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OPINION * USA - On the Waterfront: The Struggle for Sustainable Port Trucking
Chicago,IL,USA -In These Times, by Michelle Chen -August 6, 2009: -- America’s teeming harbors are the lifeblood of global commerce. But for the truck drivers who keep the shipping industry flowing, and the communities living downwind, the bustling ports emit a peculiar kind of poison... A recent report by the think tank DEMOS details the corrosive impact of deregulation on the port trucking industry over the past generation. The Motor Carrier Act of 1980, which was intended to break monopolies and lower shipping rates, has in fact sent a once-solid profession into free fall... The result? Drivers today are forced to work long hours for extremely low wages, in large part because they are classified as contractors, rather than employees... Though they supposedly operate as independent business people, contractors are typically tethered to the bosses of trucking companies that control their vehicles and exploit drivers as marginal labor... The urban ecological crisis is pushing “blue” and “green” organizations to seed fresh alliances with poor communities of color... The road to a sustainable waterfront can’t just end at a fair paycheck for truck drivers. The ultimate destination is a community that enables all its members to work and live with dignity... (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images - Trucks drive near the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the busiest port complex in the United States)Labels: opinions
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