New York's Bloomberg Backs Employee Mandate for Po

[HardTimeTrucker]

New York's Bloomberg Backs Employee Mandate for Port Drivers

Bill Mongelluzzo | Oct 19, 2009

The Journal of Commerce

Newark, N.J., Mayor Booker joins Bloomberg, Teamsters in call for federal regulatory changes

The mayors of New York and Newark, N.J., surprised the trucking industry – as well as the bi-state port authority – by announcing on Sunday their support for a clean-trucks program that would make it possible for labor unions to organize harbor truck drivers.

Mayors Mike Bloomberg of New York and Cory Booker of Newark not only endorsed a clean-trucks program modeled after the controversial one in Los Angeles, but the mayors also said they support an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act to grant port authorities regulatory authority over harbor trucking.

The mayors’ action received immediate support from James Hoffa, general president of the Teamsters union, which wants to organize the independent contract drivers that dominate harbor trucking at U.S. ports.

“I am proud to stand with Mayors Bloomberg and Booker today to call on our elected leaders in Washington to update the antiquated motor carrier act so we can clean up this dirty, inefficient industry once and for all,” Hoffa said.

Labor and environmental interests say a harbor trucking industry dominated by financially sound motor carriers with employee drivers is necessary for the long-term sustainability of a clean-trucks program. Independent owner-operators do not earn enough to purchase and maintain new, environmentally compliant trucks, these groups say.

The F4A, as the act is known informally, gives the federal government preemption authority over state and local entities in regulating interstate commerce. The city and Port of Los Angeles have led the drive to amend the act to give ports regulatory authority over harbor trucking in matters relating to security, safety and the environment.

An F4A amendment, which must be enacted by Congress, is required for the Teamsters to have any chance to organize the independent contractor drivers that work at most U.S. ports. Unions by law can not organize independent contractors, but they are free to attempt to organize employee drivers.

The original clean-trucks plan in Los Angeles required the phase-in of employee drivers as part of its concession program, but that provision was struck down by the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.

The Teamsters’ strategy is therefore to find union-friendly mayors to announce support for an amendment to the F4A. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was the first mayor to announce support, and he was followed by Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.

The announcement Sunday by Bloomberg and Booker caught the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by surprise as well. A port spokesman said the cities did not consult port staff before making the announcement at a press conference.

Port authorities are sensitive to this issue because organizations that represent importers and exporters oppose an amendment to the F4A, saying it would create an uncertain regulatory environment. Shipper organizations added that their members divert cargo from ports that openly support the amendment.

Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at [e-mail].

[HardTimeTrucker]

Truckers hauling intermodal as well as any port cargo had better be making plans to have your voice heard on this before it's to late. This ruling will effect all (OTR & local) truckers pulling cargo from the port and rail terminals.

"Owner-operator truckers", this is about your right to truck ownership. If this passes in Congress the port authority terminal management will able to ban O/O's from hauling everything at the port or even delivered or picked up within fifty plus miles of the port that's considered intermodal or other type ocean cargo.

This could possibly include everything from containers, coils of steel, reefer freight, tank, or heavy equipment imported or exported...

[yarddog]

On the Waterfront: Trucking re-regulation becoming a national issue

By Kristopher Hanson, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/19/2009


What began a few years ago as an effort to rid Southern California's port communities of the soot-spewing container trucks poisoning local skies has morphed into a national battle to re-regulate sections of the trucking industry.

From New York to Los Angeles, calls for reform - which supporters equate with "economic justice" for drivers - have pitted big-city mayors, environmentalists, progressive Congressmembers and communities against retailers, international shippers, agribusiness, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and of course, the trucking industry.

In New York City on Sunday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference with Newark Mayor Cory Booker urging Congress to allow local port authorities to regulate the trucking firms doing business on their waterfronts.

In all cases, supporters of reform cite the battle under way in the Port of Los Angeles, where an attempt to require trucking companies - and not drivers - purchase and maintain the trucks they dispatch to the nation's largest seaport has been challenged in federal court as a violation of federal law.

"For too long, we've been offered a false choice between economic growth and environmental sustainability," Bloomberg said. "From our Million Trees program to our Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, we have proven in New York City that we can provide economic opportunities while advancing our environmental goals. Today, I am calling on Congress to support legislation that empowers ports to implement the L.A. Clean Trucks Program, an innovative initiative that will create good, green jobs and improve the quality of air that New Yorkers breathe."

