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| Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services
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Truckers protested at two locations in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday to urge city officials to renew contracts with them for the city’s As-Needed Haul Truck Program.
Members of the Los Angeles City Contract Truck Association rallied outside City Hall and the city’s Public Works building, and were expected to continue to protest outside City Hall from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. through last Friday.
“Everything is going to be focused on City Hall for the next two days,” LACCTA Secretary Kenyatta Cole told City News Service on Wednesday. “We’re going to have lined up about 100 trucks, and we’re going to make noise.”
According to Cole, LACCTA members received letters on May 31 informing them the city would not be able to renew contracts with them for its As-Needed Haul Truck Program. The contracts are set to expire June 30.
The Bureau of Street Services program dates back to the 1890s. Officials said it was introduced during a period of growth when “additional trucking was required to assist city forces in the building, maintenance and resurfacing of the city’s roads.”
The Bureau of Street Services, or StreetsLA, has since retained a list of “qualified and ready-to-work independent owner-operators” for short-term and long-term hauling projects.
“It really was a shocker. It really hurts, and it’s detrimental (to our) businesses,” Cole said. “People are scared. They’re fearful because they don’t know why something like that would happen.”
LACCTA members, like many other Angelenos, are still struggling from the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, he said. Many of them also fear falling into homelessness.
Cole emphasized that many members of LACCTA, including himself, are successful business owners and their work sustains families.
City officials cited state legislation AB 5, which was passed in 2020 and changed the California Labor Code, classifying some workers as employees rather than independent contractors.
“This is having wide ramifications across the state, and will cause the haul truck program to end when current contracts expire at the end of June,” Elena Stern, senior public information director for the Department of Public Works, which houses StreetsLA, said in a statement.
“We care very much about the livelihoods of our partners and have been working aggressively at the direction of the mayor to ensure that our 93 contract truckers are given the opportunity to continue employment, and that paving operations continue seamlessly,” Stern added.
Some LACCTA members addressed the City Council during Wednesday’s public comment period.
Representatives Victor Vasquez and Mike Hernandez urged council members to advocate on their behalf and renew the contracts with independent truckers.
“The difference with us and everyone else is that we’re a unique program, minority-based that’s existed for more than 133 years,” Vasquez said. “We work in-house. We don’t work for a broker and we just want more time for the city to wake up and understand that this can be done.”
