Fighting for Clean Air & Good Jobs at the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma

The Battle in Seattle & Beyond

September 16, 2011

According to a front page expose in the Seattle Times “truck drivers who serve Seattle’s busy shipping port say they’re losing patience with chronically low pay and poor working conditions.”

No truer words have been spoken.

Port truck drivers, community activists, environmentalists and faith leaders used the backdrop of the annual American Association of Port Authorities convention in Seattle to bring attention to the dirty and broken port trucking industry plaguing workers and communities in port cities around the country.

The weeklong series of direct action began with a massive 600-person rally at the airport to welcome conference attendees. On the first morning of the convention pranksters slipped a revised conference agenda underneath the doors of all 900 rooms at the Westin Hotel, promoting mock sessions like The ‘Green Washing’ of the Cargo Supply Chain Award and Integrating Jim Crow into Today’s Workplace. By mid-week, port drivers and faith leaders from Seattle, Oakland and Los Angeles sang the African-American spiritual “Wade in the Water” after police prevented them from presenting a petition to the Port of Seattle Commissioners which asserts the rights of port truck drivers to a “family-sustaining wage,” collective-bargaining rights, clean restrooms, pay for time wasted in traffic or at entry gates, and money to afford the newer, cleaner trucks that the Port might require by 2015.

By the end of the week protesters gathered outside the conference hotel and shut down 5^th Avenue in downtown Seattle. Throughout the week organizations like the Sierra Club, Puget Sound SAGE, the Teamsters, the Church Council of Greater Seattle and the Rainforest Action Network stood in solidarity with port drivers and port communities to demand an end to Seattle’s ‘port of poverty and pollution.’

“We need help,” said driver Yosef Bruke. “Nobody respects us. We are called names you don’t want to hear in public. We are foreigners, but we’re just trying to make a living like everybody else. We are the middleman. We demand respect.”

But what’s happening in Seattle is only the latest in a series of driver-led actions at other ports in recent months.

In Los Angeles and Long Beach port truck drivers working at the Toll Group - a company that handles cargo for popular apparel and athletic brands Guess? and Under Armour – marched on the boss to demand an end to Jim Crow-like working conditions where they were forced to use dirty, unsanitary restrooms while other employees were free to use permanent indoor restrooms and break facilities.

Drivers in Newark held a successful work stoppage at Ironbound Express to re-instate a co-worker who had been fired for “drinking from the wrong water fountain.” These same drivers filed wage theft lawsuits to return tens of thousands of dollars taken from their paychecks illegally and they are organizing drivers at other companies to fight trucking companies that make illegal deductions from driver paychecks.

And while a national movement of port truck drivers is organizing across ports, so is a visionary base of community, faith and environmental leaders who see a connection between the economic injustices of port truck drivers and the impact on the environment and communities.

The Rainforest Action Network reported in their blog The Understory, “It’s crossing issues and bringing together unlikely allies to challenge corporations and politicians acting against the needs of their citizens… under the banner of “Welcome to the Port of Poverty and Pollution,” activists with RAN joined immigrant truck drivers, port communities impacted by economic and clean air issues, Teamsters, and faith leaders standing in solidarity in downtown Seattle”

Welcome To The Port Of Poverty And Pollution

September 15, 2011

*This guest blog by Scott Parkin was originally published on The Understory.

The spirit of Seattle lives.

A revolt is in motion in many parts of the country. It’s crossing issues and bringing together unlikely allies to challenge corporations and politicians acting against the needs of their citizens. In November 1999, RAN joined a diverse and lively global justice movement, which included environmentalists, labor, students, people of faith and people from many walks of life, to shut down the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle.

This week, again in Seattle, under the banner of “Welcome to the Port of Poverty and Pollution,” activists with RAN joined immigrant truck drivers, port communities impacted by economic and clean air issues, Teamsters, and faith leaders standing in solidarity in downtown Seattle at the annual Port Authorities convention.

Actions all week have been directed at the Port of Seattle and its leadership. The Port of Seattle is responsible for inadequate wages and poor working conditions. Environmentally, the port authority is responsible for air and water pollution up and down Puget Sound, impacting communities living near the Port and SeaTac Airport. The Port of Seattle consistently sides with corporations in these matters. Ironically, the tone of the convention has been portraying the Port of Seattle as an environmentally responsible engine for job creation.