At the heart of the matter is a little-known piece of federal law, the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, or FAAAA, which effectively allows companies to classify drivers as non-employees, or "independent owner-operators," who get paid by the load and are made responsible for their own trucks, maintenance, fuel, insurance, tires and other necessities.

Los Angeles attempted to alter the business model by requiring that companies sign concession agreements to do business on their waterfront property, similar to agreements cities make with taxicab companies regulating prices, service and safety.

Long Beach's approach has been slightly different in that port authorities there agreed with Los Angeles on the need for concession agreements, but not on the need to make companies own the rigs they dispatch.

The debate goes back to 1980, when Congress passed the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, ending decades of tight federal control of the trucking industry enacted during the depths of the Great Depression and opening the door for thousands of new, non-unionized firms to flood the market with drivers paid not by the hour, but by the load.

Overhead on these new companies was low as they generally didn't offer health benefits, retirement packages or overtime - an advantage that quickly allowed them to capture a large share of the market from the large, unionized firms.

Within a few years of the law, membership in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters had been decimated, and in and around the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, virtually exterminated. Drivers who had built up strong contracts with their employers offering pensions, overtime, healthcare and other perks now found themselves competing with drivers who got the job done for a fraction of the cost.

Deregulation expanded under President Bill Clinton, who signed a reformed FAAAA law in August 1994. The commander-in-chief was clearly convinced that the fragments of regulation that remained were destroying competitiveness in the intermodal trucking industry.

"This legislation is proof that we can end government activities when they have outlived their usefulness," Clinton said, adding that long-standing laws regulating the trucking industry "impede efficient intermodal freight transportation."

He then predicted that "freight rates will become more competitive, truck service will become better and more reliable...and employment in the trucking services industry will increase substantially."

But years later, as more and more truckers serving the ports struggled to make ends meet under deregulation - as evidenced in numerous studies showing driver wages averaging $10-$12 per hour - momentum began swinging back in favor regulation, which supporters contend will allow drivers to once again be employees of the firms they work for, instead of "independent owner-operators" with little power and no federal backing to collectively push for better wages, health benefits or retirement plans.

It's a battle they plan to take to the floors of Congress, where they already have backing from President Obama, dozens of congress members and senators and the Federal Maritime Commission, which recently dropped its lawsuit against the Los Angeles plan under the guidance of its new commission chairman Richard Lidinsky.

It's also clearly the best shot the Teamsters and other unions have at reclaiming control of a workforce they lost during the deregulation craze of the 1980s and 90s, which included not only trucking but air travel, banking and financial services.

"Ports need the clear authority to implement 21st century policies that protect workers and the environment so we can pave the way for future, green growth and good jobs," said James Hoffa, Teamsters President during the Sunday meeting with Bloomberg.

Of course, the effort has powerful detractors, including a coalition of organizations representing some of the nation's largest retailers, shippers, farms and other businesses.

In a Sept. 25 letter to Congressman James Oberstar, D-Minn., the influential lawmaker who oversees the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the business coalition said any amendments to existing law would undermine small businesses and put countless drivers out of work.

"The idea that owner-operators need port concession plans for some kind of economic justice is equally false," the letter states. "Were an employee mandate to be imposed on owner-operators, it would force them to give up their independent business and go to work as employees. There is no economic justice in forcing the closure of small business ventures because of the patently false notion that small business can't meet environmental or safety standards."

[e-mail], 562-499-1461

[canhauler]

I would like to know what Bloomberg has investments in if say the ports of NY/NJ are taken over by a handful of super size trucking companies? What's his true interest in this? I hardly think air quality is number one. Look at the plants there spewing toxic brews into the atmosphere. Maybe truckers are 3% of the pollution problem if you count all truckers rolling along the I-95 corridor a stones throw from the Elizabeth port terminals. No it has to be something else to this.

[Dixietramp]

this stinks.they should take down the statue of liberty in newyork harbor since now our freedom is being trampled.someone here besides the greedy teamsters is making out big on payoffs trying to make it all company owned trucks serving the ports.