Teamsters general president Jim Hoffa, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraiogosa and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums were among more than 3,000 environmental, community and labor advocates who rallied at the Port of Oakland Tuesday to call for the implementation of a comprehensive clean trucks program.
Co-sponsored by the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, the California Labor Federation, and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County, the event was aimed at making industry responsible for modernizing the port truck fleet, the Teamsters said.
"Port drivers are on the front lines of this fight for clean air and good jobs," said 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."
Oakland would be the second port to adopt a sustainable clean trucks program, following the Port of Long Beach, which passed a Clean Trucks program earlier this year.
