Los Angeles Port Truckers Forced Into Indentured Servitude, Investigation Finds

The shipping containers that come through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach every year would wrap around the Earth two times if you laid them out end-to-end. Those containers are filled with electronics and clothing that are manufactured in places like Asia and then shipped to U.S. retailers.

But there is a dark side to the industry, according to an investigation by the USA Today Network: The drivers who bring those products to nearby rail yards or warehouses are signing lease-to-own contracts for their trucks that condemn them to modern-day indentured servitude.

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd speaks with the reporter who wrote the investigation, Brett Murphy (@BrettMmurphy).

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