In separate decisions, commissioners at the Ports of Oakland and Los Angeles recently voted to reduce pollution from trucks and ships – while strengthening the rights of truckers who work at the ports.

    “These decisions mean port workers can look forward to cleaner air on the docks, and it allows the industry to move forward by dealing with pollution that’s been an obstacle to growth,” said Coast Committeeman Ray Ortiz, Jr.

    The Los Angeles Harbor Commission unanimously approved a Clean Trucks program on March 20 that will upgrade the 17,000 drayage trucks that have the most outdated, dirty engines and cause much of the pollution that affects residents in San Pedro, Wilmington, and other towns around the port.

    The Clean Trucks plan was supported by labor, environmental, and community groups – and strongly opposed by anti-union forces. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union supported the effort.

    “We want to help workers who are trying to organize,” said Ortiz “and the port’s Clean Trucks program was the best plan out there.  It creates trucking companies with a stable workforce and the resources to maintain fleets with cleaner vehicles.”

    The Port of Long Beach remains opposed to implementing the plan to help truckers become direct employees – instead of independent operators – and improve working conditions. Los Angeles and Long Beach are also implementing a plan on July 1 that will reduce emissions from over 5,000 ships calling at the ports. Companies will help pay for the Clean Trucks program.    

    Up north in the Bay Area, port truckers who are part of the local Clean and Safe Ports Coalition, held a march and rally in West Oakland on March 18 to protest their unsafe working conditions and appeal to the Port of Oakland to pass a measure similar to the one adopted in Los Angeles.

  ILWU Local 10 President Melvin Mackay was on hand to support the event, along with Business Agents Frank Gaskin and Trent Willis, Executive Board member Jack Heyman, and the union’s regional “Saving Lives” representative, Clarence Thomas. 

    That evening, the port’s Board of Commissioners passed a container plan similar to the one in Los Angeles, but they didn’t decide how to pay for the plan.  More importantly, the commissioners sidestepped the issues of fair labor rights for poorly paid port truckers, deciding to revisit that part of the plan at a later date. 

    The same week as the Oakland Port Commissioners’ vote, the California Air Resources Board, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District released a study of the port’s emissions impact on residents living in the Bay Area.

 The study showed that residents—especially those living in the portside community of West Oakland—face a much higher risk of cancer from exposure to diesel particulates from trucks, trains and ships at the port. ILWU Local 10 responded to the study’s findings with alarm in a press statement, since many of its members not only spend their days at the port but also live around it.

    “We work and live in this com- munity,” said ILWU Local 10 President Melvin Mackay. “We breathe the same dirty air on the docks that West Oakland residents do on their streets. We’re very concerned about the cancer and asthma risks that this study found. The shipping industry needs to take more steps to reduce its pollution.”

– John Showalter