Furthermore, many of the same corporations participating in the convention are actively building or promoting the construction of coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest. SSA Marine has sought permits to build one such facility in Bellingham, WA. Another convention participant is Burlington Northern, which ships coal from Montana to Washington’s ports.

RAN has formed a guerrilla projections team that has been traveling around Seattle after-hours, beaming images in solidarity with this week’s protests. Tomorrow, there will be a mass rally outside the convention.

Twelve years ago, we were part of an anti-corporate globalization movement fighting privatization and resource extraction abroad. Today we’re part of an anti-corporate movement fighting privatization, resource extraction, and climate change at home. We saw it earlier this year when thousands occupied the capitol building of Wisconsin over attacks against public sector unions. We saw it all summer as environmentalists marched, locked down, danced, scaled trees, went to prison and sat-in fighting Big Oil and Big Coal. We’re seeing it as community groups and labor are fighting against home foreclosures and tax dodging by the wealthiest companies on the planet.

A few weeks ago, labor, faith, student and many more joined with environmentalists to call on Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline by sitting in at the White House. Cities across the country are seeing coalitions form and fight back against local issues of “poverty and pollution” more and more. This convergence is what frightened the powers that be in 1999. Now we’re back again.

Port Convention Attacked by Pranksters Armed with ‘Snark and a Pointed Critique’

September 13, 2011

Port officials and shipping industry leaders attending the annual American Association of Port Authorities convention woke up to find themselves the unwitting victims of a prank by environmental, faith, labor and community activists.

Outhouses and Injustices: Australia’s Toll Group Degrades America’s Truck Drivers

September 10, 2011

The ugly laws that relegated black Americans to second-class citizens for nearly a century in the post-slavery South were struck down over 45 years ago. Appallingly, that hasn’t stopped the Australian-based corporation that currently handles cargo for popular apparel and athletic brands Guess? and Under Armour from conducting business practices in Southern California that smack of Jim Crow.

Just as African-Americans were forced to use separate, inferior public restrooms and drinking fountains, Toll Group, a global transportation and logistics powerhouse, explicitly bars its truck drivers from using the clean and stocked indoor facilities; these roughly 75 men and women who haul imports for the fashion and footwear retail customers must share a trio of foul-smelling, unsanitary port-a-potties that lack running water outside in the company yard. Every Toll Group employee and manager is also free to use the break room during rest and meal periods, except the mostly Latino-American workers whose job it is to haul giant containers from port terminals to local warehouses.

Perhaps this multinational corporation is turning up the exploitation because many workers are too afraid to speak out when unemployment is so high. But these brave truck drivers began organizing themselves to put a stop to Toll’s inhumane treatment and now they need our help.

When the Los Angeles heat rises, or when the outhouses simply haven’t been cleaned after several shifts, drivers say they are so disgusted by the flies, the stench, and unsanitary conditions that they are better off relieving themselves outside. Female drivers don’t even have that option — they must put themselves at risk for infection by holding it until they can find a nearby fast-food chain or gas station. Workers on the night shift, like Jimmy Martinez, say it gets so dark, there’s not a chance he would enter.

On Wednesday, he and two other co-workers, Orlando Ayala and Luis Alay, attempted to speak to Toll’s top brass on behalf of 59 employees who work long hours to make their company profitable (Just last week it posted a rising net profit of $281 million). Their goal was to present a petition signed by the overwhelming majority of port drivers simply asking for equal access to clean and safe indoor restrooms and the break room; and the freedom to form a union without employer harassment and intimidation so they have the strength to end the humiliating environment and win improvements on the job.

The workers were accompanied by two advocates, Father William Connor, Priest Emeritus of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Long Beach, and the elected leader of the local union of transportation workers, Eric Tate of Teamsters Local 848. Outside, their co-workers, children and spouses hoisted signs in support of their efforts along with several dozen local residents and members of the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, an alliance of environmental, public health, faith, labor, and community groups. Port drivers from other companies nearby honked their horns in solidarity.

