LOS ANGELES, July 20 (Reuters) – Protesting truckers stopped visitors on Wednesday at a Northern California port, one of many busiest in the USA, as they demonstrated towards a brand new state labor regulation that makes it more durable for unbiased truckers to function.

Drivers picketed gates and blocked different truckers from hauling cargo out and in of the port. The protests in Oakland started on Monday and have grown bigger and extra disruptive with every passing day. learn extra

Late on Wednesday, Port of Oakland Government Director Danny Wan acknowledged protesters’ frustration with California’s “gig employee” regulation and warned {that a} extended shutdown would “harm all the companies working on the ports” and trigger clients to shift cargo to rival seaports.

The protesters fear that the regulation, which may quickly be implement, will impose hefty prices on them that may slash their earnings.

SSA Marine, which manages the biggest terminal on the Port of Oakland within the San Francisco Bay space, closed operations on Wednesday as a result of protests, which floor enterprise at different marine terminals to a digital halt.

SSA and Everport terminal managers despatched Worldwide Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) dock staff house for security causes, a supply aware of the state of affairs mentioned Wednesday.

Terminal representatives didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

The brand new regulation, formally referred to as AB5, units more durable requirements for classifying staff as unbiased contractors.

Trucking business authorized challenges delayed enactment of the regulation for greater than two years, however the U.S. Supreme Courtroom declined to assessment the case on June 30, clearing the way in which for it to go ahead. learn extra

Backers, together with the Teamsters and the ILWU, say AB5 goals to clamp down on labor abuses and push corporations to rent drivers as workers – which might allow them to hitch unions and collectively discount with employers.

Some 5,000 truckers work on the Oakland port, which is a significant hub for agricultural exports together with almonds, rice and wine.

The protests in Oakland adopted actions final week on the nation’s high two seaports, at Los Angeles and Lengthy Seashore in Southern California. learn extra

The three California ports deal with about half of the nation’s container cargo quantity. The trucker protests come because the ILWU, which represents dock staff at these and different U.S. West Coast ports, is in high-stakes contract talks with terminal operators that make use of them.

Protest organizers say their actions will proceed till they get an viewers with Governor Gavin Newsom, who didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Wednesday.

On Monday, the Governor’s Workplace of Enterprise and Financial Growth mentioned: “Now that the federal courts have rejected the trucking business’s appeals, it is time to transfer ahead.”

Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Enhancing by Lisa Shumaker, Cynthia Osterman and Richard Pullin

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