By Alex Oliveira For Dailymail.Com
Published: 05:56 BST, 25 July 2022 | Updated: 15:27 BST, 25 July 2022
Shocking photos of cargo laden freight boats waiting to unload at the Port of Oakland show the real-time effects of a trucker strike that's set to enter its second week.
Independent truck drivers have been blocking road access to the port since last week, preventing ships from unloading at the major shipping hub and causing further disruption in a supply chain already facing crippling stress from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Chinese COVID-19 lockdown measures.
The truckers have been protesting California's Assembly Bill 5, a 2019 law requiring certain industries - trucking included - to classify independent contractors as regular benefitted employees.
Many truckers have argued the law ruined their autonomy and upended the way they do business, and challenges to the law met a dead end last month after the US Supreme Court declined to advance the case.
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Shocking photos of cargo laden freight boats waiting to unload at the Port of Oakland show the real-time effects of a trucker strike that's set to enter its second week. Half a dozen ships are seen waiting outside the port
Shocking photos of cargo laden freight boats waiting to unload at the Port of Oakland show the real-time effects of a trucker strike that is set to enter its second week
Independent truck drivers have been blocking road access to the port since last week, preventing ships from unloading at the major shipping hub
The protests began last Monday and have blocked road access to the port since then, minus a break over the weekend that was scheduled to coincide with the port's lessened weekend activity.
Photos of the port show rows of stacked shipping containers with nowhere to go and an armada of fully loaded freighters queued up, unable to unload their cargo.
Protesters wearing T-shirts with 'AB5' crossed out in red on their chests could be seen camped out in California with freight cranes standing still and unused behind them.
Truckers have been protesting California's Assembly Bill 5, a 2019 law requiring certain industries - trucking included - to classify independent contractors as regular benefitted employees
Many truckers have argued that the law ruined their autonomy and upended the way they do business; challenges to the law met a dead end last month after the US Supreme Court declined to advance the case
The Port of Oakland is a key hub for California's $20 billion-plus agriculture exports, which include almonds, dairy products and wine.
The eighth-busiest US container seaport - which also handles imports like coffee, electronics and manhole covers - was already working to clear a pandemic-fueled cargo backup before the trucker protests began.
Representatives for the port told Reuters that some port terminals are leased out to companies that schedule their operations and may have been carried out some shipping operations during the protest break on Saturday morning.
Photos of the port showed rows of stacked shipping containers with nowhere to go, and an armada of fully loaded freighters queued up in the port with nowhere to unload their cargo
The Port of Oakland is a key hub for California's $20 billion-plus agriculture exports, which include almonds, dairy products and wine
It's unclear whether protests will resume Monday.
Bill Aboudi, owner of a trucking company and supporter of the protests, told Reuters that would be determined by the progress of talks about the law.
'If the protests will resume or not on Monday, that shall be determined on Monday only as the truckers are in active talks with the concerned authorities,' Aboudi said.
Operations at the Northern California port ground to a near standstill last week after protesters used pickets and tractor-trailers to block terminal gates.
Work on ships and docks slowed after cargo flows stopped and hundreds of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) members declined to cross blockade lines for safety reasons.
Operations at the Northern California port ground to a near standstill last week after protesters used pickets and tractor-trailers to block terminal gates
The Port of Oakland is a key hub for California's $20 billion-plus agriculture exports, which include almonds, dairy products and wine
Truckers against AB5 say it would make it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors.
They say the law will require them to spend thousands of dollars on insurance and equipment rentals like chassis to remain independent.
'AB5 is everything that obstructs a small truck business owner's ambition to live the "American Dream," ' Aboudi said.
This is getting no news coverage because the MSM h...
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