Oakland truckers protest State bill, claim anti-contractor mandated unionization

AB 5, chaptered in 2019, would force California’s freelance truck drivers to unionize under larger corporations—kissing the gig work option goodbye. Since the Supreme Court declined to hear a case against AB 5 last month, Oakland community truckers have blocked terminal traffic to protest this “man-made disaster” of coerced unionization. Stephen Frank of California Political Review examines the protest’s and AB 5’s powerful implications for our local economy.

The protest — coming after similar events at Southern California ports last week — also threatens to exacerbate supply chains, which are seeing a seasonal increase in cargo traffic and already teetering on the edge of major complications, said Larry Gross, a supply chain expert and president of Gross Transportation Consulting

“(Ports) are still paddling as hard as they can,” said Gross. “This is potentially quite disruptive.”

Gross said Oakland’s port protest could cause the facility to fill up with containers and force ships to seek ports in Southern California or the Gulf of Mexico.

At nearly 100 years old, the Port of Oakland is one of the top three gateways on the West Coast and it handles virtually all of Northern California’s containerized imports and exports. The port is an especially important hub for agricultural exports from California’s Central Valley to Asia.

While supply chain woes caused massive backlogs at shipping facilities during the last year, the import business has boomed amid strong consumer demand. In 2021, the Port of Oakland moved over 1 million import cargo containers, a new record.

On Tuesday, the Oakland port was quiet as protesters stood at all the terminal gates The typically bustling facility saw only a trickle of vehicle traffic as some truckers passed the time by playing soccer and munching pizza.

“The independent truckers’ concerns have been heard,” said Marilyn Sandifur, a port spokesperson…

This article originally appeared in California Political Review. Read the whole thing here.

Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity

Image by Tony Webster