Hundreds of truck drivers walk off job, complain about safety

Three to four hundred Port of Seattle truck drivers walked off the job Saturday, after continually complaining about unsafe working conditions.

“There is a lot of overweight loads,” one driver told KING 5. “We don’t even know what we’re taking out of the terminal.”

The Legislature has two bills aimed at solving such safety issues.

The head of American President Lines, Richard Leathers, told lawmakers, “We know exactly what the containers weigh when they come off the ship. I have talked to the marine department and the marine manager, to their knowledge they have not had any problems with overweight containers.”

Drivers have said it’s unfair that they get fined for malfunctioning equipment even though there’s nothing they can do to fix the problems.