USA: The American Trucking Associations' (ATA) lawsuit against the Port of Los Angeles that went to trial on April 20 does not threaten the Clean Truck Programme 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.
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 unionise all port truck drivers, since owner-operators are independent contractors and cannot join a union. The ATA said that the Teamsters falsely claimed that the lawsuit seeks to end the Clean Truck Programme.
The trucking industry supports the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Programme and challenges only the requirements of its concession plan that are unrelated to cleaning the air.
Last year, the US Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the ATA's position was 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 Natural Resources Defence Council (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 LA'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 US District Court, following the Court of Appeals' instructions, granted an injunction halting most of the concession plan requirements. Soon after that, the Port of Long Beach settled the lawsuit against it. Long Beach and the trucking industry agreed to a truck registration programme that replaced the concession plan requirements.
Without the concession requirements, the Clean Truck Programmes of both Los Angeles and Long Beach are a success. The Los Angeles and Long Beach Clean Truck Programmes have reduced truck emissions by 80 percent and are two years ahead of schedule.
