ATA claims L.A. mayor, others, distorting group’s lawsuit
“These parties continue to mislead the citizens of Los Angeles and Long Beach by claiming that ATA is trying to kill the ports’ clean truck program,” said American Trucking Associations (ATA) Vice President of Public Affairs Clayton Boyce.
The Trucker Staff
3/25/2009
ARLINGTON, Va. — American Trucking Associations (ATA) Vice President of Public Affairs Clayton Boyce today levied stinging criticism at officials of the City of Los Angeles, the Port of Los Angeles and the Natural Resources Defense Council for “misleading the public and press about the purpose and results of ATA’s lawsuit against the concession plans of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.”
“These parties continue to mislead the citizens of Los Angeles and Long Beach by claiming that ATA is trying to kill the ports’ clean truck program,” Boyce said, adding that ATA has always supported the clean truck program, including the ports’ container fee for financing the replacement of older trucks, the banning of older trucks and the ports’ drayage registry.
He said ATA has “opposed only the ports’ concession plans, especially the Los Angeles ban on independent owner-operators.”
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Tuesday made comments defending the ports’ clean truck program, apparently in response to a three-judge panel of the Ninth District U.S. Court of Appeals’ unanimous ruling that all or part of the concession plans are an unconstitutional interference in interstate trade.
“While the District Court has been asked to undertake further proceedings with respect to the case, the City of Los Angeles is pleased that the centerpiece components of the clean truck program that are currently in effect — i.e., the dirty truck ban and clean truck fee — remain intact …,” Villaraigosa said. “We are committed to fighting this case because our clean truck program is the most sustainable plan for ensuring a clean, safe and secure trucking system for the long-haul at the Port of Los Angeles.”
ATA took issue with those and other comments, saying they make it sound like the ATA suit was against the clean truck program, which it wasn’t.
“The deception goes beyond public relations ‘spin’ and may have two purposes,” Boyce said: “to lower public expectations for the ports’ unsuccessful defense of the lawsuit; and to distract from the reason that Los Angeles, but not Long Beach, bowed to union influence and banned owner-operators.
“Requiring that drivers be trucking company employees will allow unions to organize the drivers. In short, the public’s health, safety and security are not at risk in the ATA litigation,” Boyce said. “This litigation is about removing unconstitutional and illegal red tape, and about protecting the rights of the owners of small businesses that the Port of Los Angeles has trampled.”
The court, in its decision March 20 agreed with ATA’s suit, saying that doing away with owner-operators would “irrevocably” hurt motor carriers.
ATA in December of last year filed a brief to get an injunction against the enforcement of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach’s concession plans, part of the clean truck program, saying the plans unlawfully re-regulated the port industry.
A federal judge denied the request and an appeals court upheld the ruling. However, the District and Appeals Courts merely declined to issue an immediate injunction and the case continued with the 9th Circuit Court hearing arguments in the case on March 4.
The judges’ opinion last Friday said: “As to smaller companies that cannot afford the vast increase in capital requirements for the purchase of equipment and personnel expenditures needed to turn independent contractors into employees, the result would likely be fatal. And that means that those smaller carriers, and their employees, and even independent contractors who depend upon them, will be out of work. One wonders why it should be thought that they should just put up with the loss any more than employees of a company should be forced to abide their wrongful termination and the resulting emotional damages and stress that termination causes.”
A recent Los Angeles Times report said that at the Port of L.A., “the rules prohibit drivers from being independent contractors — a provision sought by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and backed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.”
ATA also took issue with comments reportedly made by the attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who ATA said was quoted in The Cunningham Report newsletter as saying the court’s decision “places in jeopardy the clean air goals at the ports, as well as every port infrastructure expansion project that relies on clean trucks.”
“Those claims aren’t supported by the facts,” Boyce said, adding that officials are “are manipulating public opinion.”
Dorothy Cox of The Trucker staff may be reached to comment on this article at dlcox@thetrucker.com.