Alex's Choice: Truck Filter or a Gallon of Milk

My experiences with truckers has been limited to commiserating with them in gas stations on endless Texas highways. Not last week. I attended the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference in Washington D.C. and got to know another side of the life of a trucker.

It's not easy. Alex Mejia, a father of two boys and a trucker in the Port of Los Angeles, told us, "I work 14 to 18 hours a day, but I still am not able to bring enough money to the house to pay my bills. Sometimes I have to choose between buying a filter for my truck and a gallon of milk. That's what it is."

He used to own his own truck, and worked as an independent contractor for a trucking company. Then, the trucking company decided that it wanted to make full-time employees of all their independent contractors, but the truckers would have to give up their own trucks and drive newer models. But then the trucking company switched them again—back to independent contractors. The problem with this? They are now forced to bear the costs of upkeep for newer trucks that don't even belong to them. These costs include registration, maintenance, fuel, insurance, tires, and costly pollution controls. It's not cheap—an average of $60,000 over seven years, which is the average life of a lease.

"The company switched me from being an employee to an independent contractor, and they didn't give me a choice. They told me, 'hey, there's a truck right there. either you drive this truck, or you go out the door,'" he says. Mr. Mejia's experience was no isolated incident. Purposely misclassifying truckers as independent contractors, and yet forcing them to upkeep expensive trucks is a systemic problem: "It wasn't just me, it wasn't just my company, it happened to all these truck drivers. I didn't have to make payment for my truck when i had my own truck. With my new truck, I have to pay for the maintenance...it's new technology."

The Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports is fighting a battle at ports around the country, as Change.org has written about before (see here and here for background). They are working on behalf of port cities, port workers and port communities, all who suffer some of the worst air quality in the nation as a result of the huge volume of diesel truck traffic. But the coalition is also working on behalf of port truckers, who—like Mr. Mejia—are frequently poorly paid and deliberately misclassified by the industry, in what the coalition has dubbed a "cruel experiment."

As this country cleans up its ports and requires trucks with newer engines with better air pollution control equipment, the industry is shifting all the costs for fleet upgrades to low-income truckers through this misclassification scheme.

Trucking was once an industry that provided middle class jobs, benefits, a pension, and collective bargaining rights. This was once an industry in which the companies were responsible for the trucks they owned, but as a consequence of deregulation, no more. Now, people like Mr. Mejia, a father of two young boys, pay the price of upkeeping the trucks. This, when the average trucker makes $9-12 an hour, works 12-16 hours a day, has no benefits, and no basic protections. And even though these drivers are classified as independent contractors, they're not allowed to work for other companies.

But truckers are fighting back. Environmental, public health and labor advocates, including the Teamsters, have come together under the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports umbrella. The coalition is working to implement programs like the one in Los Angeles, in which the port grants contracts to trucking companies that correctly classify drivers, adhere to environmental standards for the trucks, channel jobs towards local communities, and designate truck routes to avoid neighborhoods. The program has already withstood one legal challenge by the industry.

After all, it is the truckers themselves who need the clean air, since the majority live in the port area. Alex lives within 3 miles: "Clean air is important to me.  I want my family, myself, and also my community to breathe clean air."

Right now, the coalition is working at the federal level to enact legislation. But it is also working to pressure the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to enact a similar program the the one in the Port of Los Angeles. Please support their work by both signing this petition to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and by signing this petition to Congress.

And watch Alex Mejia yourself as he took his case to Capitol Hill last week, as part of a lobby day by the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports.

Follow Change.org's Environment page on Facebook,  Twitter or RSS. Have a story tip? E-mail us at environmenttips@change.org.

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports