Teamsters Mislead Press on Effects of Port of Los Angeles Lawsuit, Says ATA

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Apr 23, 2010, 01:46 ET

ARLINGTON, Va., April 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Trucking Associations' (ATA) lawsuit against the Port of Los Angeles that went to trial this week (April 20) does not threaten the Clean Truck Program at the Port of Los Angeles. Contrary to claims from the Teamsters union and its front group, the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, the lawsuit challenges only concession requirements that the Port of Los Angeles has never implemented, including a ban on independent owner-operators.

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Owner-operators are independent businessmen and women who drive a truck that they own or lease. They run a business because they also charge their customers for the use of the truck. The Teamsters want to ban owner-operators to make it possible to unionize all port truck drivers, since owner-operators are independent contractors and cannot join a union. The Teamsters and their political allies among environmental groups continue to spread disinformation about the lawsuit, and in a press release issued on Wednesday, they falsely claimed the lawsuit seeks to end the Clean Truck Program.

The trucking industry supports the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program and challenges only the requirements of its concession plan that are unrelated to cleaning the air. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that ATA's position is correct, and that most or all of the concession plan requirements are illegal and manifestly unfair to owner-operators. The Court of Appeals rejected the claim from the Port of Los Angeles, the NRDC and several other groups that a ban on owner-operators was needed to help the port achieve its environmental and safety goals. The Court belittled the Port of L.A.'s position, noting it "see[s] little safety-related merit in those thread-paper arguments, which denigrate small businesses and insist that individuals should work for large employers or not at all."

A month later, the U.S. District Court, following the Court of Appeals' instructions, granted an injunction halting most of the concession plan requirements, including: driver hiring preferences, motor carrier financial capability requirements, designated routes, off-street parking restrictions, and L.A.'s independent owner-operator ban. Soon after that, the Port of Long Beach settled the lawsuit against it. Long Beach and the trucking industry agreed to a truck registration program that replaced the concession plan requirements. Without the concession requirements, the Clean Truck Programs of both Los Angeles and Long Beach are already a tremendous success. The Los Angeles and Long Beach Clean Truck Programs have reduced truck emissions by 80 percent and are 2 years ahead of schedule.

The trucking industry – both owner-operators and trucking companies – have transitioned to a clean diesel or natural gas powered drayage fleet funded mostly through private investment. "More than 6,500 trucks serving the San Pedro Bay port complex ... meet or exceed the U.S. EPA 2007 heavy-duty truck emissions standards," the Port of Los Angeles said this month.

Even though Los Angeles is running a deficit and laying off employees, the Port of Los Angeles is using taxpayer dollars to fight for the Teamsters' proposal to ban owner-operators. The Port of Los Angeles has spent to date about $8 million for litigation and $265,000 to a lobbyist in an attempt to get Congress to change the law that makes an owner-operator ban illegal.

Editorials in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, the Los Angeles Business Journal, the Long Beach Press-Telegram and several other area newspapers have all agreed with the ATA and have said that the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Geraldine Knatz, the Teamsters and the environmental groups are all wrong about the port cleanup and the lawsuit.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "Despite the arguments of the proponents, there was never a compelling need to eliminate independent truckers, a move that would simplify record-keeping for port officials but do nothing to clean the air."

Moreover, the U.S. Court of Appeals said that the Port's action was not only illegal, but that it was also manifestly unfair for the Port to say that drivers must work for a big company or not at all. The judges compared the ban on owner-operators to "wrongful termination." The opinion said in part: "One wonders why it should be thought that [small companies and owner-operators] should just put up with the loss any more than employees of a company should be forced to abide their wrongful termination and the resulting emotional damages and stress that termination causes."

The Teamsters press release, which was issued by the misnamed Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, includes many other errors, including underestimating owner-operators' revenue and exaggerating clean truck maintenance costs. The Coalition also incorrectly claimed that ATA has few member companies working in the port, but failed to disclose that the Teamsters do not represent a single trucking company driver or owner-operator working in the port.

The American Trucking Associations (www.truckline.com) is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States. Follow ATA on Twitter @TruckingMatters (www.twitter.com/truckingmatters), or become a fan on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/y4qwp6h).

SOURCE American Trucking Associations