Shippers avoiding Port of Oakland as trucker protests stop trade

The trucker protests at the Port of Oakland have stopped the flow of trade for at least two days and some vessels are now either pulling up anchor to go to another port or skipping the port. In an effort to restore production, the port has established “Free Speech Zones” which were described in an open letter to the trucking community last night.

Truckers have been protesting since Monday against the California gig labor law. That law classifies workers as employees rather than independent contractors. Truckers who are classified as independent owner and operators were protected from the law during a two-year legal stay, but after the Supreme Court decided not to hear the case, that protection was lifted.

“Strikers say the bill’s classification requirements are unreasonable and will negatively impact around 70,000 truckers, accounting for two-thirds of port truckers in California,” explained Everstream Analytics to clients.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union tells CNBC that 450 ILWU workers have been dispatched to the terminals in the past three days but were unable to work because of the trucker protests.

“Every day, ILWU workers are getting up at 5 am to drive to the dispatch hall and fill jobs at the port,” said Farless Dailey III, ILWU Local 10 President. “But when they get to the terminals, the trucker protests are creating conditions which make it unsafe for workers to pass through the gates and do our jobs.”

The ILWU dispatched 450 workers in the past three days who were not able to get in to move cargo. “They don’t get paid when they don’t get in,” Dailey said. “ILWU workers want to work and move cargo, just like we have every day even during the worst days of the pandemic. We are in favor of AB5, not against it. But we’re not going to put our members in harm’s way to pass through the line of truckers,” he added.

The impact of this lack of labor can be seen in both the import container wait times and vessels waiting at anchor on the CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map.

“Currently, import containers are sitting at the Port of Oakland for more than two weeks,” said Josh Brazil, vice president of supply chain insights at Project44. “Due to a lack of intermodal capacity, dwell times exceeded 10 days even before the AB5 protest. Those…