Fighting for a Real Solution at the Oakland Port

Port Convention Attacked by Pranksters Armed with ‘Snark and a Pointed Critique’

September 13, 2011

Port officials and shipping industry leaders attending the annual American Association of Port Authorities convention woke up to find themselves the unwitting victims of a prank by environmental, faith, labor and community activists.

Outhouses and Injustices: Australia’s Toll Group Degrades America’s Truck Drivers

September 10, 2011

The ugly laws that relegated black Americans to second-class citizens for nearly a century in the post-slavery South were struck down over 45 years ago. Appallingly, that hasn’t stopped the Australian-based corporation that currently handles cargo for popular apparel and athletic brands Guess? and Under Armour from conducting business practices in Southern California that smack of Jim Crow.

Just as African-Americans were forced to use separate, inferior public restrooms and drinking fountains, Toll Group, a global transportation and logistics powerhouse, explicitly bars its truck drivers from using the clean and stocked indoor facilities; these roughly 75 men and women who haul imports for the fashion and footwear retail customers must share a trio of foul-smelling, unsanitary port-a-potties that lack running water outside in the company yard. Every Toll Group employee and manager is also free to use the break room during rest and meal periods, except the mostly Latino-American workers whose job it is to haul giant containers from port terminals to local warehouses.

Perhaps this multinational corporation is turning up the exploitation because many workers are too afraid to speak out when unemployment is so high. But these brave truck drivers began organizing themselves to put a stop to Toll’s inhumane treatment and now they need our help.

When the Los Angeles heat rises, or when the outhouses simply haven’t been cleaned after several shifts, drivers say they are so disgusted by the flies, the stench, and unsanitary conditions that they are better off relieving themselves outside. Female drivers don’t even have that option — they must put themselves at risk for infection by holding it until they can find a nearby fast-food chain or gas station. Workers on the night shift, like Jimmy Martinez, say it gets so dark, there’s not a chance he would enter.

On Wednesday, he and two other co-workers, Orlando Ayala and Luis Alay, attempted to speak to Toll’s top brass on behalf of 59 employees who work long hours to make their company profitable (Just last week it posted a rising net profit of $281 million). Their goal was to present a petition signed by the overwhelming majority of port drivers simply asking for equal access to clean and safe indoor restrooms and the break room; and the freedom to form a union without employer harassment and intimidation so they have the strength to end the humiliating environment and win improvements on the job.

The workers were accompanied by two advocates, Father William Connor, Priest Emeritus of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Long Beach, and the elected leader of the local union of transportation workers, Eric Tate of Teamsters Local 848. Outside, their co-workers, children and spouses hoisted signs in support of their efforts along with several dozen local residents and members of the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, an alliance of environmental, public health, faith, labor, and community groups. Port drivers from other companies nearby honked their horns in solidarity.

Inside, one of Toll’s senior executives, Vice President Rich Nazzaro, grew more defiant in the face of the workers’ calm show of unity. He flip-flopped on his previously stated open door policy by refusing to discuss remedying the injustices before refusing to accept the petition the drivers brought to him. The head of West Coast Operations even dismissed the pleas of the priest, saying that the moral and religious values of human dignity and respect may apply in church, but not in the workplace!

The situation in Los Angeles is a drastic contrast to how Toll Group treats its truck drivers in Australia. They aren’t discriminated against, nor is their profession devalued. Aussie drivers earn a fair wage for a hard day’s work, health care, and paid time off to spend with their families. That’s all their American counterparts want, but the ask is too much for a company with revenue that recently climbed 18 percent to a whopping $8.6 billion.

So what’s it going to take to get Guess? and Under Armour’s carrier to treat its workers with dignity and respect? Like the four students who first sat down in non-violent protest to order coffee at a “white only” lunch counter one February 1960 afternoon in Greensboro, N.C. ignited a series of growing sit-in actions that led to Woolworth’s reversing its policy of racial exclusion, Jimmy, Orlando, and Luis know that speaking truth to power is not enough. They are sparking a real movement with their co-workers, other drivers, and the community to end the pervasive injustice at their company and across the entire port trucking industry.

