Beginning yesterday and continuing into today, truckers protesting against California’s AB5 have essentially blockaded the Port of Oakland. They have used their trucks to block entrances to the port’s terminals. The protests are gaining momentum, with the growing crowd of truckers now saying, “Cargo won’t flow until AB5 goes.”
AB5 is a law that seeks to classify more workers as employees rather than independent contractors. It established a three-prong test to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor, and it’s generally believed that truckers who are currently independent owner-operators would not pass that test and would be required to be classified as employees. It was passed in 2019, but court challenges have meant it is taking effect only now for truckers.
Oakland is one of the busiest major U.S. West Coast ports, along with Los Angeles/Long Beach and Seattle/Tacoma. The protests are expected to continue tomorrow.
With very few containers moving in and out of the port, the terminals are mostly full, which means the waiting ships cannot be unloaded. Even if space weren’t a concern, the dockworkers are refusing to cross the picket line the truckers have effectively set up. Some dockworkers expressed solidarity with the truckers and said they wouldn’t work as long as the truckers are protesting.
Not all drivers are participating in the protest, even among drivers who oppose AB5. Trucks have been lined up waiting to get into one of Oakland’s container terminals, blocked by the protesters. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Hedayatullah Ibrahimi, a 43-year-old owner-operator, slept in his truck at the port on Monday night in hopes of getting into the terminal at 6 a.m. Tuesday to pick up a load.
Mr. Ibrahimi said three trucks in front of him made it through the gate but the protesters stopped him and said that if he went in they would smash his windows. So he gave up and left the port.
He said the lost day’s work cost him about $800. “I’m not blaming the protesters,” he said. “They are doing a good job because I am against the law. But I have to pay my bills.”
The best way to help Ibrahimi and all California truckers is to repeal AB5, or at least exempt the trucking industry from its requirements. The independent owner-operator business structure is preferred by many truckers, especially the drayage truckers who work near the ports.
That even some of the unionized dockworkers are signaling their solidarity with truckers in opposition to AB5 should tell California lawmakers something. The law is seen as a boon to unions, which cannot organize independent owner-operators under labor-relations law. The Teamsters have been among its most enthusiastic supporters, as they seek to recruit newly reclassified employees as members.
On the truckers’ side of things, their ability to protest the law as they have the past two days makes clear that they don’t need a union to make their voices heard.
Since the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to AB5, it’s up to the California state government to rectify the situation. California has already exempted numerous professions from the requirements of AB5 because of the economic damage the requirements would cause. At the very least, trucking should be included in the exemption list, and California lawmakers should make that clear as soon as possible.
These protests and the resulting economic damage are an unforced error by California’s progressive, Democratic state government. Seeking to please organized labor, lawmakers have managed to create a situation in which nonunion truckers are pursuing effective labor action and workers from one of the state’s most powerful unions are siding with those nonunion truckers against the law.
Gavin Newsom should stop trying to be governor of MSNBC and remember his duties as governor of California. Some protesters are directing their ire at him by name. If these protests continue and cargo doesn’t start flowing again soon, more criticism will start coming his way.