Trucker protests halt cargo movement at California’s No. 3 seaport

By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Protesting truckers stopped site visitors on Wednesday at a Northern California port, one of many busiest in the US, as they demonstrated towards a brand new state labor legislation that makes it tougher for unbiased truckers to function.

Drivers picketed gates and blocked different truckers from hauling cargo out and in of the port. The protests in Oakland started on Monday and have grown bigger and extra disruptive with every passing day.

Late on Wednesday, Port of Oakland Govt Director Danny Wan acknowledged protesters’ frustration with California’s “gig employee” legislation and warned {that a} extended shutdown would “harm all the companies working on the ports” and trigger clients to shift cargo to rival seaports.

The protesters fear that the legislation, which might quickly be implement, will impose hefty prices on them that may slash their earnings.

SSA Marine, which manages the most important terminal on the Port of Oakland within the San Francisco Bay space, closed operations on Wednesday because of the protests, which floor enterprise at different marine terminals to a digital halt.

SSA and Everport terminal managers despatched Worldwide Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) dock employees dwelling for security causes, a supply accustomed to the scenario mentioned Wednesday.

Terminal representatives didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

The brand new legislation, formally known as AB5, units more durable requirements for classifying employees as unbiased contractors.

Trucking trade authorized challenges delayed enactment of the legislation for greater than two years, however the U.S. Supreme Court docket declined to evaluation the case on June 30, clearing the best way for it to go ahead.

Backers, together with the Teamsters and the ILWU, say AB5 goals to clamp down on labor abuses and push corporations to rent drivers as staff – which might allow them to hitch unions and collectively cut price with employers.

Some 5,000 truckers work on the Oakland port, which is a significant hub for agricultural exports together with almonds, rice and wine.

The protests in Oakland adopted actions final week on the nation’s high two seaports, at Los Angeles and Lengthy Seaside in Southern California.

The three California ports deal with about half of the nation’s container cargo quantity. The trucker protests come because the ILWU, which represents dock employees at these and different U.S. West Coast ports, is in high-stakes contract talks with terminal operators that make use of them.

Protest organizers say their actions will proceed till they get an viewers with Governor Gavin Newsom, who didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Wednesday.

On Monday, the Governor’s Workplace of Enterprise and Financial Growth mentioned: “Now that the federal courts have rejected the trucking trade’s appeals, it is time to transfer ahead.”

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Modifying by Lisa Shumaker, Cynthia Osterman and Richard Pullin)