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CELAN TRUCKS' COMMENTARY * USA - LA’s Wrong Turn
No other seaport supports Los Angeles and Oakland, including Long Beach
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Journal of Commerce, by Peter Tirschwell -Aug 14, 2009: -- The idea that only employee drivers who could eventually be unionized would be able to reduce truck emissions around seaports was preposterous on its face as well as illegal, and it took the federal courts to point this out to the Port of Los Angeles... The port’s attempt to mandate employee drivers on all trucks entering its terminals as part of its clean-trucks program exposed the organization not as a green port pioneer, but as a political entity willing to advance an anti-trade, pro-labor agenda at the behest of former union leader and current Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa... A port driver pool converted from today’s independent owner-operators into a work force organized by the Teamsters has no connection to air quality, but it would be a game changer in international trade... It would empower the union to shut down seaports as easily as longshoremen such as those at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union can today, giving it extraordinary leverage in collective bargaining and unquestionably increasing the cost of moving goods in and out of the country. Anyone who doubts this need only recall how shipping company Sea-Land Service was all but shut down during the 1997 Teamsters strike against UPS... Few would deny freight transport deregulation has delivered incomparable benefit to the U.S. economy by reducing costs and improving competitiveness, elements desperately needed as the U.S. faces off again rising powers such as China. For international container trade — a huge portion of U.S. global trade — those benefits are now at risk... The trade community recognizes the danger and is united against the effort. No other seaport supports Los Angeles and Oakland, including Long Beach, which has implemented its own clean-trucks program — without the employee driver mandate... After the Oakland Harbor Commission passed its resolution supporting the Los Angeles position, 32 trade groups representing importers, exporters, retailers and logistics firms signed a July 27 letter urging Oberstar to oppose the measure...(Photo from socalindustrialrealestateblog: Port of LA Sky View)
Labels: Clean Trucks Program
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