Independent Truckers Protesting New Labor Law Shut Down Port of Oakland

[Elderberry]

Legal Insurrection by Mary Chastain Thursday, July 21, 2022

Many protesters are immigrants, making decent money for their families back home.

ndependent truckers have shut down the Port of Oakland for the third straight day, protesting against a new labor law that would make them employees.

Assembly Bill 5, passed in 2019, strains the “gig” economy with tougher standards to classify workers as independent contractors. From KTVU:

    A federal appeals court ruled last year that law applies to some 70,000 truck drivers who can be classified as employees of companies that hire them instead of independent contractors.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters called it a “massive victory” for exploited truckers. But the California Trucking Association, which sued over the law, had argued the law could make it harder for independent drivers who own their own trucks and operate on their own hours to make a living by forcing them to be classified as employees.

The legal battle stalled enforcement of the law but last month the U.S. Supreme Court recently decided it wouldn’t review the decision.

More: https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/07/independent-truckers-protesting-new-labor-law-shuts-down-port-of-oakland/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDjvPhNs0PY

[Kamaji]

Truckers Shut Down California Port Fighting for the Right To Be Their Own Bosses

The terrible consequences of A.B. 5 keep coming.

SCOTT SHACKFORD
7.21.2022

Independent truckers Wednesday shut down the terminals at the Port of Oakland in California to protest the impacts of a terrible labor law that may require them to become employees of trucking companies—regardless of whether they want these jobs.

An estimated 70,000 people who own and drive their own trucks in California may soon feel the effects of A.B. 5, a law passed in 2019 that controls and severely restricts who can work as independent contractors within the state. The initial bill came as a response to a 2018 California Supreme Court decision about truck drivers that established a strict test to determine whether a worker should be treated as a company employee or an independent contractor.

Though supporters of A.B. 5 insisted the bill would protect workers from predatory companies and ensure that they receive appropriate benefits and overtime pay, it was a massive disaster for people who genuinely wanted to work as private contractors and be their own bosses. It restricted the ability of freelancers so severely that a subsequent bill needed to be passed so that writers, artists, translators, real estate agents, and folks in many other lines of work could keep their independent gigs. Then, the primary targets of A.B. 5, ride-share and home delivery services like Uber, got relief from California voters through Proposition 22, which passed in November 2020.

Truckers, who launched this whole battle against the law, ended up being exempted from the effects of A.B. 5 for a time because of a lawsuit by the California Trucking Association arguing that federal law superseded A.B. 5 for their industry. Courts initially agreed, but then the federal 9th Circuit Court of appeals reversed the ruling in 2021. The plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court, but at the end of June, the Court declined to hear the case.

Truckers now find themselves in the same position they did in 2019, except now the country is also facing supply chain issues, labor shortages, inflation, and a jump in self-employment. Truckers who want to be their own bosses have been protesting at California ports this week to register their discontent.

Wednesday's protests managed to shut down terminals at Oakland International Container Terminal, where 2,100 trucks pass through to collect and deliver goods each day. It's the eighth-largest port in the U.S. Trucks blocked the gates, and according to CNBC, labor rules allow dockworkers to leave if they fear for their safety, so they did.

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Source:  https://reason.com/2022/07/21/truckers-shut-down-california-port-fighting-for-the-right-to-be-their-own-bosses/

[Kamaji]

Seriously, it's time for Mexico to upgrade its northern Pacific ports to allow for the offloading of the sort of cargo that currently gets offloaded in California, and to then build secured highways from the coast to Texas ports of entry for cargo that is destined for the U.S.  The shipping and trucking companies should get in on the act as well.

California has become such a danger to the U.S. economy that it should simply be sidestepped at all costs.

[libertybele]

‘Kills The American Dream’: Truckers Disrupt Port Of Oakland To Protest Newsom’s Labor Law

Protests have disrupted shipping operations and supply chains at the Port of Oakland this week as truckers express their opposition to a new labor law that they say threatens their business model and way of life, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Assembly Bill 5 reclassified California’s 70,000 independent owner-operators as employees of the shipping companies they work with to arrange hauls, rather than independent contractors, the WSJ reported. The law was designed to protect gig workers like Uber drivers, but many truckers see it as restricting their independence, and in response, have been blocking access to Oakland’s port since Monday in an effort to get Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom to delay implementation of the law and compromise with them, The New York Times reported.

https://www.conservativereview.com/kills-the-american-dream-truckers-disrupt-port-of-oakland-to-protest-newsoms-labor-law-2657714955.html

“This kills the liberty of being a trucker and kills the American Dream,”one Los Angeles-based trucker previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.