Recommendation to concur in recommendation of the Tidelands and Harbor Committee to direct City Attorney and the Board of Harbor Commissioners explore ways to address the protection of proprietary interests and labor code violations at the Port of Long Beach, and City Manager report back to the City Council on the impacts of new state legislation SB 1402.
Okay. Thank you very much. Now we're going to move on to item 29 with the clock. Please read item. Actually Item 29 Communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez, Chair Tidelands and Harbor Committee Recommendation to direct City Attorney and the Board of Harbor Commissioners to explore ways to address the protection of proprietary interests in Labor Code violations at the Port of Long Beach and City Manager to report back on the impacts of SB 41402. Thank you. Could Noelle please come up and speak on this? Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Members of the City Council and the well, Hasegawa, deputy executive director at the Harvard Department. I want to begin by thanking you for the opportunity to provide a brief report on the Harbor Commission's hearing that took place September 26th. The request of the Harbor Entitlements Committee. The Harbor Commission conducted a hearing on September 26th to explore ways to address the protection of proprietary interests and the Labor Code violations at the Port of Long Beach. A memorandum summarizing the hearing from Harbor Commission President Tracy Agus, who was also in attendance tonight, was provided to the mayor and the city council last Friday. During the hearing, the Harbor Commission heard a staff report as well as testimony from representatives from the Teamsters, Senator Ricardo Lara's Office. Harbor Trucking Association. The California Trucking Association. A truck driver and two of our marine terminal operators. Long Beach Container Terminal and SSA Marine. The testimony and discussion focused on truck operations, efficiencies and driver misclassification. The city attorney's office also clarified that the Port of Long Beach has very limited abilities to act on the issue of driver misclassification due to federal preemption on truck regulation outside of safety, security and environmental issues. In spite of this, the Harbor Commission recognizes the critical role that truck drivers play in supporting port operations and the gross inequities involved with truck driver misclassification. We believe that Senate Bill 1402 provides a critical new tool that could be instrumental in addressing and possibly ending truck driver misclassification. In addition, the Harbor Commission and port staff are diligently pursuing multiple additional avenues to address the problem, including requesting action from the Attorney General. Actively monitoring judgments issued by the Labor Commissioner on misclassification. Working with city staff to take action against business licenses when that options are available. Engaging neighboring municipalities to take similar actions. To revoke business licenses in their jurisdictions, engaging stakeholders and working with them to develop business solutions and exploring potential state legislative solutions. Concurrently, the port will continue to focus on improving efficiencies and reduce truck turn times, as this is also a critical component in the success of the dredge trucking industry and for the truck drivers. In furtherance of this, the Harbor Commission directed the following actions during the hearing. The Harbor Commission's Subcommittee on Efficiency, which was established last week, will continue the review of truck driver misclassification issues to identify any additional actions that can be taken by the port to gain compliance with state laws. This subcommittee will report back to the full commission with their findings no later than the first of the year. The Harbor Commission and port staff will continue to pursue ongoing plans and explore new suggestions raised at the hearing that will also improve efficiencies and working conditions for truck drivers servicing the Port of Long Beach. This will include a review of appointment systems, chassis management and uses of land to support truck operations. And Mr. Vice Mayor, council members, this concludes our report. As mentioned, the president of our Harbor Commission, Tracy Gasgas, here in the audience, as well as several of our staff members. And I also want to recognize Deputy City attorney Don Macintosh who was very helpful in helping us to formulate are hearing. Thank you very much. Is there any public comment on this item? And please state your name and you have 3 minutes. My name's Zoe Nicholson. I live in Rose Park. Good evening, Council vice mayor. And in particular, the audience, of course, there the primary reason we are here. Over these past few years, I've stood with the port workers and those seeking to work in the port. I prayed with them and I've spoken on corners in support of them. I've spoken to the commission and the Harbor Commission. And now to you. I want to tell you the truth here. As I told the Harbor Commission. This is too much power for you to hold. When you look at each of these workers here tonight and you think of them standing out in the street and strike, I ask you to see that they are representatives of an entire family. They want to work hard, get paid fairly, feed their kids, and some just. Want a few dollars. To send people who live in other places. It's not moral for you or anyone who has a vote to vote on this. It's not meant to be personal. This applies to all issues around equity and equality. The very idea that we vote on these things is immoral. What we are being denied here, what they are being denied here is the minimum of that human being should have and it should not require a vote. And then add insult to injury, you most likely already know how you will vote and we really are lining up in front of you to assuage