Oakland Trucker Strike May Be Over...

Port authorities attempted to deliver legal notices to strikers this afternoon around 1pm, but none of the the strikers would touch the notices. Port authorities were left trying to videotape the notices even touching the hands of one of the strikers, but were not able to force the notices upon anyone, so they ended up littering the APL gate with a whole lot of paper. Strike spokespeople understood that the Port was trying to obtain an injunction through conversations that they were having with Ignacio de la Fuente. Sometime in the afternoon after I left some number of people involved in the strike decided to leave after being threatened with arrest if they did not. At this time I don't know how many of the strikers agreed to stopping further job actions or returning to work on Monday. But at least one of the spokespeople that I talked to tonight said that some of the truckers would still like to strike on Monday, although he feels that he must return to work because the injunction was mainly directed at him and the other spokespeople continuing to disrupt the transportation in the harbor area.

Regardless of what happens on Monday morning, the struggle will continue, whether in the form of an association or further jobs actions if the agreements made as a result of the strike do not produce real changes. I will be there on Monday morning to check in with the workers, and will continue to follow this struggle and post information about the history of previous struggles involving independent, owner operator truckers. From what I understand there is a long history of struggle for these folks and it sounds like there will be more in the near future.

Solidarity Forever - upton sinclair