Already, Toll’s Australian employees and the union that represents them are publicly to speaking out against the segregation exhibited by their joint employer. Now in the U.S. the workers are asking supporters and consumers like you to sign onto the solidarity petition to management that local residents are now circulating. On this Labor Day, please add your name and spend another minute to forward it to as many friends as possible.

Thank you for your support.

First-Rate Truck Drivers, Second-Class Citizens, & Third-World Conditions

September 9, 2011

“We are not second-class citizens, we are first-rate truck drivers….Don’t the men and women who keep the economy moving deserve a shot at the American Dream?”

Yes, Karael Vallecillos, you do. But currently, this Los Angeles father with 11 years of experience as a professional port truck driver and his co-workers aren’t even allowed to use their company’s bathroom.

Karael works long hours away from his family in what the Labor Department calls one of the nation’s Top 10 dangerous occupations. He and his co-workers have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging that their Australian-based employer Toll Group, a global logistics carrier for popular fashion and athletic brands Guess? and Under Armour, is interfering with their legal right to form a union.

Karael was recently interrogated by management for hours for a routine traffic citation – ubiquitous in the transportation industry – simply because they knew he and his co-workers began organizing. And why wouldn’t they? Toll Group, a powerful and highly profitable powerhouse, subjects its truck drivers to inhumane treatment, including foul-smelling outhouses that lack running water and are rarely cleaned. “We just want our hard work to be valued.”

The charges, which range from intimidation, harassment, and retaliation on behalf of seven employees, came two days after an overwhelming majority of the roughly 75 truck drivers at Toll Group’s Southern California facilities attempted to present 59 signatures to top management on a petition they created to indicate their desire to collectively bargain to end their deplorable working conditions.

Community advocates, clergy, local residents, and labor, environmental and public health activists, liken their working conditions to the Jim Crow laws that governed the post-slavery South until the mid 1960’s.

“I never would have imagined, in 2011, that a foreign company would force their U.S. workers to use separate, unequal outhouses. The stench and unsanitary conditions are so appalling, the drivers are better off relieving themselves outside. Female drivers don’t even have that option — they must put themselves at risk for infection by holding it,” said Father William Connor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Long Beach, CA, who accompanied the drivers in their rebuffed attempt to calmly appeal to their employer’s top brass. “I am deeply concerned that management respect the drivers’ right to decent working conditions and a living wage. The Church cares deeply about economic justice, which applies to the Toll situation.”

Father Connor added that he was disappointed that Toll’s Vice President of West Coast Operations, Rich Nazzaro, dismissed the workers’ pleas. The Pastor Emeritus vowed to work with Eric Tate, the secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 848 – the truck drivers’ choice for a bargaining representative – to support the workers’ efforts to unite.

You can help Karael and his co-workers achieve justice on the job, too. Click here to sign the solidarity petition, and forward to your friends and family who stand for dignity and respect in the workplace too.

Clean Truck Cagematch: A Deep Fissure in the Industry is Exposed!

August 16, 2011

A band of Oakland port trucking bosses said they were for clean air…before they were against it. And one another.

First the West State Alliance, a group hell-bent on fighting the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, struck out in trying to persuade state regulators at the California Air Resources Board to gut port diesel truck standards to dramatically reduce toxic pollutants. So they pleaded their case to the Alameda County Supervisors, who recently held a public hearing to talk about it.

But their strategy backfired when disagreement within the industry ranks bubbled to the surface.

On the “hot air” side you had trucking company owners saying life-saving environmental standards should be delayed. (These are the same companies that force truck costs onto the backs of their individual drivers through tax evasion and wage theft schemes, more wonkily known as “employment misclassification.”).

“Our hope as an organization is that the CARB staff and Board can revisit their Dec. 17 decision [not to delay the Phase II emission-related upgrades for port truck requirements] as a matter of internal policy,” Ronald Light, Executive Director of the West State Alliance, told FleetOwner, an industry publication. We hope they will see the merits of a delay.” And if they don’t get their way, they’re threatening to take legal action.