our own consciences and tell our truth. Well, here's my truth. These workers have no campaign funders, no business allegiances to consider. They are simply representatives of their spouses, their children, their parents. I stand here on a regular basis asking for a vote. And I want to tell you that I come from a darkly conservative family that lives in the mindset of scarcity . They believe that if workers, people of color, LGBT people and women get full rights, it will reduce their slice of the pie. I argue with my brother constantly and I tell him, All we really want to do, Fred, is build more bakeries. All these workers want is the dignity of work with fair wages. And as I said, this is too much power for any elected body to hold regardless. You have this power. You can lean in and. Hit a green light and support them, which I hope you do now and every night that the possibility of equity and equality is in your hands. Thank you very much. Good evening. Long Beach City Council. My name is Reyes, Mongolia. I'm a business representative of Teamsters Local 48. We represent hundreds of men and women drivers that are driving the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles. I'm here to just give a message. The port trucking industry is out of control. Every possible government agency has found drivers to be. Employed and told companies to follow the law. But they keep breaking the law. Workers are also fed up. They just went on strike for 16 times in five years and they won't stop until they get justice. The union represents workers at high road companies at the port. Some example companies are toll shippers. C logix hlt eriko flor weber. But these companies are undercut by all the lawbreaking companies at the port. Law abiding companies can't survive if they have to compete against lawbreaking companies. The union has supported drivers in their fight to end the abuse at the port, like the wage theft and driver misclassification . The union has backed these workers in every single one of the 16 strikes. The union will stand by these workers. And as. Long as. It takes and as many strikes as it takes. Thank you for your leadership time and city council. Thank you. Thank you. Next week. Thank you for letting me be here. Council members. My name is Bruce Jefferson. I work at California Courage. I'm a warehouse worker. We will. House workers. Back to truck drivers. They're in California College. You know, I just recently bought a company. But this company in June had just I myself, along with a few more of my coworkers from the warehouse, have filed racial discrimination lawsuit against California courage. Not only that, we talking about the wage theft, the misclassification in unsafe working conditions, such as just recently. Within the past two years, a man passed out in 110 degrees inside a container, shipping container now. And we were told, get back to work. Just put a cardboard box over it. These are some of the laws that this company is breaking. They also broke the law by. Dismissing me, terminate me. As a worker there in California, a college, supposedly for my attitude. But the only thing that I was doing was speaking out about the safety net. My coworkers know about the conditions going on in here in the building. This old building has been up since World War two. Yeah, the company may have put some work in up there, but you had bathrooms up there, still got peepholes in them. You also have rodents running around where we get water. There's not even a cooling off stage. And this is just some of the things that me and my fellow coworkers go through. Even though I was wrongly terminated. I've been on strike seven times and I'm still. Given my time to support my workers up there, even though I'm no longer working there. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. Matchmaker. Good afternoon, City Council. My name is Tracy Ellis and I am a Long Beach resident. I also work the harbor. I'm one of the very fortunate ones to have a job that happens to be a Teamster slot. And our company that I work for is one of the fair employers that are. Working out of the port of Long Beach. I can't express to you enough, you know, my experience of working in the harbor. I've been working out of the harbor in trucks since 2001. And. It's hard for me to explain how my family and I have suffered. You know? Yeah, I'm growing old, but, you know. Um. You know, having to pay a truck note on top of the insurance, the fuel, uh, and everything else that goes along with it and raise a family is one of the worst experience that I can, you know, really imagine upon anybody. But yet we show up every day. And still go to work. You know, there are a lot of jobs in this area. You know, being from here, I'm sure, and you guys being here, there's only a few choices of both industries where work is available for average little people. So, you know, I'm here today to give my voice, to ask you to stand up for us little people. You know, the majority of these companies have a hiring ratio of hiring 10% whites, 10% blacks and 70 to 80% Latinos because they know that they're afraid and won't say much. But the the ways theft that these companies are performing on all of us is ridiculous. There's been a 100%. Excuse my French, but. Every lawsuit that's been put in, let me put it this way, has came back, approved for the workers. So I just suggest, you know, just wake up and know that this movement is moving. And it's moving and it's moving and it's only getting stronger. And thank you. My time's. Up. Thank you so much. Next week. Good afternoon. My name is Randy Williams. I work for the same company, Tracy. People ship Transport Express. Proud Teamster member. But before I became. A Teamster member. I was on the other side. Drive in. You drive from. Both shells, start to finish 18, sometimes 20 hours a day, and you're going way over your hours. The equipment is faulty, but you got to do that to make