Shipping

Job Action Affects About 1,250 Workers at 24 Terminals Across the Country

June 9, 2008 -- (Washington, D.C.) – Teamster carhaul members employed at Performance Transportation Services Inc. went on strike against the company at 9 a.m. EDT today to enforce the union’s bargaining table demands.

The nationwide strike affects 24 terminals and about 1,250 Teamster employees at the PTS’ companies: Leaseway Motorcar Transport Company, E. and L. Transport Company, Hadley Auto Transport and Transportation Releasing.

“We are on strike to enforce our bargaining table demands,” said Fred Zuckerman, Director of the Teamsters Carhaul Division.

PTS employees haul vehicles for Ford, General Motors, Toyota and other manufacturers.    » read more »

Risks, Costs Far Outweigh Claimed Productivity Gains; Statement of Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen

May 14, 2008 -- This statement was given at a news conference.

Thank you for joining us this morning. Today, we are here to make the case against allowing bigger, heavier and longer trucks onto our highways.

Truck crash: Photo by Daniel Gasienica (CC)

I’m joined by several people who have lost loved ones in crashes involving large trucks and a state trooper who was injured in a serious truck crash while protecting the public. They will share their stories with you.    » read more »

Hoffa Says Congress Shouldn’t Consider ‘Crazy’ Plan

May 14, 2008 -- (Washington, D.C.) – Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa on Wednesday urged Congress to ignore trucking industry lobbyists who want to let dangerous large trucks on our highways.

Container trucks on a US highway: Photo by futureatlas.com (CC)

A trucking industry group called “Americans for Safe and Efficient Transportation” is lobbying Congress this week for a pilot program to let bigger trucks on the road in five, possibly six states.

The states are Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Georgia and possibly Texas.    » read more »

State Department of Transportation to Develop New Regulations and Enforcement Policy; Plan Would Improve Quality of Life in Affected Areas

May 12, 2008 -- In response to the dangers posed by scores of trucks hauling non-local solid waste across local rural roads in the Finger Lakes and Central New York, Governor David A. Paterson and U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced today that the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) will institute a new policy intended to keep large trucks, with the exception of local pick-up and delivery vehicles, on the National Interstate Highway System.    » read more »

04/23/2008 -- The letter below signed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Oregon Governor Theodore R. Kulongoski, and Washington Governor Christine O. Gregoire was sent today to U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Chairman Daniel Inouye requesting his support of H.R. 802.

Container ship off San Francisco: Photo by Adam Knight (CC)

H.R. 802, the Maritime Pollution Prevention Act of 2007, is key to protecting public health in coastal regions and expanding international global trade by vessels to and from the United States.

April 23, 2008

The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye
Chairman    » read more »

April 18, 2008 --WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced legislation to help protect the world's oceans and the Great Lakes from damage caused by cruise ship pollution.

“Massive cruise ships can be massive ocean polluters,” Durbin said. “We cannot afford to leave the destruction of the oceans in the wake of our vacation cruises.”

Cruise ship, Alaska: Photo by Greg (CC)    » read more »

04/10/2008 -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today applauded the California Transportation Commission's (CTC) approval of $3.5 billion in Proposition 1B bond funds for transportation and goods movement projects throughout California.

The infrastructure bond funding, championed by the Governor and approved by voters in November 2006, includes $42 billion for education, housing, levee repair, flood control, parks and transportation projects and plays an important role in creating jobs, preserving our quality of life and growing the state's economy.    » read more »

March 14, 2008 -- Washington, DC– The American Lung Association salutes the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule to require substantial cuts in the air pollution produced by locomotive and marine diesel engines. Communities across the nation urgently need this federal help to help clean up dangerous ozone and particle pollution. Cleaning up diesel locomotives and marine engines will save thousands of lives.    » read more »

Will Reduce 90 percent of Soot Emissions by 2030

WASHINGTON (March 14, 2008) -- Thousands of emergency room visits and more than 1,000 premature deaths will be avoided every year, once a long-awaited federal plan to clean up dangerous, lung-clogging emissions from railroad locomotives and large marine diesel engines is fully implemented, according to scientists and clean-air advocates at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has been advocating for a clean-up plan for more than five years.    » read more »

February 7, 2008 -- (Washington, D.C.) – Transportation Secretary Mary Peters today was told point blank by three members of Congress to close the border to trucks from Mexico.

Peters kept the border open after a law was enacted to close it. The U.S. Senate voted 75 to 23 and the House voted 411 to 3 to forbid funding for the unsafe pilot project allowing Mexican trucks to use U.S. highways.

The legislation became law on December 26, 2007 as part of the Omnibus budget bill.    » read more »

Mexican Truck Company With Poor Safety Record Drops Out Of Cross-Border Pilot Project

February 7, 2008 -- (Washington, D.C.) – The Teamsters Union demands to know why U.S. inspectors opened the border to a Mexican truck company with an abysmal safety record.

The company last week dropped out of the cross-border trucking pilot program with no explanation from the Transportation Department.    » read more »

New York - A unified command with representatives from the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock LLC (the owner of the Dredge New York), Coast Guard Sector New York, New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NY DEC), New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) and the vessel Orange Sun continue to monitor the repair and recovery of a damaged dredge vessel after a collision with a freight ship in Newark Bay Thursday.    » read more »

An Overwhelming Majority of Workers Seek To Join Locals 89, 651

January 25, 2008 -- (Washington, D.C.) – An overwhelming majority of about 300 workers at the UPS Freight (formerly Overnite Transportation) terminals in Louisville and Lexington, in Kentucky, have signed authorization cards to become Teamsters, bringing the total number of drivers and dockworkers seeking to join the union to about 2,500 since last week, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa announced.    » read more »

January 24, 2008 -- HILO – The Hawaii Governor’s East Hawai‘i Community Advisory Council will meet on Thursday, Jan. 31, 5:30 p.m. in the Hawai‘i Innovation Center Conference Room (the old Bank of Hawai‘i building) located at 117 Keawe Street in Hilo. The public is invited to attend.    » read more »

December 07, 2007 -- LOS ANGELES — California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today announced that the Port of Los Angeles will take several important steps to “identify and reduce” the significant greenhouse gases generated at the Port of Los Angeles. The agreement, which was approved last night by the Harbor Commission, specifically addresses the global warming impact of the TraPac terminal expansion.    » read more »