Posts tagged Port of Oakland
Labor unions are making unprecedented calls for a ceasefire in Gaza
January 24, 2024 // However, leadership of some large unions like the AFL-CIO and SAG-AFTRA have remained silent, seeing the issue as beyond their purview, risky to support, or too split among their members. Others have released statements in support of Israel, such as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten. But a number of AFT locals and other teachers’ unions have supported ceasefire resolutions themselves, revealing a schism between leadership and rank-and-file members. While there has been considerable support for the ceasefire resolutions, union members involved in organizing for Palestine say that they must go further to support efforts like Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) and not be complicit in the abuses against Palestinians by Israel, supported by U.S. tax dollars. “Just the ceasefire declaration, if there’s nothing more, if it doesn’t have any teeth, is not enough,” Saba said. Unions have a long history of standing for progressive causes internationally, from “opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war,” cited UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla in a UAW press release. Over the decades, labor has stood up against World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War.
The Next Target for Protests Against Israel: Ports
November 8, 2023 // “Workers have committed to not load, unload, or facilitate the tasks of any boat containing weapons,” the Spanish publication El Diario reported. The announcement in Barcelona follows a group of transport unions in Belgium — which included some port workers — that about a week ago “called on their members to refuse to handle military equipment being sent to Israel,” according to Reuters. The effort to stop the Cape Orlando, a military ship with a long wartime resume, started Friday at the Port of Oakland when a wave of people descended on the docks early that morning, armed with megaphones, banners and Palestinian flags. Operating on a tip that the ship was allegedly bound for Israel and hundreds of protesters organized by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) in the Bay Area showed up early in the morning determined not to let the Cape Orlando leave.
Potential dock worker union strike causes families to shop in bulk on Oahu
June 9, 2023 // Long ongoing contract negotiations failed again for dockworkers on the California coastline. This has caused many of them to stop going to work and slowing down operations. There is a trickle-down effect because Hawaii relies on goods being shipped in. And now, many Hawaii residents are flooding local Costco stores to bulk up. “My friend texted me about a potential strike so I ran here for toilet paper. I take care of my 94-year-old mother and I need to make sure she’s fully supplied,” said Keith Lee, Makiki resident.
Labor dispute snarls West Coast ports; White House urged to step in
June 7, 2023 // The maritime association contends members of a dockworkers union have engaged in “concerted and disruptive work actions” for several days. “Union leaders are implementing many familiar disruption tactics from their job action playbook, including refusing to dispatch workers to marine terminals, slowing operations, and making unfounded health and safety claims,” according to a statement the association posted late Monday on Twitter. When asked for comment Tuesday, union officials referred to a statement released Friday by ILWU President Willie Adams. He pointed to “historic” profits made by port operators, which the union estimated topped $510 billion during the pandemic.
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe; The Ballad of Tom Odom
January 18, 2023 // Will Swaim, journalist and president of the California Policy Center, educates us on CA Assembly Bill 5 (AB5,) which seeks to turn independent contractors into employees, and how it’s negatively affecting 70,000+ independent California truckers; truckers like Tom Odom, who calls in from the road to let us know why he is A.) part of a class action lawsuit and B.) moving to Texas. Spoiler Alert: it’s because of AB5!
Commentary: What’s Next for America’s Independent Workers?
December 15, 2022 // If various state and federal policymakers have their way, however, Ms. Rankin’s business model might be soon regulated out of existence — whether she likes it or not. Rankin, like every other owner‐operator truck driver in America, is an independent worker – someone who takes on projects or jobs from different clients, relatively free from the clients’ control.
Assembly Bill 5 is still wreaking havoc in California and across the country
October 24, 2022 // If you needed proof that AB 5 was a flawed piece of legislation from the very beginning, consider the fact that while the rules for who AB 5 applies to are a mere 325 words, they’re followed by almost 7,000 words worth of carveouts. While a 2020 Proposition which rolled back AB 5 with respect to app-based drivers was recently declared unconstitutional, other exceptions put in place by the legislature remain. As a result, politically-connected professions, like lawyers, doctors, and accountants are exempted from AB 5’s onerous requirements. Independent truckers, however, are not among these lucky carve outs, and the state is beginning to feel the consequences. Throughout the United States, approximately 350,000 truck drivers make a living as independent owner-operators—they own their own vehicles and haul loads as contractors for carriers.
Tensions rise in West Coast port labor battles, with unions and management trading accusations
September 30, 2022 // The Port of Los Angeles diverted 40,000 containers to the Port of Long Beach in August when dockworkers at the Port of LA refused to work at the automated section of APM Terminals, the largest container-handling facility citing safety concerns. APM is a part of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S and the automation part of the terminal has been operating since 2020. Workers did not work at that facility for nearly four weeks. That diversion of containers to Long Beach, in addition to the continued re-routing of containers to the East Coast, led to the Port of New York to take the No. 1 spot in processing import and export containers in August. Port of Los Angeles fell to third.
UNION SPONSORED AB 5 HITS INDEPENDENT TRUCKERS
August 24, 2022 // For a while, AB 5, passed in the fall of 2019, didn’t affect truckers. It affected plenty of other people in plenty of other lines of work, prompting belated carve outs by the legislature to expand the list of exempted professions. Passage of AB 5 even provoked the ride share industry, led by Uber and Lyft, to raise over $200 million to qualify and run an initiative campaign, Proposition 22, to repeal the portions of AB 5 that affected their businesses. After Prop. 22 was approved by voters in November, four “gig drivers,” backed up by the SEIU, successfully challenged Prop. 22 in court. That ruling is now being appealed by Uber before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "business to business” exemption, Borello test, California Globe
Californifying the U.S. Labor Market
August 23, 2022 // The Biden administration came into office with a sweeping union agenda embodied in the PRO Act, which would have rewritten key elements of decades-old American labor law. Stymied in Congress, however, the administration now seems likely to impose at least one component of that legislation on the workplace through a Department of Labor rule that would narrow the definition of an independent contractor in ways similar to California’s controversial AB5 law. Doing so would likely upset employment policies and practices at a vast array of businesses nationwide, just as has happened in the Golden State, where freelancers lost work because companies couldn’t afford to employ them full-time and truckers recently shut down a port to protest efforts to end their independent status. In the post-Covid world, workers are seeking more flexibility in income-earning. The Biden administration’s effort, which views the independent contractor almost exclusively as an exploited worker denied the benefits of full employment, is a step backward for individual workers—but a gift to unions.