Truckers Shut Down Oakland Container Terminal to Protest AB 5 Gig Worker Law

Protests on Wednesday from a new California labor law that would make it more difficult for impartial truckers to get the job done halted operations at the state’s 3rd-busiest seaport, crimping a significant artery in the fragile U.S. source chain.

SSA Marine, which manages the major terminal at the Port of Oakland, in the San Francisco Bay Location, closed functions due to the unbiased trucker protest, port spokesman Robert Bernardo explained.

The other marine terminals are successfully shut down for vehicles, explained Bernardo, including that some vessel labor operations are under way.

SSA and Everport terminal managers despatched International Worldwide Longshore and Warehouse Union dock employees property for protection causes, a supply common with the predicament stated Wednesday.

TraPac on its internet site claimed its terminal would be shut for the to start with shift due to the fact protests ended up interfering with the entrance gate. Terminal representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The legislation, Assembly Invoice 5, also acknowledged as the “gig worker” law, sets harder standards for classifying staff as impartial contractors.

Trucking market legal worries delayed enactment of the legislation for a lot more than two a long time, but the U.S. Supreme Courtroom declined to evaluation the circumstance on June 30, clearing the way for it to go ahead.

Backers, like the Teamsters and the ILWU, say AB 5 aims to clamp down on labor abuses and thrust firms to employ motorists as staff members — a transfer that would open up the door for them to sign up for unions and collectively cut price with employers.

Independent truckers say they choose the liberty of contract work and stress that the regulation will shoulder them with significant expenditures that will wipe out their revenue.

Some 5,000 proprietor-operators transportation all the things from almonds and wine to electronics at the Oakland port. Their AB 5 protests started off on Monday and have grown more substantial and far more disruptive with each individual passing working day.

Port truckers picketed at the nation’s prime two seaports, at Los Angeles and Prolonged Beach in Southern California, very last 7 days, snarling website traffic and choking terminal entrances.

The three California ports mixed tackle about 50 percent of the nation’s full container cargo volume. The trucker protests appear as the ILWU, which signifies dock is effective at people and other U.S. West Coastline ports, is in superior-stakes contract talks with terminal operators that utilize them.

Trucking organization operator Bill Aboudi supports the generally immigrant motorists who are protesting — even though they have idled his personnel-operated rigs, resulting in small business losses of as a great deal as $8,000 per day.

“It’s significant. We have to offer with it,” Aboudi mentioned.