California Ports Truck Protests

18Jul

California Ports Truck Protests

Courtesy of Peter Friedmann, Pacific Coast Council of Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association

Dear Valued Customer,

According to Peter Friedmann, “The threatened protests by independent contractor truckers, are becoming a reality, although not uniform at Oakland, LA, Long Beach terminals.”

“Below may be useful. But first, an explanation as to impact of AB5 on California port trucking costs: Under US competition law, independent business (such as independent contractors) cannot form or join unions; but employees can be organized into unions. Thus the Teamsters have been pressing for years to get CA to force drivers to be employees of trucking companies, and not hired as independent contractors. AB5 accomplishes this. Lyft and Uber spent millions to have their drivers exempted from AB5. The trucking associations challenged AB5, but the US Supreme Court chose not to prevent AB5 from being implemented. Big victory for Teamsters. Independent contractors will either become employees, or some will retire, or some trucking companies will become trucking brokers in order to work around the ban on directly hiring these independent contractors. Bottom line: trucking becomes more expensive in CA.”

He adds, “Individual ILWU members apparently posting support and urging a work slowdown as well.”

He goes on to say, “We are informing you that several strikes are taking place today at both LA and LB Ports in protest of AB5. Strikers have shut down the Vincent Thomas Bridge and are currently protesting at Yusen, Total and WBCT Terminals.”

Please note that a Stop Work meeting has been advised for tomorrow which will add increased delays in LA/LB.

“There are approximately 35-protestors at the front gate of TTI. Long Beach Harbor Patrol and Long Beach Police are on scene monitoring to ensure safety of the protestors and maintain an emergency thru-lane. The security division management team is continuing to monitor and is in communication with the TTI management team.”

Traffic Impacts

Furthermore, he states, “A convoy of approximately 500-600 trucks left the westbound Vincent Thomas Bridge and was conducting a “slow-roll” northbound 110 to southbound 405 to southbound 710 freeway.” CHP was traveling with the caravan to ensure safety. There was a backup on the NB 710.

Port of Long Beach Impacts

Terminal	Number of protesters	Number of Trucks	Operations Impacts
TTI	40 + (Front Gate)	70+	Operations significantly impacted
LBCT	0	0
SSA	0	0
ITS/PCT	9+	5	Operations not affected

Thank you for your attention. If you have any questions, please contact your nearest JJB representative.

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