Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
Nothing like crushing small business in the food supply chain to pander to unions and a few big trucking companies short on labor because they don't treat them well. Who needs fresh food, anyway?
https://www.thepigsite.com/news/2022...-to-three-days
California trucker blockade stretches to three days
Exports of fresh beef, pork and dairy products held up
23 July 2022
Independent truckers protesting California's new "gig worker" law blockaded California's No. 3 seaport for the third straight day on Friday, stranding cargo at the state's top agricultural trade hub and adding to US supply chain headaches, reported Reuters.
Truck gates at all four Port of Oakland marine terminals remain closed to truck traffic on Friday. Oakland International Container Terminal (OICT), which handles about 70% of port cargo, restarted some work on ships, a port spokesperson said.
Oakland port truckers began actions against the law formally known as AB5 on Monday. They picketed and parked tractor-trailers to choke terminal gate access, grinding trade through the eighth-busiest US container seaport to a virtual halt on Wednesday.
Idling the 2,100 trucks that ferry goods at the Northern California seaport each day is hindering exports of fresh beef and pork, dairy products and nuts as well as imports like green coffee, electronics and construction materials.
Commodity traders told Reuters coffee and cocoa are stuck on ships at the port, putting the quality of those imports in peril.
...
Meanwhile, drivers like Carlos Flores say they will continue protesting until Newsom exempts port truckers from AB5.
Flores, who uses his own tractor to haul port freight, told Reuters the law would burden him with up to $30,000 per month in rental costs for chassis and other port equipment.
"AB5 would shut me down. I don't have the resources to pay that kind of money," said Flores, 42.
"I've invested too much into my business to go to a company and work for hourly wages," he said.
https://www.thepigsite.com/news/2022...-to-three-days
California trucker blockade stretches to three days
Exports of fresh beef, pork and dairy products held up
23 July 2022
Independent truckers protesting California's new "gig worker" law blockaded California's No. 3 seaport for the third straight day on Friday, stranding cargo at the state's top agricultural trade hub and adding to US supply chain headaches, reported Reuters.
Truck gates at all four Port of Oakland marine terminals remain closed to truck traffic on Friday. Oakland International Container Terminal (OICT), which handles about 70% of port cargo, restarted some work on ships, a port spokesperson said.
Oakland port truckers began actions against the law formally known as AB5 on Monday. They picketed and parked tractor-trailers to choke terminal gate access, grinding trade through the eighth-busiest US container seaport to a virtual halt on Wednesday.
Idling the 2,100 trucks that ferry goods at the Northern California seaport each day is hindering exports of fresh beef and pork, dairy products and nuts as well as imports like green coffee, electronics and construction materials.
Commodity traders told Reuters coffee and cocoa are stuck on ships at the port, putting the quality of those imports in peril.
...
Meanwhile, drivers like Carlos Flores say they will continue protesting until Newsom exempts port truckers from AB5.
Flores, who uses his own tractor to haul port freight, told Reuters the law would burden him with up to $30,000 per month in rental costs for chassis and other port equipment.
"AB5 would shut me down. I don't have the resources to pay that kind of money," said Flores, 42.
"I've invested too much into my business to go to a company and work for hourly wages," he said.