Barack Obama
November 2,2007
Meeting of
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City of Los Angeles
Mayor Robert Foster, City of Long Beach
Mayor Ron Dellums, City of Oakland
Dear Mayors Villaraigosa, Foster, and Dellums:
1 write to express my support for the efforts you are making to ensure that our ports are environmentally
sound, secure, and supporting middle class living standards for those working there. Americans are anxious about
increased trade, its relationship to middle class jobs available in America, and what that economic activity - both
as a matter of prodi~ctionand transport of goods -- is doing to the environment. Those concerns and challenges
come to a head at the ports in your cities and I commend your leadership in addressing them.
In particular, the Clean Trucks Program recognizes trade, labor, and the environment are not separate, but
linked issues. The program sets up tough standards to clean up truck diesel emissions and provides generous
sitbsidies for vehicle purchase and retrofit. And it also recognizes that responsibility for investing in higher
standards is best borne by firms rather than the individual truck drivers fighting to make a living with little
leverage to negotiate for better pay.
Because the trucking companies that operate at the ports have adopted the strategy of holding down costs
by classifying their personnel as independent contractors, each individual driver is today responsible for his truck
and its environmental impact. But most are independent only in the sense that they own the truck they operate and
are struggling to pay it off. Many of these truckers may be legally misclassified. Worker misclassification is an
issue I have worked on at the federal level to remedy because it hurts workers and costs the taxpayer billions in
uncollected taxes. In this case, whether they are misclassified or not, the dependence on poorly paid truckers is
leading to the use of trucks ill equipped to minimize the impact on the environment.
According to a recent survey of truckers at the ports, five out of six drivers only work for one trucking
company at a time and nearly nine in ten own only one truck. They are dependent on the trucking companies for
work. Those companies and the big box retailers reap the rewards of increased imports while the truckers who
transport those goods are paid poorly and receive few benefits. After expenses, fuel and insurance, they take
home roi~ghly$29,000 per year and struggle to afford routine repairs and upgrades. That has repercussions for the
drivers and the environment.
Adopting the Clean Trucks Program will make it possible to ensure that the pollution these trucks are
creating and the low compensation truckers receive are reversed. I support your efforts to work with the Harbor
Colnmissioners in your respective cities to adopt a strong Clean Trucks Program promoting the cleanest available
technology and a transition away from por-ts relying on trucking companies that act as brokers to ones that treat
their persoi~nelas employees. Both steps are necessary to meet emissions reductions targets and ensure that jobs at
our ports are middle class jobs.


CC: David Freeman, President
Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commission
Mario Cordero, President
Long Beach Board of Harbor Commission
Anthony Batarse, Jr., President
Harbor Commissioners, Port of Oakland     Ob~llla'08
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