Newly unionized Los Angeles and Long Beach port truck drivers at a Carson company have ratified their first contract, it was announced Monday.

After three days of bargaining, Shippers Transport Express drivers voted Sunday on a one-year contract that increased hourly wages from $18 per hour to $21 per hour retroactive to Jan. 9 when drivers voted to unionize. The deal also offers full medical insurance with 100 percent of premiums paid by the employer.

The drivers, who are represented by International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 848, will also receive paid leave, overtime after 40 hours a week, a process for filing grievances and resolving work conflict issues under their new contract, which spans from Jan. 9 to Dec. 31.

“Shippers drivers have a solid new Teamster contract because we stuck together,” said Alfonso Quezada, one of three Shippers drivers on the bargaining committee. “Now I can take my kids to the doctor without worrying how I’m going to pay for it.”

Leonardo Mejia, a driver with the company and member of the contract bargaining committee, echoed his sentiment.

“With this union contract, we can move forward and make Shippers the most productive trucking company hauling out of the harbor,” Mejia said in a statement.

This contract comes one month after nearly 80 percent of 111 drivers from Shippers Transport Express voted to be represented by the Teamsters and was considered a big win for proponents who felt that trucking companies used the independent contractor model as a way to pay lower wages and avoid labor laws.

Pro-union port truck drivers and their supporters have been advocating for better pay and working conditions at area trucking companies and have spurred drivers to take action, including filing wage theft claims against other firms and organizing strikes at marine terminals. But opponents have said that most truck drivers want to remain independent contractors for the flexibility and the ability to own their own trucks and their own small businesses.

Shippers Transport, which was not one of the eight trucking companies that were picketed, was compelled by a court order to move from an independent contractor model to an employee model.

Kevin Baddeley, general manager of Shippers Transport Express, has said that other trucking firms may follow suit and added that Shippers is hiring.

“With so much uncertainty at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, we are grateful to have a solid contract – and certain labor peace – in place,” he said in a statement. “We believe this contract helps pave the way for the future direction of the drayage industry.”

Contact Karen Robes Meeks at 562-714-2088.