East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy

East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) is leading the fight for “Clean and Safe Ports” in Oakland, working with the Teamsters union and allies in faith, environment and community organizations to secure basic workplace rights for hundreds of port truck drivers. These drivers are misclassified as “independent contractors”, denying them the right to organize into a union and subjecting them to wage theft and other abuses. As documented in a report titled The Big Rig: Poverty, Pollution, and the Misclassification of Truck Drivers at America’s Ports, these drivers are vulnerable to illegal employment classification schemes that subject them to low non-negotiable wages, frequent safety violations, and little autonomy from the employers who dictate their financial constraints. EBASE has successfully campaigned for new legislation and regulations that requires environmental standards for trucks and enforcement of health and safety protections for drivers. It is also advocating for both state legislation that would recognize drivers as employees rather than “independent contractors”.

EBASE, along with other organizations, including Discount grantees Puget Sound SAGE and the Partnership for Working Families (see 2011 Grants List) are part of a national campaign to end misclassification of some 110,000 port drivers and holds promise for securing the right to organize these drivers into a union, a key priority for the Foundation.

2011 grant: $32,500 for the Campaign for Clean and Safe Ports: supporting right of drivers to unionize

Related to: Right to Form Unions; Clean and Safe Ports

Visit the EBASE website at www.workingeastbay.org.