Battle over port trucking heats up

Battle over port trucking heats up    The battle between forces over making port truckers employees rather than independent contractors may be heating up.
   The Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, which includes the Sierra Club and Teamsters union, issued a statement Thursday pointing to recent judgments against port drayage companies for misclassification of port truckers and said they “underscore the need for sweeping reform to end systematic abuses at America's ports.”
   Labor unions and environmental groups have argued large businesses with employees are in a better position to buy and operate clean trucks than small independent owner-operators. The statement could indicate they may be pressing a new front — the issue of worker classification — in their effort to clean the air around ports and organize drivers. At the same time, it would continue efforts to modify a federal law, the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act to give ports sweeping powers to regulate trucking.
   Earlier this month California Attorney General Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. said he had won his fifth lawsuit against a trucking company that he characterized as an “ongoing investigation of the state’s underground economy.”
   He said he was pursuing trucking companies operating at California ports that deny workers “the Social Security, Medicare and workers’ compensation benefits to which they are entitled under state law.”
   The coalition also pointed to President Obama's Labor Department budget, which includes $25 million for a joint Labor-Treasury Department initiative “to strengthen and coordinate federal and state efforts to enforce statutory prohibitions, identify, and deter misclassification of employees as independent contractors.” The budget document does not mention the trucking industry.

Boyce

   The focus on worker misclassification “is not really new, it’s just that Clean and Safe Ports is using it to talk about their issue,” said Clayton Boyce, a spokesman for the American Trucking Associations. “It’s certainly a public relations strategy, beyond that I don’t know.”
   Sierra Club President Allison Chin complained, 'coast to coast, thousands of companies force the cost of truck operation and maintenance onto the workers behind the wheel, and as a result the old, diesel-spewing rigs fill U.S. transportation corridors because that's all these low-wage earners can afford.'

Kerry

   In December, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., introduced a bill in the Senate aimed at reducing what he says is misclassification of workers as independent contractors. The bill, called the Taxpayer Responsibility, Accountability, and Consistency Act of 2009 (S. 2882), is similar to a measure in the House of Representatives (H.R. 3408).
   Kerry’s bill would amend the so-called 'safe harbor' provision that allows employers to rely on industry practice as a reasonable basis for the decision on whether to classify workers as independent contractors. Kerry's proposed legislation would substantially reduce the scope of the 'safe harbor' provision.
   Meanwhile, a coalition of 31 groups representing shippers and transportation companies this month asked Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to oppose proposed changes to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act to allow local governments to regulate trucking at U.S. ports.

LaHood

   “We urge you and the administration to oppose these efforts as we believe they will be detrimental to interstate commerce and U.S. competitiveness,” says the letter from 31 organizations, including the National Retail Federation, National Industrial Transportation League, World Shipping Council, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
   It notes several ports launching clean truck programs are seeking “to rewrite longstanding federal trucking rules codified in the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) under the guise of the clean trucks initiatives.”
   The group said the proposed changes to the FAAAA would “reimpose a fragmented, local, patchwork regulatory structure on foreign and interstate commerce, contrary to the U.S. Constitution and acts of Congress” and are not necessary as part of clean truck programs.”
   The letter said the “argument that port trucking services should not be subject to federal preemption in order to improve air quality is fallacious, and is based on motives unrelated to achieving cleaner air around the ports.”
   In 2008, the American Trucking Associations filed suit against the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach under the legal argument that the truck concession portion of the Clean Trucks Program is preempted by federal law regulating rates, routes and service under the FAAAA. A preliminary injunction sought by the trucking group was granted by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which found the ports’ concession plans regulate interstate trucking “prices, routes, and services” and thus were preempted by the FAAAA.

Steinke

   The Port of Long Beach has since settled the lawsuit with the ATA, and port Executive Director Richard Steinke said the settlement allowed his port and trucking industry to move forward “with a program that has been highly successful in reducing air pollution.'
   He added that, “by aligning itself with the Teamsters, who have been very public about their campaign to unionize port truckers nationwide, the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is pursuing an agenda beyond air quality.” ' Chris Dupin