money. One story I always like to tell is. This one company. Is still there, still working in existence. I got there. Checked the truck out, went to the port, sat there for about. Maybe seven, 8 hours, didn't get my container. When I got back to the yard, they said, Oh, sorry you didn't get your container. But you owe us for gas, for. Fuel, for this and that. So at the end of a working day, I owe them money. And this is going on to this day. And that's why you see a lot of the accidents. Not all, but a lot of the accidents. Are people. Who are overworked. Stressed out, moving too fast, flipping containers because they're trying to get from point A to point. B just to make make. Money. So I already like I. Like approved previously said, I already have a good contract. But I'm out here every strike to support the ones who don't because I've been on that side and I know what it feels like. So that's all I want to say. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker. I'll be translating for him. Okay. When I started this. Good afternoon. Same number as Napoleon. I think when I got done. Try at home. Para La Compania the explore. I drive for expo format that is annual for the last ten years. I don't like it out here thoughtlessly. You know, they've completely put me up a lot. First of all, I want to thank you all for giving me the opportunity speaking here tonight. And after the asanas, you are handling it all and what any knew about this size? Well, in the last ten years that I've been working for Expo, we had done six strikes and it does say, well, I see the material. They came on to protect handle. And ended in the last six strikes we've done. We've been protesting because of policy proposals, because of the abuse, because a lot of wage deaf mal classification misclassification, getting a housing credit that is almost going to make us believes are we're truck owners independent contractors one then the real. Yeah. I'll go. Yeah, I reckon rocinante they'll go more and play. When in reality the government agency, government governmental agencies have proven that we're employees. As a la semana pasada just last week. Two inventories, the perimeter of the ang welder. We were on strike for three days. Our cows are at mala. Normally a parte de la compania could be all because of all the bad things exposed to us. Eating it after Israel got. And we didn't in an end. And this three days a strike. It was a retrial. We have fought but get to Compania and well I've said can be what we're fighting for so that this company can make a change. Apparently their 100 crore salary and to stop stealing our wages there aren't they thought well during the strike and to problematic is America role model material come to your payroll during the strike I had a problem where my truck broke down. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome, owners. Also, the Yassine Central Waha and I being out of work for the last eight days and it was actually no it they knew only warm people the the the narrow anatomy family. I have not had any income in the last eight days to sustain my family. A la compania. I thought that zero zero appointment para reppenhagen in El Camino and the company has refused to help me to repair the truck. It meant I would like it. Cuando Mr. Ohara And what's sad about this is that when they come back to work, men have yet been given compromiser their resolve and the narrow, um, uh. Gay egos and uh may not. But if that. But but l mortadella they'll come in in the event the company does lend me the money to repair the truck. When they go back to work, I have to repay every penny back to the company and a that animal if they maldonado la compania for mother cientos in Guatemala. Dolores. So right now I'm suing the company for more than $150,000 for. Por la por la mandela compania No, no. I thought of Rwanda. Rwanda. Alvaro Then interest because of this company has been stealing our wages, the US payroll going now all this. And I hope with the help of all of all of you it's a lower tax and lower resolution problema that with your support we can fix this issues you guys the companies are fighting and for this companies to stop. They can literally breaking the law. Nicola who thinks Sarah. But isn't that. Pardon me, but attorney companion and justice be served for me and all my coworkers, which I could ask you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, council members. My name is. Excuse me. My name is Jeremy Hoke. Thank you for having me here. I'm a Navy veteran who has worked off and on at California Cartage for about 15 years. I've spent most of my life since leaving. They are working for temp agencies, which is part of the problem. But a whole other story that would take up a whole other evening's worth of discussion. But during the time I've worked at California Cartage, I've seen constant safety violations turning turning their back on needed heat breaks for the workers. The containers used to be located real close together, dangerously close together. But I guess OSHA came along at some point and got them to moving them farther apart. So. Any kind of OSHA violations, safety violation, labor violation. They've kind of been doing this damage control, but very grudgingly and sluggishly, only at the prodding of the Teamsters helping us, we workers with the help of the Teamsters and Warehouse Workers Resource Center. I've often reflected that if I didn't know about if I didn't work in the warehouse industry myself and didn't know about the violations of my end of the deal, I reflect. I've always hoped that I would have known about the raw deal my brothers in the trucking industry get, because I certainly hope that if I wasn't involved in the warehouse industry, I would know about their plight and be able to help them in some way during that. I've also wondered why the warehouse has remained in in this 1930s era buildings over the years when the when the lease was so nice