“This is where trucks come to die”

The above quote is by Port of LA spokesperson Arely Baker, from the LA Weekly article A Heavy Load, which is featured on the cover of this week's issue. The eight page article focuses entirely on the drivers and their struggles as the Port tries to clean itself up, re-organize the way truckers are employed, and replace hundreds of aging trucks.

The article highlights the disparities between the non-union and the union workers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. While doing similar jobs one group has managed to build a secure workplace for itself and the workers of the other are barely getting by.

This quote is from Chicho, a truck driver, addressing his frustration at the class division between the organized workers of the ILWU and the non-organized t -

“The longshoremen have a lot of ideas, they have power,” Chicho says. “And whoever organizes the truckers — Teamsters, Wobbly, whatever — they choose the driver. If the longshoremen could take over the drivers, that would be powerful. Then they have all the power. But right now, the way things are, the longshoremen is afraid to share with the driver his economy.

“Who controls the drivers controls the pier, and who controls the pier controls the container. And who controls the container,” Chicho concludes, “controls the economy in this country.”