In six press releases from various union and pro-union
sources, backers of the Teamsters' effort to change federal law
in order to organize port drayage truck drivers are misleading
the public and encouraging use of taxpayer money to
help organize unions, according to the American Trucking
Associations (ATA).
The ATA maintains the press releases contain falsehoods
about tbe Clean Trucks Program in the Ports of Los Angeles
and Long Beach and the ATA's support of those programs. The
ATA has supported the Clean Trucks Program in both ports,
and its members have helped the ports replace older trucks
with newer, cleaner trucks at a rate ahead of schedule. Neither
port has enforced the concession plan requirements the US
Court of Appeals declared illegal in March. The releases suggest
the Clean Truck Programs cannot succeed without those
concession plan requirements in place.
"The union-led effort uses a campaign for clean air as a
cover for an all-out effort to destroy small independent businesses
owned by independent truck owner-operators and replace
them with larger trucking companies whose employees
can be more easily organized by the Teamsters," said ATA Vice
President of Public Affairs Clayton Boyce. "Unions and their
supporters are wrongly claiming that banning independent
owner-operators is necessary to clean the air. The recent experience
in the Port of Los Angeles, where clean air efforts are far
ahead of schedule even though the LA ban on owner-operators
has been enjoined, has shown that claim to be false."
The releases were issued on the first anniversary of the Los
Angeles and Long Beach truck plans by:
•Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has
frequently attacked the ATA for challenging the illegal and
unconstitutional Los Angeles concession plan.