July 22 (Reuters) – Independent truckers protesting California’s new “worker” law blockaded California’s No. 3 seaport for a third day in a row on Friday, leaving cargo in the state’s main agricultural trade hub and adding to US supply chain headaches.
Truck gates at all four marine terminals at the Port of Oakland remain closed to truck traffic Friday. The Oakland International Container Terminal (OICT), which handles about 70 percent of the port’s cargo, restarted some work on ships, a port spokesman said.
Port of Oakland truckers began action Monday against the law, formally known as AB5. They picketed and parked tractor-trailers to choke off access to the terminal gate, halting trade through the eighth-busiest U.S. container seaport on Wednesday.
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Idling the 2,100 trucks that carry goods to the Northern California port every day is hampering exports of fresh beef and pork, dairy products and nuts, as well as imports such as green coffee, electronics and materials of construction
Commodity traders told Reuters that coffee and cocoa are stuck on ships in port, jeopardizing the quality of those imports.
“Because of the strike, we have not been able to move cargo from the port,” the director of one of the largest US coffee importers told Reuters.
Dwell time for import containers, a measure of port efficiency, rose to 17.5 days, up 41% from July 11, according to supply chain data provider Project44 .
Legal challenges from the trucking industry have stalled enactment of the law for more than two years. The US Supreme Court declined to take up a lawsuit by the California Trucking Association on June 30, clearing the way for AB5 to move forward. Read more
The law, which aims to crack down on labor abuses, sets stricter standards for classifying workers as independent contractors.
Supporters say it will prevent businesses from using such workers to avoid paying the minimum wage, workers’ compensation and other employee-related expenses. The independent drivers that AB5 aims to protect say the law would force them to shoulder huge equipment rental and insurance costs previously borne by the trucking companies that hire them to do work.
Supporters of the law, including the Teamsters and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), say AB5 would encourage companies to hire drivers as employees. These company drivers could then join unions and bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions.
Trucking organizations, including the Harbor Trucking Association and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), have called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to delay implementation of the law. Newsom’s office has twice rejected those appeals.
Meanwhile, drivers like Carlos Flores say they will continue to protest until Newsom exempts truckers from the AB5 port.
Flores, who uses his own tractor to haul port goods, told Reuters the law would charge him up to $30,000 a month in rental costs for chassis and other port equipment.
“AB5 would shut me down. I don’t have the resources to pay that kind of money,” Flores, 42, said.
“I’ve invested too much in my business to go to a company and work for an hourly wage,” he said.
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Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Marcelo Teixeira in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Marguerita Choy
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