Trucker blockade shuts major California seaport for second day

July 21 (Reuters) – Truckers protesting California’s new “gig employee” regulation blockaded the state’s third-busiest seaport for a second day on Thursday, stalling agricultural exports and threatening to worsen U.S. provide chain backups.

The operator of the biggest marine terminal on the Port of Oakland closed it for enterprise on Thursday, whereas the three different marine terminals on the property had some on-ship labor underway, port spokesman Robert Bernardo mentioned.

Unbiased truck drivers have been picketing terminal gates and choking truck site visitors on the port since Monday in protest of California’s new labor regulation formally generally known as AB5.

Backers say AB5 goals to clamp down on labor abuses and push corporations to rent drivers as staff – which might allow them to affix unions and collectively cut price with employers.

The regulation was a win for unions however is broadly opposed by huge rig drivers who say it will make it costlier for them to stay unbiased and push them to turn out to be firm staff.

Protesters and the trucking business need California Governor Gavin Newsom to delay enforcement of the regulation. Some organizers say the protesters – whose rally name is “The cargo will not movement ’til AB5 goes” – will not cease till they get a sit-down with Newsom.

In a rebuff on Thursday, the governor’s workplace mentioned: “Nobody needs to be caught abruptly by the regulation’s necessities. The business ought to deal with supporting this transition.”

The eighth-busiest U.S. container seaport – a key hub for agricultural commerce – was already working to clear a pandemic-fueled cargo backup earlier than the trucker protests started. The knock-on results of the sometimes confrontational protests are already rippling past trucking.

“It is not simply this as a one-off,” Shawna Morris, senior vice chairman for U.S. Dairy Export Council and Nationwide Milk Producers Federation, mentioned of the blockade.

ADDING TORNADO TO HURRICANE

Dairy farmers and different meals producers have struggled to get merchandise on the water as a result of container delivery strains prioritized extra profitable, pandemic-fueled imports from Asia to america.

“We have added a twister to the hurricane that the business has been attempting to endure for the final nearly two years now,” Morris mentioned.

It additionally complicates issues for the Worldwide Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which is in-high stakes U.S. West Coast port labor contract negotiations with terminal operators. The ILWU helps AB5 and mentioned its dock employee members did not cross the blockade line for security causes.

“We’re not going to place our members in hurt’s solution to cross by the road of truckers,” mentioned Farless Dailey, ILWU Native 10 president.

“We have now dispatched 450 staff previously three days who have not been in a position to get in to maneuver cargo for the day, and they do not get paid when they do not get in,” Dailey mentioned.

When vehicles and dock staff do not transfer cargo, the port clogs and ships do not transfer – exacerbating backups and amplifying dangers for shippers who depend on the port.

Oakland handles about $1.86 billion in exports per thirty days right now of 12 months. Two thirds of the worth of these are agricultural merchandise, and perishables will take the most important hit from the shutdown, mentioned Jock O’Connell, worldwide commerce advisor at consultancy Beacon Economics.

That places in danger California’s $20 billion-plus agriculture export business and shipments of every thing from almonds and rice to take advantage of powder and wine.

The clock can also be ticking for the $18 billion U.S. pork and beef export market, mentioned Joe Schuele, spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

Contemporary U.S. beef and pork producers transport merchandise a whole lot of miles to the Oakland port as a result of it’s the popular launch level for cargo ships sure for Asian international locations like Japan and South Korea, Schuele mentioned.

If port delays drag on quite a lot of days, the refrigerated meat might must be frozen to forestall it from spoiling, which lowers its worth whereas including frozen storage prices, he mentioned.

“You do not have quite a lot of time to spare,” Schuele mentioned.

Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, further reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Enhancing by Mark Porter and Diane Craft

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