Broad Coalition of Environmental, Community, and Labor Organizations Embraces Ports’ Long-Awaited Plan to Reshape Port Trucking Industry

Phone Press Availability, 1:30 PM Friday

Press Contact:
Barbara Maynard, (213) 387-0780 or (323) 351-9321 (cell)

Los Angeles (April 13, 2007)  On Thursday, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach released their long-awaited joint plan for cleaning up port trucking to an advisory group of stakeholders including environmental, environmental justice, business, labor, community, and academic representatives. The Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, which includes prominent environmental, community, and labor organizations, supports the Ports' proposal for port trucking, and looks forward to working with them to ensure it is implemented successfully. Key Coalition members - a number of whom have been appointed by the Ports to the advisory group - will participate in a press availability Friday afternoon at 1:30 PM.

Who: Patricia Castellanos, L.A. Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE); Melissa Lin Perrella, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); Jesse Marquez, Coalition for a Safe Environment; Elina Green, Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma (LBACA); and Candice Kim, Coalition for Clean Air.

What: Telephone Press Availability

Call In #: (800) 230-1059, ask for "Clean & Safe Ports"

When: Friday, April 13, 2007; 1:30 PM

The Problem: The current broken port trucking system accounts for a significant amount of the air pollution plaguing port neighborhoods, endangers children by contributing to asthma and other serious illnesses, sentences more than 16,000 mostly immigrant drivers to lives of peril and poverty. The system also threatens L.A. and Long Beach Ports' desired expansion, which are vital economic engines for the region.

Port pollution contributes to high rates of asthma and other illnesses, and has become a key barrier to port expansion. Port driving contributes to the pollution through a labor system that resembles "sweatshops on wheels." Drivers are misclassified as independent contractors so trucking companies have little incentive to take responsibility for placing cleaner trucks on the road and can evade responsibility for Social Security, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation. A largely immigrant work force earning poverty pay cannot afford to buy or maintain newer, more environmentally-friendly trucks.

The Ports' Joint Solution: The Ports' "Proposed Clean Trucks Program" is a comprehensive solution to the broken port trucking system. It calls for a "concession model" for port trucking whereby only licensed concessionaires who meet contractual standards will be allowed to operate as motor carriers on the two Ports. The standards include stringent requirements for phasing in 16,000 environmentally clean trucks and a requirement that all licensed concessionaires have employee drivers. The plan would be implemented on January 1, 2008.

"The Ports' approach is something we should all be proud of. It is a huge step forward in our quest for clean air." Melissa Lin Perrella, Senior Project Attorney, NRDC/CAAP Taskforce Member

"The joint proposal of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach was a bold, forward thinking, and well thought out plan that will make great strides in providing a sustainable solution to the longstanding environmental and economic problems that have plagued the port trucking system. The members of the two port commissions and their staffs should be commended for having stepped up to the plate and developed a comprehensive solution to a complex and difficult problem." Barry Broad, Director of the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council

"Port trucking is a crisis of deadly diesel pollution, clogged freeways, and substandard working conditions. The ports put an impressive proposal on the table, and they had clearly worked hard on it, judging by the broad agreement around the table. There was general consensus in the room that this was a fair and reasonable approach." Candice Kim, Campaign Associate, Coalition for Clean Air

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Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports * 1714 Franklin St., Suite 325, Oakland, CA 94607

The Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports is committed to working with Port stakeholders to develop a lasting solution to the crisis in port trucking. The Coalition includes environmental, labor, faith, public health and community organizations that are promoting sustainable economic development at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

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