Affected by California’s AB5 bill, truck drivers at the three major ports in the West – Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland – went on strike one after another!
To make matters worse, labor negotiations on freight railroads across the United States are also facing a deadline. If the government refuses to intervene, railroads and unions will choose to suspend operations or strike next Monday.
This will aggravate the backlog of containers at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach and will further exacerbate congestion at U.S. ports, causing a “catastrophic” impact on the weak U.S. economy.
01 Truck drivers at three major ports in the Western United States begin a strike
The Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach will go on strike on July 13th, U.S. time, and the Port of Oakland will go on strike on July 18th, U.S. time.
According to the latest news at 4 pm U.S. time on Wednesday, about 100 truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have stopped working to protest California’s AB5 bill, a controversial legislation.
At the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the California Trucking Association’s lawsuit against AB5 and sent the case back to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
One owner and operator who plans to participate in the port strike said he does not want to become an employee driver and prefers to remain an independent contractor.
Gordon Reimer, manager of Southern California-based FHE Express, which uses 75 owners and operators to move cargo between ports in Southern California, many of whom plan to participate in Wednesday’s strike.
He has informed trucking company customers that the strike may cause shipment delays.
It’s unclear how many independent contractors or owner-operators plan to participate in the strike.
In addition, during the strike, some gates at the Long Beach Container Terminal will be temporarily closed!
Recently, Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT) released the latest announcement through its official website:
On July 14th (Thursday) and July 17th (Sunday), the pier gate will be closed during part of the period!
It is expected that the closure of the container terminal gate will have an impact on container pick-up and return operations!
02 The Port of Oakland will go on strike on the 18th US time
Meanwhile in the north, several trucking companies transporting containers in and out of the Port of Auckland revealed they had been notified by owner-operators that they planned to strike next Monday (July 18).
Bill Aboudi, president of AB Trucking, said it switched to a for-hire business model a few years ago, but as the impact of AB5 became apparent, many trucking companies serving California ports chose to close, sell or move operations out of California.
Some older owner-operators are being forced out of the industry. Some young independent operators are either finding another career or leaving California entirely to drive trucks elsewhere.
“We think inflation is high right now; if we don’t cancel AB5, we’re going to see the cost of running a trucking business skyrocket,” Bill Aboudi said.
03 American railroad workers will also go on strike
In addition to the strike, US President Joe Biden faces a deadline next week to intervene in the US’s national railway labor negotiations involving 115,000 railway workers, otherwise it will trigger a strike or work stoppage.
This could threaten already fragile economies and disrupt food and fuel supplies.
The stakes are high for Biden, who wants to address supply chain problems that are fueling inflation and has struggled to reach a deal in key labor talks at West Coast seaports even as three major ports in the West have announced strikes.
If the president refuses to appoint a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to intervene in railroad labor negotiations by 12:01 ET next Monday, the railroads and unions can each choose to suspend operations or strike.
U.S. business groups representing retailers, food and fuel producers warned in a letter to Biden that failure to appoint the PEB would have a “catastrophic” impact on the weakening economy.
Any kind of shutdown, which includes rail shipments of everything from Amazon packages to fuel oil and soybeans, could push up prices for essential goods and upend damaged supply chains.
Amtrak has assured investors that it is negotiating with unions on pay, leave and health care cost-sharing issues and is making progress on hiring and retention.
“It remains in the best interests of all parties and the public to resolve this dispute, provide timely pay increases for all railroad employees, and prevent disruption to rail service,” the National Railroad Labor Congress (NRLC) said in the latest negotiations.
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