The trucking system at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is broken: it fails workers, has caused a public health crisis for San Pedro Bay communities, and prevents business from expanding. There are 2,400 deaths a year caused by the pollution related to port trucking and freight transportation.

• Children and residents are plagued by diesel emissions from old, dirty trucks
• Workers make poverty wages with no benefits and few legal rights
• Industry businesses are constrained by a driver shortage and port inefficiencies
• Security is compromised by instability at the high-risk, high-value harbors

Our children should be out of breath from playing tag, not from simply breathing the air in their homes and neighborhoods.  We cannot halt this deadly pollution if buying new trucks and cleaning the air remains the responsibility of underpaid port drivers who are now wrongly classified as "independent contractors."

The Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports have an obvious interest in clean, safe, sustainable growth, generating new sources of revenue, and securing the Port complex. In April, the joint Harbor Commissions released the Clean Trucks Program, a comprehensive plan to reduce port emissions by requiring trucking companies to meet new labor and environmental standards to improve public health and safety.

Replacing the independent contractor system with a stable workforce of company drivers is a critical component of the program. The employee-based business model for trucking will promote greater port efficiency, lower emissions, increase security, and create good jobs for drivers.

The Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports supports the harbor commissioners' move to make environmental accountability the cost of doing business in the San Pedro Bay. Major corporations like Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot who ship the cargo through our ports can afford to pay for new green trucks.

Unfortunately, motor carriers and their big-box shipper clients have launched a campaign to preserve the status quo. The trucking industry's bid to maintain the current system isn't just putting children in the San Pedro Bay at risk - it's killing them.

That's why the Ports need to strengthen their Clean Trucks Program. The initial proposal is good start, but kids will continue to die if all port drivers are not immediately employed by the trucking companies who hire them - it's the only way to keep companies competitive while making them responsible and liable for clean trucks.

If the Ports ever hope to remove the barriers to expansion, harbor commissioners must make bold changes to require the cleanest available fleets and stabilize the workforce now - our children's lives literally depend on it.