and cheap for for the occupants. I don't know. It's because the the specter of the railroads moving in, preventing people from saying, well, we're never going to bother to fix this up because the trains are going to get in anyway. So. So I don't know or if it was everybody pointing their fingers at each other about who the responsibility was. But it seems like with a sweetheart deal like they had, they could have maybe one building at a time, modernize it, because this whole warehouse every year becomes more and more obsolete compared to the other warehouses that you see springing up in the city that are entirely self enclosed. You don't have outdoor docks where the workers. Where the workers have to work out in the foul weather. But regardless of what kind of building contains, as long it remains as long as a safety and. Labor violations continue, we will continue to strike. And that's about all I have to say this evening. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, councilmembers. My name is Jim Danto. I actually belong to two unions. I'm a teamster and also I belong to L.B., the Association of Long Beach Employees. Whether we're maintaining the city or moving freight, please respect labor. It's what keeps things going and keeps things in check. And if you can just please support us with your conscience. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening. Everyone. My name is Warrior Mayorga. I am a truck driver for many, many years in the port, around 30 years working and different company looking for the best. The best life gave it to my my family. I'm here because I am supporting also the SB 402. It's the law. Give it the lever to you know, to the to the driver for for the company is to break the law and exploitation for all of us. I am I'm here. You know, I'm telling you, I participate. And in the past for for many, many strike and different times. And the last the last week we finish and support in one one of the last one because we want to stop, you know, all the the companies continuing breaking the law. And it's about I asking you to to help us as a boat driver, as a family, as a human, you know, to to attend that that big issue we have that the truck driver, you know, because only that the company they make money in and how is possible my my my coworker he say you know they had to pay for fix the truck and they don't have no money for fix it. And who has the money. All the time? The company coming here they say and they allowed so you know they let the driver has the money is not true. It's about asking you, you know, do something better for the truck driver. And otherwise, you know, we continue in fighting. We we continue in supporting to all the driver I am working the and the cheaper transport right now with those union job but I am scared I am scared all that I run more than a thousand companies breaking the law and I lose my job. You know, it's says only the job I have for support my family. Thank you for for the time. Thank you, sir. Hi. Good evening. My name is Jessica Durham. I'm the director of the port's. Project at Lane. And as part of the Our People, our Port Coalition. We work together with our community. And labor partners. And the faith community in solidarity with. Port drivers and warehouse workers, like some of those you heard today. And first off, I just want to thank you for your. Leadership on this issue, especially Councilwoman Gonzalez, for moving forward with the original. Motion brought forward. By Mayor Garcia back in February and conducting a thorough series of hearings and. Taking a really close look at this issue over the past several months. And this vote could not come at a more critical time. You know, as you heard from the workers just last week. Port drivers and. Warehouse workers. Just concluded their 16th strike in just five. Years. And I think the message from the workers is loud and clear that this crisis. Has only grown as the port trucking companies have refused to change their behavior. And the rampant and systemic lawbreaking. Despite the countless rulings by every government agency that is investigating the issues and as you heard from the workers and as I shared in one of the committee hearings. This includes the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, the Employment Development Department. The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, the Labor Commissioner's Office, Cal OSHA, you name it. Every government agency has looked. At these companies, has found. Violations. And since these companies continue to violate our laws misclassification. Wage theft, retaliation, violations of the health. And safety, as you. Just heard from the. Workers, the only recourse they have is to take to the streets. The picket lines from their unfair labor practice. Strike have spread from the the truck yards. All the way to the port terminals. Causing massive delays and disruptions in cargo flow. And this crisis doesn't just impact. Drivers in our communities. This disrupts port operations and it harms the port's reputation. So the port has the. Clear authority to protect its proprietary interests. From these disruptions. So, again, we thank you for your leadership. You know, we work we look forward to forward motion at the Harbor Commission. And again, thank you. Thank you very much. You guys like to go to pull up comment or you would like to. Councilwoman in Dallas, should you start now? So I want to just first thank everybody that has been with us through these committee meetings. I'll give a quick timeline of what that will look like, what that looked like, as well as what we did here on the full body of the city council. And thank you to everybody who came tonight to speak. I know this is probably the 100th time you've come out, but we really appreciate your voice nonetheless. Thank you. And so as a quick timeline, back in February of this year, the council voted to move forward with request to find