Protesters Crash Port Meeting About Air-Quality Pl

[HardTimeTrucker]

Protesters Crash Port Meeting About Air-Quality Plan

By Chris Metinko
Oakland Tribune

05/03/2009


Protesters stormed and disrupted a Port of Oakland meeting early Saturday, saying a new plan to manage truck traffic at the port fails to address environmental issues, and does nothing to improve working conditions for drivers.

"We do not accept the plan that has been articulated," said the Rev. Eric Gabourel, a member of the East Bay Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, as he helped lead the protesters into a meeting room at Oakland City Hall. "It is not going to get us clean air. It is not going to give us local hires."

Gabourel joined others outside City Hall before the meeting to help rally environmentalists, truckers, community leaders and others to protest the port's new Comprehensive Truck Management Plan.

Port officials say the $15 million plan would help reduce pollution, improve security and meet business needs. It includes $5 million for truck retrofits to help bring them in compliance with upcoming air-quality regulations and would create a truck database registry, so officials would know what trucks are entering and exiting and if they are abiding by all regulations.

"We need to move forward with this," said Omar Benjamin, executive director of the Port of Oakland. "If we don't move forward, we are not going to clean the air."

The port is trying to reduce seaport diesel pollution by 85 percent by 2020.

But the protesters said the plan is neither comprehensive nor sustainable. They said the

port should instead go with an employee driver-based port trucking system, in which drivers would be employed by trucking companies that would pay them a better wage and make sure their trucks were up-to-date with the latest environmentally friendly technology.

"It should be the responsibility of trucking companies to upgrade the trucks," said Aditi Vaidya, port program director for the East Bay alliance for a Sustainable Economy. "The truckers themselves cannot afford it."

Many truckers at the port are independent contractors.

"Being an independent contractor is like being a slave," said Muhammed Asif, a 56-year-old truck driver from Oakland. Asif said he gets paid between $5 and $6 an hour from work at the port, making it hard to upgrade or retrofit his truck to meet new standards.

"It's hard to put food on my table," he added.

The plan is set to be heard by the port's Maritime Committee May 26 and go for final approval by the board June 2.

Public comments on the plan are being accepted until May 15.

[hammerdown85]

clean air is a good thing but in the name of free interprise the goverment is not looking .that we need goverment to step in and set the rates and conditions by which we oprete because the reason that we have not met better compliance level is because what they pay is not fair. big money is spend to keep us down and now after years doing the dirty work now our trucks are dirty so the teamters and envromentalis blow the horn and point at us .so now % are the problem.good luck we need to get together

[hammerdown85]

you all need to talk ila union iam owner operetor in miami florida and workl local and florida iam represented by the ila plus another 400 or 600 other owner drivers .

[clubcar]

May 3, 2009 10:22:39 GMT -5 HardTimeTrucker said:

Protesters Crash Port Meeting About Air-Quality Plan

By Chris Metinko
Oakland Tribune

05/03/2009


Protesters stormed and disrupted a Port of Oakland meeting early Saturday, saying a new plan to manage truck traffic at the port fails to address environmental issues, and does nothing to improve working conditions for drivers.

"We do not accept the plan that has been articulated," said the Rev. Eric Gabourel, a member of the East Bay Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, as he helped lead the protesters into a meeting room at Oakland City Hall. "It is not going to get us clean air. It is not going to give us local hires."

Gabourel joined others outside City Hall before the meeting to help rally environmentalists, truckers, community leaders and others to protest the port's new Comprehensive Truck Management Plan.

Port officials say the $15 million plan would help reduce pollution, improve security and meet business needs. It includes $5 million for truck retrofits to help bring them in compliance with upcoming air-quality regulations and would create a truck database registry, so officials would know what trucks are entering and exiting and if they are abiding by all regulations.

"We need to move forward with this," said Omar Benjamin, executive director of the Port of Oakland. "If we don't move forward, we are not going to clean the air."

The port is trying to reduce seaport diesel pollution by 85 percent by 2020.

But the protesters said the plan is neither comprehensive nor sustainable. They said the

port should instead go with an employee driver-based port trucking system, in which drivers would be employed by trucking companies that would pay them a better wage and make sure their trucks were up-to-date with the latest environmentally friendly technology.

"It should be the responsibility of trucking companies to upgrade the trucks," said Aditi Vaidya, port program director for the East Bay alliance for a Sustainable Economy. "The truckers themselves cannot afford it."

Many truckers at the port are independent contractors.

"Being an independent contractor is like being a slave," said Muhammed Asif, a 56-year-old truck driver from Oakland. Asif said he gets paid between $5 and $6 an hour from work at the port, making it hard to upgrade or retrofit his truck to meet new standards.

"It's hard to put food on my table," he added.

The plan is set to be heard by the port's Maritime Committee May 26 and go for final approval by the board June 2.

Public comments on the plan are being accepted until May 15.

Anybody working for $5 to $6 dollars per hour after expenses is an idiot. The driver excepting this type rate is the problem. This sounds more like propaganda bullsh^t from the greenie groups promoting the Teamster line of crap to the media.
It's simple, pay more money to the owner--operator to pull this garbage so everyone can afford the new upgrades if that is really what this clean truck program is all about. Think about it. If the drivers who own the trucks now can't afford the newer upgrades, how will the motor carriers do it without first raising the freight rates. Who is holding back the money now if it's being paid out to move the cans?

[hammerdown85]

you are right cludcar this have been talk about in some dart coner went they get there hands
al over they will have the excuse they need to raise rates and with us out do to new laws making ou
r trucks dirty that the trick. we must unite

[hammerdown85]

down south miami we have seabord marine and tropical shipping they have truck owner operetor pulling there cans maybe they all do that and pay us brooker rates .

[hightide]

May 3, 2009 12:20:15 GMT -5 hammerdown85 said:

you all need to talk ila union iam owner operetor in miami florida and workl local and florida iam represented by the ila plus another 400 or 600 other owner drivers .

I am an O/O trucker and have no problem joining a union as long as I continue hauling with my own truck. I can remember here in Charleston, SC that this started off 11 years ago with the ILA union going to help us but then somehow in the process we got handed off to the Teamsters. From the start I would have rather stuck with the longshoremen's union. I hope we can get back to that since now I understand that the ILA has O/O truckers in a Miami, Fl. longshore Local. I belonged to a trucker assoc. called the UCMA in Charleston which was abolished after the Teamsters took over the trucker organizing here.

[VirginiaDispatch]

First of all we are an independent contractor only when the company wants us to be. The rest of the time we are treated as their company employee who leases a power unit to them. This green coalition group controlled by the Teamsters is scripted to throw around the term independent contractor as if we can do nothing about that stereo type. That's not exactly the truth.
If the ILA has lease/operators in their own union that tells me we all can have recognition as an employee under the law. Only an employee can join a union and be protected under federal labor law. It doesn't make any difference who owns the equipment as long as the driver is recognized as an employee by the employer. That employee recognition allows us to unionize and collective bargain as a large group of truckers. No one has to give up any right to ownership to belong to the union. So what gives here with the Teamsters going after our trucks?