Attacks on Port of Long Beach are a Fraud, says Long Beach Press-Telegram editorial

Attempts by the Teamsters Union and their allies in the environmental community to demonize the Port of Long Beach as being soft on pollution are a fraud, the Long Beach Press-Telegram writes in a Dec. 7 editorial.

"The best evidence of this is the success of Long Beach's Clean Trucks program, which, well ahead of schedule, has removed 80 percent of the diesel pollution caused by trucks. The cleanup is working even better than hoped, and without any heavy-handed attempt to help the Teamsters," said the Press-Telegram.

The Ports Los Angeles and Long Beach have experienced this reduction in truck pollution through the Clean Truck Programs that bans non-compliant diesel engines from hauling freight at the Ports. Port of Los Angeles officials, under pressure from Teamsters Union, attempted to attach a requirement to their program that would have banned independent owner-operator drivers from entering the Port, a requirement the Port of Long Beach refused to implement.

"What the L.A. port really wants is not just to clean up dirty diesels, but to do a big favor for the Teamsters Union. L.A. tried to ban independent truck owner-operators in favor of big trucking companies whose drivers are employees, which would make it much easier for the Teamsters to sign up new members," said the Press-Telegram.

"Long Beach, by contrast, didn't try to ban the independents. Everybody was welcome, so long as they drove clean diesels. The Teamsters could go about their organizing, but without new rules that would have put independent owner-operators out of business," said the Press-Telegram.

"A federal court, not surprisingly, has ruled that L.A.'s scheme would violate federal law. But L.A. hasn't given up. Unions can't organize independent contractors, but they can organize companies with employee drivers. As the Journal of Commerce put it, the L.A. Port's plan is 'a thinly veiled attempt to foster unionization of drivers,'" said the Press-Telegram.

"It wasn't easy for Long Beach officials, many of whom are sympathetic to the interests of organized labor, to withstand the political pressures. It is hard to see how they will manage to prevail, but not at all hard to see what was the right thing to do," said the Press-Telegram.