We are an unprecedented alliance that is united against pollution and poverty at our nation’s ports. Our solution – the LA Clean Truck Program – has put workers and the community on the road to clean air, but a backwards-looking industry threatens our progress. Our fight for the good jobs and green growth that a 21st century port trucking business model promises will prevail.
WHAT’S NEW
Clearing the Air at American Ports
New York Times, By Steven Greenhouse
The Teamsters union and environmental activists have formed an unlikely and outspoken alliance aiming to clear the air in American ports, and perhaps bolster the Teamsters’ ranks in the process.
The labor-green alliance is getting under the trucking industry’s skin by asserting that short-haul trucking companies working in ports — and not the truck drivers, who are often considered independent contractors — should spend the billions needed to buy new, low-emission rigs that can cost $100,000 to $175,000 each.
...Working with environmentalists, the union helped persuade the Port of Los Angeles to adopt a far-reaching plan that bars old trucks from hauling cargo from the port and puts the burden of buying new vehicles on the trucking companies, not the drivers.
By Angelica Salas (CHIRLA) & Marvin Andrade (CARECEN)
Our economic situation is pretty bad right now, but are we so bad-off that workers should have to pay to work? That is exactly what is happening to the mostly Latino immigrant truck drivers at the LA and Long Beach ports. To keep their jobs, the workers have to pay for the new trucks that belong to the company. Each week the companies mercilessly deduct the truck payment, insurance, registration and fuel from the workers paychecks,leaving them nothing but a pittance to take home.
Obama Spotlight on Worker Misclassification, CA Judgment Against Trucking Cos. Reinforce Need for Fundamental Reform of Transportation Law to Protect Workers, Environment, & Economy
Labor and environmental organizations say that President Obama’s intention to step up enforcement against worker misclassification in the 2011 budget, and CA Attorney-General Jerry Brown’s recent legal judgments against five local port trucking firms that disguised employees as independent contractors underscore the need for sweeping reform to end systematic abuses at America’s ports.
OUR VOICES
Local residents, workers, students and port truck drivers are in the fight of their lives. While local community members have joined the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports in the struggle for a sustainable solution against poverty and pollution - irresponsible industry players have focused their efforts on evading their responsibility and passing the cost on to drivers and port residents.
Francisco Martinez - Port Truck Driver
I’ve worked at the ports for over 10 years and it’s never been this bad for us truck drivers. Right now the companies are passing the cost of cleaning the air on to workers by forcing us to lease the new trucks. Most of us have to work over 16 hours a day just to pay off the company’s truck.(more)
Bernice Banares – Long Beach Resident & School Teacher
I grew up around the ports and currently teach at Cabrillo High School in Long Beach. My entire life has been affected by the horrible pollution in our community. I have asthma, all five of my children have asthma, my students have asthma and the toll on our lives is an everyday ordeal. (more)
