Take Action. Now.
Take Action Today: Support Clean Air Plan
Join NAWBO-LA and BizFed, the Los Angeles County consortium formed to advocate for business interests, of which we are a founding member, in supporting growing and greening our ports today.
Click here for further information about BizFed.
The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are major economic engines for Southern California. They are responsible for more than 500,000 logistics and goods movement jobs. Every household and small business in our region is affected by these jobs and from the products that are imported and exported through the ports.
In late 2006, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach jointly approved the Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP), the most progressive and far-reaching port environmental plan anywhere in the world. The plan establishes aggressive milestones to significantly reduce greenhouse gases, retrofit trucks and dock equipment with clean technology, and implement a long-range strategy to simultaneously grow and green our ports.
Efforts are underway however, that would stall this environmental clean up and do great harm to our regional economy. They involve a push by the Teamsters to prohibit independent truck drivers from operating at the ports and requiring them to become employees of trucking companies. As part of the CAAP, the Port of Long Beach approved the Clean Trucks Program without the employee-mandate labor provision. The Port of Los Angeles however, supports the employee-mandate and is expected to vote on the provision in an independent Clean Trucks Program later this month.
In the end, a dispute that has little to do with environmental issues has the potential of delaying the implementation of a Clean Trucks Program that will clean up our environment and create thousands of good paying jobs throughout Southern California. Already, shippers and tenants at the ports have begun moving operations to other facilities around the nation taking jobs and economic investment with them because of this dispute.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, members of the Los Angeles and Long Beach City Councils, and the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbor Commissions need to hear loud and clear that the Los Angeles County business community supports moving ahead with the Clean Trucks Program without the employee provision, and that we oppose regulations that would force small businesses out of business and require them to become employees. Please join fellow business groups in supporting a cleaner environment and preserving the right of independent truckers to work at the ports. Moving forward with the Clean Trucks Program is critical to our environment and our economy.
Your NAWBO-LA leadership has weighed in on this important issue in a letter to the Board of Harbor Commissioners and the Los Angeles City leadership including the Mayor (Click here to read NAWBO-LA’s letter.) You may wish to add your individual voice to the chorus of other business owners advocating for change that both respects our environment and continues the prospect for important economic growth and development at our ports.
Have your voice heard. Send an email today:
