Tuesday Night @ the Oakland Docks

As oil companies report record profits, trucking companies forced to buy California fuel are on strike. As of 4/27/04, California truckers were paying an average of $2.27/gallon for diesel fuel—56 cents/gallon higher than the national average and 22 cents/gallon higher than their competitors in Arizona. The California Trucking Association is seeking an executive order from Governor Schwarzenegger to do the following:

1. Create competition in California’s diesel fuel market
2. Allow federal EPA approved diesel fuel to be sold in California.
3. Request the Attorney General to investigate and prosecute the worst market manipulation since the energy crisis.
4. Prohibit plans underway at the Energy Commission to ration diesel fuel for California fuel users.
5. Investigate the actions of international companies who set (store door) delivered rates at a cost below California fuel prices or refuse fuel surcharges.
6. Repeal the recent action of CARB moving ahead in 2006 with a new oil cartel sanctioned standard based on the theory that the fuel can be cleaner than the new federal standard.

Truckers who transport interstate commerce are required to register with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which requires drivers to carry more intensive insurance and submit to more stringent inspections. They must mark their vehicle on both sides with the legal name under which they operate, and the identification number issued by the FMCSA preceded by the letters US Dot. To break the strike and demoralize strikers, companies who are not properly certified are hauling trailers from Union Pacific property at the Oakland docks by taping other companies’ logos over the information posted on the side of their trucks.