solutions that protect the the port of Long Beach has proprietary interests and labor code violations. And just recently and thank you to my fellow committee members and the Harbor and Tidelands Committee Councilmembers Pearce and Pryce. I appreciate their participation and involvement in the three meetings that we had. Two were held in May. One was held this last September. The first two were open forums and hearings. That was the reaction to the February council item that requested hearings on this very issue. The last meeting we held here in the council chambers, and that was to discuss and just deliberate among ourselves and connect with our city attorney's office. Thank you, Don, for being there. And thank you to. JT. From the city clerk's office for providing a lot of the presentations that you'll see that are embedded in this item. And I urge my colleagues, if you haven't seen the presentations, there's a lot of information in their presentations from various organizations and groups, as well as letters from one in particular, a large retailer Target. So we'll get into that in just a bit. So thank you again to the many stakeholders Lane Teamsters, the California Trucking Association, Employment Development Department, the Harbor Trucking Association, and most importantly, the truck drivers that were affected by this issue and gave firsthand accounts at these various meetings in the reports that they discussed, specifically nationally, that 71% of all freight tonnage moved across the United States in current and is currently done via truck. And we need about 90,000 new truck drivers each year for the next ten years to keep up with demand. However, statewide, we have seen, as has been mentioned, over $46 million in judgments from the Labor Commission of California since 2011. And of course, it's been said that we've had about 16 strikes in over the last five years at our ports with hundreds of thousands of dollars being won by truck drivers, and rightly so. We also heard that locally there are about 1900 trucking companies that are registered at the Port of Long Beach, representing 17,000 individual trucks. And during this time, I do want to mention that the state of California was actually examining what it could do to support the trucking industry. And we were we were examining that as well through the city attorney's office. So that is SB 1402, authored by Senator Ricardo Lara and supported by the city of Long Beach. And it basically asks for two things. First, it requires that the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement post on its website the names, the addresses and essential information for any port dredge motor carrier with an unsatisfied final court judgment. That's number one. Number two, it extends. Yeah, we can clap for that. That's fine. It extends a to a customer, which is in this case could be a Home Depot or target. But they share civil, legal and civil liability for all port dredge services obtained after after the date the motor carrier appeared on the list. So that's number two. And due to the Senate bill, we received a letter from Target, as I mentioned, and the letter actually states just to kind of keep it short here. It states and details our commitment to continuous improvement in the industry, as well as using enterprise and industry to benchmark best practices while acknowledging the issues at the port related to wages. And what I would like to say to is I really think our Port Commissioner Harbor Commission, because I know they took on a lot in that September 26 meeting. So thank you to Noel, our government relations team, the rest of our port team, and Commissioner Tracey Agus, who is here today. She had attended our meetings as well. And I think the actions that, you know, have been taken place and specifically I like to see that we do have a new port productivity committee that will be discussing and engaging stakeholders, which is I'm excited to be a part of that and even to bring more information back to the Harbor and Tidelands Committee as to next steps and evolving this issue. So what I will say overall, with all that said, that was just sort of a snapshot, but we as a city have a duty to effectively compete for cargo, find new ways to gain market share, as well as stay competitive in the global market. And this is truly undermined when labor unrest continues. And I asked my colleagues for support and providing additional insight and information from our city attorney's office on the protection of these proprietary interests, and especially Labor code violations at the Port of Long Beach. So I ask my colleagues to support this. Thank you very much. Thank you. Consolation prize, Pierce. Yes. I want to thank everyone that came out to speak today, as well as everyone that's come out to speak and engage in this issue, not only in the last several months since we've agenda business and Long Beach, but for the last nearly 20 years that we have been tackling this challenge. And I want to, you know, echo that at every single commission meeting, I have made it really clear that while, you know, the issues that are happening with our truck drivers is one that's of great importance to me. The number one issue is our proprietary interest at the port and the fact that this is city land and that ports do have a legal ability and right to make sure that we're competitive, to make sure that we do not end up on the national market as a place of of unrest, of labor disputes that are consistently disrupting business and the flow of cargo. I think 16 strikes in five years is I think that sends a strong message. And I'm I don't know the answer, and I don't know that anybody on the council right now could answer. But I think it would be interesting to find out how many labor disputes have happened to this degree at any other port in the nation that might put at risk their competitive edge? Or is it just the L.A. Long Beach port that is facing this