OAKLAND, Calif., July 22 CA-Teamsters-ports
Teamsters President Calls for a Sustainable Clean Trucks Program
OAKLAND, Calif., July 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa joined more than 3,000 environmental, community and labor advocates at a march and rally today to call for clean air and good jobs at the Port of Oakland through the implementation of a comprehensive clean trucks program.
The event was co-sponsored by the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, the California Labor Federation, and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County. Rally participants carried signs reading "Clean Air & Good Jobs" to deliver the message that it is time to stop poisoning the environment with deadly truck emissions and make the industry responsible for modernizing the port truck fleet.
"Port drivers are on the front lines of this fight for clean air and good jobs," said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. "They toil away every day earning poverty level wages and can't earn enough to pay for the maintenance of their older trucks which are pumping out toxic pollution. This coalition of environmental, community and labor activists has come together for a common cause - to curb pollution in our ports and create good-paying jobs for port drivers."
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums helped kick off the march to the port. Thousands of marchers gathered at a rally site in Jack London Square in the shadow of the Port of Oakland to show their support.
Oakland could be become the second port to adopt a sustainable clean trucks program following the Port of Los Angeles, which unanimously approved the plan earlier this year.
"Drivers like me need change for our families," said Lorenzo Fernandez, an Oakland port driver. "I can't keep food on the table let alone maintain my truck on the rates we get paid."
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
