Walter Moore Says: You Are Buying New Trucks For Union Employees Only

Walter Moore Says: You Are Buying New Trucks For Union Employees Only


Los Angeles Times">

From Walter Moore:

"Well, the Los Angeles Times reports today that U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder has upheld the "provision, backed by the Teamsters Union, that truck drivers moving through the harbor must be employed by a trucking company." Her reasoning, according to the paper, was as follows:

"Snyder concluded that the concession agreements were a "business necessity" that allowed harbor officials to protect its financial interests. In her ruling, she said that air pollution from trucks had jeopardized the port's future as a commercial enterprise, with lawsuits over emissions stalling growth at the harbor for seven years -- just as other ports were growing dramatically"

"With all due respect, I predict the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will reverse this decision unless Judge Snyder reconsiders her ruling first.
Barring independent contractors serves no legitimate purpose. If the supposed problem is ensuring drivers can afford a truck, then require a minimum credit score, or require them to post a bond. Any given independent contractor's financial wherewithal may be better, worse, or exactly the same as any given corporation. To close the port to independent contractors is therefore unjustifiable."

"This provision of the "clean trucks" program has nothing to do with cleaning the air, and everything to do with rewarding the unions that fund the political campaigns of career politicians like Villaraigosa. This is special interest politics at its worst. Indeed, more fundamentally, why are you and I, through increased duties imposed on imports, buying "free" trucks for private companies at all? Assuming it makes sense to require cleaner trucks at the port than everywhere else in the city, county and state, the port should simply ban "dirty" trucks, and leave it to the companies and independent contractors in trucking to buy, rent or lease their own trucks."


COMMENT: I have mixed views on the LA Clean Trucks Program. It in effect creates a union closed shop in LA port areas where only unionized teamster EMPLOYEES of large trucking companies can move goods thru the LA Port. It goes against my ingrained free market principals, my past background as an independent contract business owner/driver, and my general stance against closed shop/public unions.
On other hand i live right next to LA Port and next to a very busy freeway thru which port trucks rumble day and night. I benefit healthwise from the ports cleaner air resulting from this ruling, as do all area residents. Also this ruling has admittedly put out of business 1000's of big rig independent contract drivers, many of them recent green card immigrants, who were driving beaten-up old rigs which belched tons of black smoke & spewed pollutants into the air, and fouled up the local streets with their beaten up old deisels.

After careful consideration i have come out against the ruling, as it does foster a closed union shop and allows for large trucking companies to be gov-subsidized. This is a big no-no for me. I ran my own independent contract delivery business for many years and always payed all my expenses of running the operation - no government ever gave me any subsidy.