The City of Oakland and the Port of Oakland filed a lawsuit against the owner-operator truckers that had protested California’s AB5 contractor law at the port the week before. The suit, filed at the Superior Court of California, includes an application for a temporary restraining order to prevent what it refers to as the protestors’ “illegal activities.”
The port engaged a private investigator to report on the protestors’ behaviour and identify some of them; those are the individuals named as defendants in the suit. (The lawsuit also targets 2,000 “Does,” unnamed defendants [as in John Doe.]) The “illegal activities” he observed include walking other than on the left edge of the roadway, failure to yield, stopping or delaying traffic in a marked or unmarked crosswalk, trespassing and more.
The suit also claims that the truckers undertook “a carefully planned and orchestrated campaign intended to block traffic, create life safety hazards for persons intending to work and/or do business” at the port and “prevent vital interstate and international commerce from being conducted.”
The port is seeking a temporary restraining order and an injunction to prevent activities that obstruct traffic and block access to the port.
On Monday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Delbert Gee considered the temporary restraining order but did not issue his ruling.
BMJC SAYS: The issue, as I (think?) I understand it, is the fact that the left-leaning California State government/bureaucracy is changing the rules for owner-operator commercial truck drivers, telling them that they can no longer be independent people but must now be employed as company employees within a corporate organization. This is likely one more attempt at control of the people under the guise that the state knows what’s best for you whether you like it or not … and clearly, the independent owner-operators do not agree. Of course, I could be mistaken … but as we all know that would be a first – hahaha!!!
AND: Canada’s Trucker Protest Shows a New Class War – The New York Times.pdf
AB5 was actually trying to prevent the company v. independent contractor loophole so that “companies” could no longer “contract” with “owner-operators” while dictating their schedules, pay, etc. without paying taxes for them, providing medical benefits, etc. Other driver-based companies for food delivery and shared rides like Door-Dash or Uber put a lot of money into lobbying / fought very hard to get themselves exempted from AB5. But yeah, it ends up being a gut punch to the trucking industry.