Photo by Bill Orton.

Chino Mayor and AQMD board member Dennis Yates presents the “Promotion of Good Environmental Stewardship” award to ILWU Local 13 Safety and Benefits Officer Dave Beeman Oct. 12 at the Southern California Air Quality Management District’s 18th annual “Clean Air Awards,” held at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Beeman was joined at the ceremony by Coast Safety Committee member Pete Favazza.

Local 13 and the ILWU were applauded for more than five years of activism in support of cleaning up air pollution at the ports, culminating in the January announcement of the union’s “Saving Lives” campaign which calls for all ships calling on West Coast ports to reduce smokestack emissions by 20 percent.

“Their members are the first to suffer adverse effects of air pollution” from the harbor, said Yates.

Beeman, in accepting the award, said that the union’s goal of pressuring industry to cut emissions is possible, citing Maersk’s decision to switch to cleaner-burning fuel.

“We applaud the direction they’ve taken,” Beeman said. “They’ve shown the business community that there is a means of controlling our immediate environment and everyone should step up to the plate.”