Port Drivers to Mobilize Huge Rush-Hour Convoy of 100 Diesel Trucks; Freeway to Harbor Action a Push for Clean Air, Healthy Communities, Employee Rights

Helicopter shots recommended
Early morning interviews available    

Wednesday, June 27:

• 7 a.m. South L.A. staging;
• 8-10 a.m. 110 Harbor Fwy Convoy;
• 10:00 a.m. confrontation in Long Beach

Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports Press Contacts:
Barbara Maynard: (213) 387-0780 or (323) 351-9321 (cell)

Los Angeles (June 26, 2006) Increasing concern by Los Angeles and Long Beach port truck drivers over trucking companies' opposition to the Ports' "Clean Trucks Program" come to a head Wednesday when more than 100 dirty diesel-spewing trucks driven by mostly immigrant drivers jam the 110 Harbor freeway in late morning rush hour. Drivers at the Port of Oakland will hold a simultaneous rally. In L.A., port truck drivers will convoy from a staging area near their homes in South L.A. to a closed-door meeting of port stakeholders in Long Beach where drivers will challenge the trucking industry representative. A hearse will lead the convoy, symbolizing a memorial for children dying from polluted harbor air.

Responsibility for buying and maintaining the trucks moving goods from the Ports to "Big Box" retailers such as Target, Wal Mart, and Home Depot-and complying with clean air standards-currently falls on 16,000 port truck drivers. The drivers, who effectively earn minimum wages with no benefits, are misclassified as "independent contractors" since they contract with trucking firms that profit from the present system.

Port trucks owned and operated by these drivers are a major source of pollution from the harbor, leading to a high incidence of asthma, cancer and other diseases disproportionately affecting children in communities, including port driver families. Drivers cannot afford to buy, retrofit or maintain environmentally clean trucks that reverse deadly air pollution. So the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach's Clean Trucks Program would shift responsibility for cleaning up the air and halting pollution from the drivers to the trucking companies and their clients (e.g., Target).

A group of port stakeholders gathers Wednesday at the Port of Long Beach headquarters for a closed-door meeting, the third of three such sessions to take up the Clean Trucks Program, leading to votes on by the L.A. and Long Beach ports commissions in July. No port driver is included in that group. However, the California Trucking Association-which filed suit to stop implementation of new standards in the Clean Trucks Program---has a representative in the meeting.  Growing frustration by port drivers over trucking industry efforts to kill the Clean Trucks Program and preserve the status quo is behind the day of protest on Wednesday, June 27, 2007:

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

6:30 to 8:00 a.m. - One hundred port drivers assemble with their trucks at the staging location in South L.A. at Exposition Parking Lot 5, 807 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (at Hoover St.), L.A.  Early morning interviews can be arranged upon request.

8 to 10 a.m.- A massive convoy of 100 diesel-spewing trucks drive south, jamming the 110 Harbor freeway during late morning rush hour.  Helicopter shots recommended.

10 a.m.-Trucks and drivers, along with environmental, community, and public health activists, arrive for a rally at the Port of Long Beach headquarters, 925 Harbor Plaza, Long Beach, where a stakeholder group is meeting on the 5th floor.

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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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