Inside, one of Toll’s senior executives, Vice President Rich Nazzaro, grew more defiant in the face of the workers’ calm show of unity. He flip-flopped on his previously stated open door policy by refusing to discuss remedying the injustices before refusing to accept the petition the drivers brought to him. The head of West Coast Operations even dismissed the pleas of the priest, saying that the moral and religious values of human dignity and respect may apply in church, but not in the workplace!

The situation in Los Angeles is a drastic contrast to how Toll Group treats its truck drivers in Australia. They aren’t discriminated against, nor is their profession devalued. Aussie drivers earn a fair wage for a hard day’s work, health care, and paid time off to spend with their families. That’s all their American counterparts want, but the ask is too much for a company with revenue that recently climbed 18 percent to a whopping $8.6 billion.

So what’s it going to take to get Guess? and Under Armour’s carrier to treat its workers with dignity and respect? Like the four students who first sat down in non-violent protest to order coffee at a “white only” lunch counter one February 1960 afternoon in Greensboro, N.C. ignited a series of growing sit-in actions that led to Woolworth’s reversing its policy of racial exclusion, Jimmy, Orlando, and Luis know that speaking truth to power is not enough. They are sparking a real movement with their co-workers, other drivers, and the community to end the pervasive injustice at their company and across the entire port trucking industry.

Already, Toll’s Australian employees and the union that represents them are publicly to speaking out against the segregation exhibited by their joint employer. Now in the U.S. the workers are asking supporters and consumers like you to sign onto the solidarity petition to management that local residents are now circulating. On this Labor Day, please add your name and spend another minute to forward it to as many friends as possible.

Thank you for your support.

First-Rate Truck Drivers, Second-Class Citizens, & Third-World Conditions

September 9, 2011

“We are not second-class citizens, we are first-rate truck drivers….Don’t the men and women who keep the economy moving deserve a shot at the American Dream?”

Yes, Karael Vallecillos, you do. But currently, this Los Angeles father with 11 years of experience as a professional port truck driver and his co-workers aren’t even allowed to use their company’s bathroom.

Karael works long hours away from his family in what the Labor Department calls one of the nation’s Top 10 dangerous occupations. He and his co-workers have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging that their Australian-based employer Toll Group, a global logistics carrier for popular fashion and athletic brands Guess? and Under Armour, is interfering with their legal right to form a union.

Karael was recently interrogated by management for hours for a routine traffic citation – ubiquitous in the transportation industry – simply because they knew he and his co-workers began organizing. And why wouldn’t they? Toll Group, a powerful and highly profitable powerhouse, subjects its truck drivers to inhumane treatment, including foul-smelling outhouses that lack running water and are rarely cleaned. “We just want our hard work to be valued.”

The charges, which range from intimidation, harassment, and retaliation on behalf of seven employees, came two days after an overwhelming majority of the roughly 75 truck drivers at Toll Group’s Southern California facilities attempted to present 59 signatures to top management on a petition they created to indicate their desire to collectively bargain to end their deplorable working conditions.

Community advocates, clergy, local residents, and labor, environmental and public health activists, liken their working conditions to the Jim Crow laws that governed the post-slavery South until the mid 1960’s.

“I never would have imagined, in 2011, that a foreign company would force their U.S. workers to use separate, unequal outhouses. The stench and unsanitary conditions are so appalling, the drivers are better off relieving themselves outside. Female drivers don’t even have that option — they must put themselves at risk for infection by holding it,” said Father William Connor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Long Beach, CA, who accompanied the drivers in their rebuffed attempt to calmly appeal to their employer’s top brass. “I am deeply concerned that management respect the drivers’ right to decent working conditions and a living wage. The Church cares deeply about economic justice, which applies to the Toll situation.”

Father Connor added that he was disappointed that Toll’s Vice President of West Coast Operations, Rich Nazzaro, dismissed the workers’ pleas. The Pastor Emeritus vowed to work with Eric Tate, the secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 848 – the truck drivers’ choice for a bargaining representative – to support the workers’ efforts to unite.

You can help Karael and his co-workers achieve justice on the job, too. Click here to sign the solidarity petition, and forward to your friends and family who stand for dignity and respect in the workplace too.