Trucking company owners admitted that drivers are under water from paying high interest rates on loans and carrying large debt. What do you expect when drivers only make $25,000 a year? You think they can buy and maintain $100,000 trucks or even $20,000 retrofit filters.

“The pool of owner-operators now, they can’t afford an $80,000 truck,” West State Alliance Board Member Mike Evans told Land Line Magazine.

On the other (reasonable, responsible) side company execs who invested in new, clean trucks lined up to say keep the rules as is. Richard Coyle, President of Devine Intermodal told the panel:

“We and hundreds of companies like us, statewide, plus many individual owner operators built an entire business strategy on the rule in ’07, and that rule was to invest in our company, invest in our equipment, invest in our industry and invest in clean air. To reverse now would be vastly unfair to those of us who have invested in clean and safe trucks. Clean, efficient and new trucks dominate the port landscape inLos Angeles and Long Beach. We need to stay the course, maintain the CARB rules that are in effect and make the Port of Oakland as clean and safe as the Southern California ports are.”

Isn’t it refreshing when forward-looking leaders state so clearly how competitive business strategies and environmental stewardship go hand in hand? Industry leaders that play by the rules and reject the failed status quo need policies that don’t leave them in a minority in the marketplace.

Furthermore, budget-busting government won’t come up with enough money to make the Oakland port truck fleet clean. And we know individual, impoverished truck drivers cannot foot that bill – and shouldn’t have to for that matter; they’re workers.

“There is money in the system. It is about time that the powerful and profitable shipping industry starts picking up the cost of their portion of clean air and good jobs,” said Christine Cordero of the Center for Environmental Health. “We hope that the Board of Supervisors does not actually peg their hopes on these false solutions of delays, delays and constantly pegging the drivers but look at real solutions that will change the system so we can get the polluters to pay.”

The polluters Christine talks about have names. Giant ones, like Wal-Mart, Target, Maersk…even Goldman Sachs is in the game. Our question is – why are government agencies and elected officials entertaining anything but making the industry pay?

AND THE SHAMELESS AWARD GOES TO…SSA Marine.

July 28, 2011

During the same week a federal court judge ruled the Port of Long Beach’s Clean Truck Program settlement with the American Trucking Associations in violation of state environmental law, the Long Beach Port Commission adds insult to injury by giving an award to the CEO of truck driver and public safety foe, SSA Marine. Jon F. Hemingway, the chief executive at Seattle based SSA Marine, was honored with the Port Pilot Award on July 22nd for his “extraordinary vision” and “leadership.”

The ill-advised recognition arrives on the heels of a Hemingway led SSA Marine losing a court appeal earlier this month to avoid paying a $14 million settlement to port driver Felipe Curiel who was nearly crushed to death in February of 2009 at Pier J in Long Beach. Despite Curiel being permanently disabled, and left dependent on orthopedic braces, SSA Marine shamelessly argued the injuries “were not that serious.” The accident occurred a week after an SSA owned Shippers Transport Express port driver, Pablo Garcia, was pinned to death between two chassis when a forklift driver struck his rig also at Pier J. The Garcia family was also awarded a monetary settlement with SSA Marine for an undisclosed large amount.

Just as SSA Marine attempts to avoid responsibility for negligence at its terminals, the industry giant is currently pursuing preferential crane rental rates for itself at the Port of Seattle. Neither the Port of Seattle, or SSA Marine has disclosed the estimated impact on tax revenue coffers, but it is believed to be in the tens of millions. This latest evasion stunt is reminiscent of the type of Wall Street trickery mastered by SSA’s 49% owner Goldman Sachs who received $23 billion in governmental aid, yet only paid a crumb of its tax liability for 2008. With little if any public scrutiny, the Port of Seattle will most likely rubberstamp SSA’s request to amend their lease agreement.

Under the helm of Jon F. Hemingway, SSA Marine has jeopardized the lives of port drivers, and has tactfully tried to enrich its coffers at the loss of revenues for publicly owned ports up and down the West Coast. So then why is the Port of Long Beach’s coronation of SSA Marine with a “prestigious” award not a surprise? As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. We would not expect anything less from a port that violated the California Environmental Quality Act to appease industry’s desire for a green washed Clean Trucks Program.