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Apr 2, 2009

Investigation * USA - Plight of Port Drivers

The dangerous lives of port drivers

Washington,DC,USA -International Brotherhood of Teamsters/Fox Business -1 April 2009: -- ... Every day 16,000 drivers transport goods from the Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., ports. The workforce is largely comprised of immigrants who have come to the United States in search of a better life. Instead, they have become victims of an exploitive industry that has used a loophole in the law for decades to misclassify them as independent contractors... This tactic allows the industry to deny the drivers basic rights including access to health care, retirement benefits, worker compensation and lack of work rules and safety regulations... The drivers often work 14-16 hours a day just to put food on the table for their families while paying to maintain their trucks and keep their gas tanks full. In addition to the abuse these workers endure from their employers, the job itself is inherently dangerous, leading to accidents -- that often go unreported by workers who fear the financial burden of medical care -- and in some cases deaths... Primer Impacto, Univision's award-winning news program, takes a look at two families whose lives were forever changed by accidents that occurred while a loved one was working as a driver out of the Port of Long Beach. The segment allows viewers to witness firsthand the devastating impact of these tragedies that have become all too common in our nation's ports... (Photo: Los Angeles Times, by Brian Vander Brug: A “llantero,” or tire man, cuts new grooves into a bald truck tire. Regrooving is legal, provided the tires are designed for it and their steel belts aren’t damaged in the process. If the belt is cut, “that tire becomes a time bomb,” an expert says)


OPINION * Time to Move On

Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Journal of Commerce Magazine, by Peter Tirschwell -Mar 30, 2009: -- Enough already. Enough of the unnecessary distractions casting a pall over the future of the nation’s largest trade gateway as anything more than a regional port for California and the Southwest. That is not a preordained future for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which together handle 40 percent of U.S. international container cargo... But as things stand today, shippers are pulling their cargo out and the diversions won’t stop until the ports put an end to distractions and prove they represent a competitive and predictable conduit for cargo that many other ports seek... The March 20 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals supporting the trucking industry’s challenge to the ports’ clean-trucks program could be the turning point needed. There has been no greater distraction than Los Angeles’s requirement that an employee driver be behind the wheel of any truck licensed to haul containers to and from its terminals... A unanimous three-judge panel of the appeals court sided squarely with the American Trucking Associations in essentially ordering the lower court to halt certain aspects of the clean-trucks plan — specifically the incendiary Los Angeles employee-driver mandate... The decision casts grave doubt on whether the employee-driver mandate will ultimately survive. But if it goes down, so what? How does that derail the ports’ efforts to achieve their clean-air objectives and open the door to a resumption in expansion after a six-year standstill?...

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posted by Unknown @ 9:51 AM  0 comments

Jun 4, 2008

Few Port Truckers * USA - Can afford health insurance

The study seems to confirm what critics of the independent driver system have argued all along - owner-operator drivers, like many Americans, simply don't make enough money to purchase quality health care

Long Beach,CA,USA -The Long Beach Press-Telegram, by Kristopher Hanson -2 June 2008: -- A port-funded study on health care options for independent truck drivers in San Pedro Bay paints a mostly bleak picture for drivers and their families, who face high costs, limited coverage and the likelihood of rejection by insurance companies... The study, presented Monday to Port of Long Beach Harbor Commissioners, estimates that 40 percent of drivers would probably be denied by insurance companies because of existing health issues that could include asthma or high-blood pressure, and high costs could force many to enroll their children in taxpayer-funded health care programs... The so-called "Clean Truck" programs were adopted primarily to slash the high level of poisonous diesel soot spewed by roughly 17,000 rigs hauling goods in and out of local ports each day... But while clean air was the primary goal, concession agreements were also written to fix what harbor commissioners have termed a "broken trucking industry."... Studies show most of these drivers, who comprise: 90 percent of the harbor workforce and are paid by the load, earn about $11 per hour after expenses like fuel and vehicle maintenance... The great majority are uninsured. To assist them, Long Beach commissioned Alliant Insurance Services in March to study affordable health-care options for the self-employed... While the report found that options are indeed available, without serious driver wage increases, most remain out of reach... Alliant researcher Mark Menzia noted that cheaper group rates are not available because contract drivers aren't legally classified as employees of motor carriers... Harbor Commission President Mario Cordero said the report highlights the hurdles drivers face in moving off the public health-care system...

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posted by Unknown @ 4:30 PM  0 comments