Clogged California ports face new labor risk from trucking

OAKLAND, July 18 (Reuters) – Truck drivers choked site visitors on the Oakland, California, seaport on Monday protesting a state legislation that makes it more durable for unbiased contractors to move items and will restrict labor on the state’s already clogged seaports, threatening to worsen the nation’s pandemic-fueled provide chain jams.

California’s ports deal with about 40% of container items that enter america. Trucking disruptions come at a time when unions and West Coast port employers are additionally negotiating a high-stakes labor contract. learn extra

The legislation, generally known as AB5, or the “gig employee” legislation, units more durable requirements for classifying staff as unbiased contractors. Unbiased truckers who now function underneath the authority and insurance coverage of firms that rent them for jobs could be shouldered with the hefty prices and crimson tape of taking that on when the legislation is enacted.

“They wish to remove us,” stated unbiased driver Douglas Urtado, who joined dozens of protesters on Monday on the Oakland seaport within the San Francisco Bay Space.

Wayne Feng, sporting a “No on AB5” T-shirt, instructed Reuters the legislation could be so financially draining that drivers “aren’t making something.”

Authorized challenges saved the legislation from going into impact in 2020, however the U.S. Supreme Court docket final month denied a California Trucking Affiliation petition claiming the legislation is blocked by federal laws. Specialists say an injunction that put the legislation on maintain may quickly be lifted. learn extra

Greater than 100 drivers and small trucking firm operators against the legislation swarmed two terminal gates within the Port of Oakland, slowing truck entry to a trickle. The motion got here after port truckers in Los Angeles picketed gates and snarled roadways on the nation’s busiest seaport complicated final week.

Enterprise proprietor Josue Mendez, 29, stated AB5 would devastate his port trucking agency, which depends on 10 unbiased drivers to maneuver all the pieces from medical tools to almonds.

“I can not rent them” and be in compliance with AB5, stated Mendez.

Backers of AB5, which embody the Teamsters union that after dominated trucking, say it’ll crack down on trucking firm labor abuses by pushing homeowners to rent drivers as staff and supply staff’ compensation insurance coverage and different advantages.

Business teams representing roughly 20,000 Los Angeles and Oakland port truckers, together with the Proprietor-Operator Unbiased Drivers Affiliation, have requested California Governor Gavin Newsom to not implement the legislation till owner-operators have details about how one can legally function as unbiased contractors.

Newsom’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

California’s port trucking work practices hint again to the Nineteen Eighties, when america deregulated trucking. That remodeled the enterprise from one dominated by giant, unionized firms to the present mannequin wherein most corporations depend on unbiased drivers, a lot of whom are latest immigrants.

Port driver pay is now one-half to two-thirds lower than what it was earlier than deregulation, based on an estimate from Wayne State College economics professor Michael Belzer. It’s tough to derive correct information on compensation as a result of authorities information, notably on hours labored, is incomplete, he stated.

Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Enhancing by Josie Kao and Leslie Adler

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