Sean O'Brien spoke about safety issues for Amazon employees.
00:01Mr. O'Brien, you're now recognized for five minutes.
00:04Thank you very much.
00:04Chairman Yaw, I'm recognizing the committee.
00:07Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on issues impacting the trucking and commercial bus industries.
00:13I'm Sean O'Brien, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
00:17The Teamsters Union represents more than 1.3 million workers since 1903.
00:22That's 122 years.
00:24Our membership includes hundreds of thousands who start their workday behind a steering wheel of a commercial vehicle.
00:30I am personally familiar with the subject of this hearing and not simply as General President of the Teamsters.
00:35I started my apprenticeship program at 18 years old in the rigging industry in South Boston,
00:40where I was an apprentice rigger, then a low-bed driver, hauled heavy equipment both interstate and intrastate.
00:49The surface transportation reauthorization is an opportunity for bipartisan action.
00:54Together, we must create economic opportunity and improve the lives of millions of Americans.
01:00The Teamsters look forward to working closely with the committee to write a bill that prioritizes workers,
01:06prioritizes public safety, and protection of jobs.
01:09For decades, the Teamsters have led the way in making the trucking industry a better and safer place to work.
01:15Teamster drivers earn wages and benefits that ensure our members can support their families and retire with dignity.
01:21Our union provides high-quality training to drivers.
01:25We regularly induct members into the UPS Circle of Honor and many other driver safety programs,
01:32recognizing 25 to 30 years of safe driving without an accident.
01:36I'd like to start by talking about the state of our industry.
01:39You've all heard about so-called driver shortage, and I think you just heard one of my colleagues testify to that.
01:44We've been told we can solve this problem by forcing drivers to work longer hours and operate heavier trucks.
01:52At UPS, for example, one of our members may spend years working another position, another classification,
01:58before a job operating a tractor-trailer becomes available.
02:01Once our members do get behind the wheel, most remain in these good-paying, reliable, and safe positions until retirement.
02:07At carriers like T-Force and ABF, Teamsters only experience a 10 to 12 percent turnover ratio.
02:15Union drivers have the best wages, health care, and retirement securities.
02:19In Teamster shops, workers are incentivized to stay.
02:23So-called driver shortages do not occur.
02:27To help make this a reality for more workers, the Teamsters urge Congress to invest in high-quality CDL training.
02:34Sadly, predatory CDL programs are widespread in this country.
02:39They take money from students who then graduate, unable to pass a skills test or operate a vehicle safely.
02:46Teamster locals in 20 states certify members in the public as CDL drivers, usually at no cost to the students.
02:54Let's grow these programs for more American drivers.
02:56The expansion and creation of competitive grant programs under the DOT that are accessible to Teamsters training would help significantly.
03:04Federal action is also overdue to regulate autonomous vehicles.
03:08Allowing the unfettered operation of AVs is a threat to public safety and to good-paying jobs in the trucking industry.
03:15The surface reauthorization presents an opportunity for Congress to take decisive worker-first action on AVs.
03:22I'd also like to draw the subcommittee's attention to the growth of dangerous trucking business models.
03:27Amazon's trucking services are largely provided by its freight service partners, better known as FSPs.
03:34FSPs are contractors who, in turn, hire drivers.
03:38These small motor carriers exist as unique entities with individual DOT identification numbers.
03:43This means that the government cannot connect the dots between individual carriers to establish a pattern of unsafe behavior across a fleet contracted by Amazon and many others.
03:54This inability to trace unsafe behavior is critical when we know that Amazon FSP drivers were cited for violations at a rate of 70 times higher than UPS Teamsters.
04:05The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should be directed to collect consolidated safety metrics for companies using contracted fleets.
04:14They should also conduct a study on the safety of Amazon's local last-mile delivery service using vehicles under 10,000 pounds.
04:22The Teamsters call on the committee to reject policies that would reduce safety on our roads.
04:27This would include a rejection of weakening hours of service regulations or permitting longer, heavier trucks.
04:33Allowing corporations to push drivers to high levels of fatigue or to operate more dangerous vehicles will result in unnecessary accidents, injuries, and death.
04:42It is important that Congress is aware that one of the obstacles we face in providing the benefits of Teamsters' representation is employer abuse of labor law and refusing to bargain in good faith.
04:52Employers drag out negotiations for years and deprive workers of better wages and safer working conditions.
04:59This is not a bug. It's a feature in our labor codes.
05:02The Teamsters wholeheartedly endorsed the Faster Labor Contracts Act.
05:06This bill requires employers to bargain with workers within 10 days of voting to form the union.
05:11For the record, I want to thank Ranking Member Peters and Senator Marino for their co-sponsorship of this important legislation.
05:18Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
