Enviro-Labor-Community Coalition Praises Oakland Port for Taking First Step with Ban on Polluting Trucks; Urges Commission to Take Further Action to Sustain Clean Air for the Long Term

On June 16, 2009, the Oakland Port Commission voted to adopt a new truck policy that includes a ban on older, polluting trucks from entering the Port. Starting January 1, 2010, 1993 and older model year trucks and 1994 – 2006 trucks that have not been retrofitted with soot filters, will not be allowed to enter the Port. The Steering Committee of the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports issued the following statement in response.

We applaud the Oakland Port Commission for approving a truck ban that will result in significant reductions in diesel pollution and public health improvements in our community, and commend Executive Director Omar Benjamin for his leadership on this critical issue.

The truck ban is an important first step toward cleaner air but alone it is not enough. As long as the burden of buying new trucks and retrofits is placed on underpaid, individual drivers instead of the well-capitalized industry, we will fail to achieve the greatest possible environmental and public health gains.

This critical point was made by Dr. Jon Haveman in his presentation to the Port Commission. The Beacon Economics study recommendations make it clear that an employee driver-based port trucking system is necessary to address critical inefficiencies, improve port security and to meet upcoming air quality regulations.

As local environmentalists, public health advocates, community residents, faith and labor leaders we strongly urge the Oakland Port Commission to adopt a resolution supporting the Beacon Economics study finding and recommendations during the next Port Commission meeting July 7... (Click here to read more.)

Federal Maritime Commission Move to Drop Lawsuit against Clean Trucks Program Signals President Obama’s Support to Protect Port Drivers, Public Health

One week after President Obama appointed Commissioner Joseph E. Brennan as acting chair of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the DC agency charged with reviewing ocean-bound commerce has reversed its position on its lawsuit that sought to stop certain aspects of the Clean Truck initiatives underway at the Port of Los Angeles and neighboring Port of Long Beach. The FMC has requested dismissal of the case in a filing today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  (Click here to read more.)

 

Public Health is No. 1, Says U.S. District Judge in Denial of FMC Motion to Shelve the Los Angeles-Long Beach Clean Trucks Programs

Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports Calls on Members of Congress to Protect Port Green-Growth Policy that Will Save Lives, Improve Safety & Security

In a victory for the movement to clean the air and create good green jobs at our nation's ports, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon denied the Federal Maritime Commission's request for a preliminary injunction that would have threatened the Southern California Ports' Clean Trucks Programs.  Judge Leon's denial was based on the federal agency's failure to demonstrate that the LA and Long Beach Ports' differing "concession" models would cause irreparable harm to -- or create anti-competitive conditions for -- the goods movement.  The Clean Trucks Programs aim to reduce diesel truck pollution by 80%, deliver $5 billion to the regional economy, and create stronger safety and security enforcement.  Similar efforts to adopt the Los Angeles model are underway in Oakland.  Click here to read more.

 

Port of Oakland Economic Study Makes Strong Case for Employee-based Trucking System to Solve Chronic Diesel Truck Pollution Problems

A draft Economic Impact Analysis prepared by the independent consulting firm Beacon Economics, LLC, that was commissioned by the Port of Oakland strongly favors an employee driver-based Port trucking system to address critical inefficiences, improve port security and meet upcoming air qualiity regulations.

To read the Beacon Study click here.  To read the CCSP statement on the Beacon Study click here.

 

New Study Reveals Alarmingly High Cost of Oakland Port Truck Diesel Pollution and the Broken Trucking System

More than $153 million drained from the economy each year

To download the Pacific Institute and East Bay Alliance for a Sustainabilty Economy study entitled Taking a Toll: The high cost of health, environmental, and worker impacts of the Oakland Port trucking system Click here

 

 

Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports

The Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports is an alliance of environmental, labor, public health, faith and community organizations that promote sustainable economic development at West Coast ports.  Read more... 

 

The Problem

Prior to the deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980, port truck drivers enjoyed a middle class standard of living. Today, big box retailers and steam ship lines are fueling a race to the bottom, forcing trucking companies to compete by undercutting each other and paying drivers less. Since deregulation, many trucking companies shifted employees to “independent contractor” status. The trucking companies now pass the cost of owning and maintaining trucks onto drivers and avoid paying payroll taxes, Social Security, Medicare and workers’ compensation.  The result is a workforce that live in poverty.

 

Public Health Crisis

Port diesel pollution is associated with high rates of cancer and asthma.  The California Air Resources Board conducted a Health Risk Assessment study of West Oakland that found that West Oakland residents are about 2 1/2 times more likely to get cancer than other people living in the Bay Area.  According to the American Lung Association, one in five West Oakland children has asthma, and the West Oakland area has the highest asthma hospitalization rates in California. 

"Residents living in the shadow of the Port of Oakland can expect to die, on average, more than a decade before residents of the Oakland Hills and, appalingly, this gap may be increasing," according to testimony by Dr. Anthony B. Iton, Director, Alameda County Public Health Department before the Assembly Committees on Labor and Employment, and Select Committee on Ports.  "Similarly, rates of other environmentally-linked diseases such as emphysema, congestive heart failure, heart attack, and disturbingly, lung cancer and other forms of cancer are disproportionately higher in West Oakland than the rest of the county and burgeoning evidence suggests that the risk may be directly associated with living in proximity to port trucking routes."

 

Sweatshop Working Conditions

After clearing expenses, many truck drivers make as little as $8 an hour and receive no benefits.  They can barely support their families and cannot afford health care let alone truck replacements, upgrades and maintenance required to meet new State mandated environmental standards.

A broken port trucking system forces drivers to sit idle in their trucks for hours everyday while their trucks spew out toxic diesel emissions that the drivers and residents of the surrounding port communities are forced to breathe.

 

Chronic Unemployment

The Port of Oakland is an economic engine for the entire San Francisco Bay Area.  But West Oakland residents living in the neighborhoods next to the Port, who are primarily low-income, receive all the health risks of truck pollution, but few of the economic benefits.  Trucking companies offer no effective local hire programs for West Oakland residents.

 

Responsible Businesses Undercut

Responsible trucking companies who treat workers with respect and use less polluting trucks are being put at a competitive disadvantage by trucking firms and big box shippers who drive rates down by abusing the broken system.

 

The Solution

We are working to make the port trucking industry more efficient, reduce air pollution, improve the quality of jobs and stimulate greater economic opportunities for residents living in surrounding port communities.  CC&SP strongly supports the adoption of a comprehensive Clean Trucks Program by the Oakland Port Commission that would:

• require all port trucking firms to enter into concession agreements that incorporate environmental, community and labor standards;
• grant "independent contractors" employee status giving them the right to join a union and organize for better working conditions;
• require trucking companies to operateonly clean emission trucks;
• require trucking companies to provide off-street parking for trucks outside residential neighborhoods;
• create a strong local hire program for community residents most impacted by port pollution; and
• support small, local businesses to meet the standards.

 

Historic Victory at Los Angeles Harbor

In March, 2008, the Los Angeles Harbor Commission voted unanimously to approve a comprehensive and sustainable Clean Trucks Program that requires the trucking industry to buy and maintain a clean-technology fleet and to employe truck drivers who currently operate as "independent contractors."  The Los Angeles program serves as a model for how all West coast ports can operate sustainably. 

 

Port of Oakland

The seven- member Board of Port Commissioners  and is responsible for management of the Port Department. The day to day operations of the Port are run by Executive Director Omar Benjamin. 

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