Port Visit

Idle, shut off trucks line miles of road around 5:00 PM at the port. Some of these trucks have been there for two or three hours. The driver we talked to got to his spot at 2:30 PM and he was about 10th in line, a “good” spot for when the second shift begins at 6:00 PM. He is waiting for his second load of the day to take to a facility in Ontario. He says he will be paid $200 for this run. The organizer with us takes out a sheet where he and the driver can fill in numbers that represent what he is paid and what he in turn has to pay to keep his truck up and running. Between fuel, taxes, insurance, and maintenance what he makes hauling freight from Long Beach to Ontario is cut by more than half. By the driver’s estimates his $9200 a month he makes turns into $3912 BEFORE TAXES. His $3912 does not include any contributions for workers compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, healthcare, or hardly any other “safety nets” provided by the government. When we talk about healthcare one of the drivers mentions he has diabetes but makes no mention of how he controls it without health insurance.

While the drivers we talked to would never admit it, and I doubt many of their colleagues would either, they are the most vulnerable workers in the port economy. The drivers are proud, hardworking people that want to work and provide for their families. Their attitudes are admirable and our group of visitors certainly respects their values and ethics but they are in a place where they cling to what little they have, their truck, wary of any change that might cause them to lose it. They do not have any faith in the trucking companies at the port. They see the other sources of pollution around them and wonder why they are a focus for environmental change without understanding the impact their trucks have. The only thing they seem to be able to count on is their truck. Their truck has become their source of survival but it is also what tethers them to a life of struggle.

The main message I come away with from my visit with these drivers is there needs to be more communication with the drivers but also they need to see some success enjoyed by their colleagues that have taken a chance and gone to work for a real trucking company. Once they see others have full employment, good salaries, benefits, without the charges and hassles they endure now I suspect what may begin as a trickle of drivers switching over will soon lead to a flood moving to employment with real firms that can provide the work that can get them out of their polluting trucks to into jobs that allow them to live a better life.

Michael Day
President
Teachers Association of Long Beach

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