unrest? I think that after the last five years, you've really seen that that unrest has increased and so much so into a civil disobedience with arrest this past week with hundreds of people down at the port. So I want to echo and urge support. I know that there's conversations around what labor peace looks like at our port, and I know that there are some legal concerns and questions. And I want to be real clear that we all are on the same page and understand that a labor peace agreement is not an agreement with a union. It is not requiring a business to go into a contractual agreement with a labor union, but rather that it is a it puts it on the company to make sure that there is labor peace, that there is not a conversation around workers going on strike or walking out that's going to disrupt the flow of products in our port. And so I hope that as we continue the conversation, that we really do dove in and make sure that we talk to many attorneys and that we understand our rights as a port and that we're doing the very best we can to end this disruption at our ports. I think that our staff has done a fantastic job. I've really enjoyed the committee meetings and I know that it takes a lot for workers to come out and speak. And I wish that we hadn't been doing this for the last 20 years, but I know that that there's a lot of progress being made. I want to thank the leadership at the state level. I also want to recognize that there are several companies in our port that would like us to to end the labor disputes. I think that we. Let me see. Let me. Look. We have not only target, as was mentioned, but SSA Marine also supports a labor peace that our port making sure that they can compete at the local level and that we are not disrupting the the move that cargo movements as well. So I look forward to the next steps. I hope that the process is not lengthy and through several months, but that we can kind of come to some conclusion sometime soon. And so I want to thank again the port and the the commission for all of your hard work and urge my colleagues to support this. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councilwoman Rice. Thank you. I want to thank my colleague, Councilwoman Gonzalez and Councilmember Pearce for bringing forth this discussion. And I think the city attorney's office has done an amazing job. So thank you for providing us with the education that we need to be able to look at this. Issue in the context of recent, caselaw and legal trends that are taking place on a national level on this topic. Certainly, this is not an issue that's unique to our port, and certainly it's not an issue that's unique to the industry. Although here in Long Beach, it's it's an area where there is some prevalence. And there is no question, I don't think by anyone who's studied the issue that there has been misclassification taking place. And I think state legislation is going to go a long way in neutralizing and making it a fair environment to work and to compete . And I'm looking forward to that. I do think it's something that has to happen on a statewide level. I do appreciate the city attorney's guidance to us as policymakers. I think they've been very prudent and very clear in outlining the areas where the city has room for implementation or discussion on limitations thereof. And so I appreciate what you have done in terms of the guidance you've provided. It is it's obviously an issue that affects many people. And there are very clear legal limitations in terms of what the city and the port can do. So I appreciate the harbor commission and the port staff taking this issue on and it's been an eye opening experience on many levels. And to see where the the national trends are going in terms of a legal interpretation of employment status has been enlightening on many levels. So I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this forward. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. I also want to thank the committee for bringing this this forward. I want to thank that the hopefully the actions that we take this evening are moving this issue forward and raising the bar for the the truckers, the workers who are so valued, you know, a fair day's work for a fair day's pay is really the American way. And I'll just repeat that. A fair day's work for a fair day's pay is an American way. Whether or not you are represented, employee or not, you should be treated fairly. The truckers in our our ports deserve way wage protections, job security and healthy safety protections, just like any other worker. And I believe that this independent operator model is is a flawed model, particularly in the trucking industry. It's unfair and it leads. And we've heard much testimony here today that leads to abusive practices by by some companies and their their customers, but by extension of SB 1402 now. Our drivers are literally in. These poor drivers are literally driving the economy. There's some crazy number like 40% of our nation's economy comes to our ports. And that is that's a senior significant number. And for these workers not to be sharing in the wealth that they create in this country is just a damn shame. And we need to do more. And I'm not sure that this body has the power to do that. We are going to work within the confines and whatever we can do to do that. I'm sure that there's there's a resolve here among my colleagues to support fairness for for the truckers, port truckers in our in our city . But we've got to work with Sacramento, and we're going to, I think, ultimately need some some federal intervention to to make this this this issue. Right. I want to be realistic, too. The looking at the numbers. I think, you know, we would we would do well to to get to a present, a place where at least 50% or more of those poor truckers are in an employment model. And I think there should be be some some some regulations in place similarly to and I've been thinking about this quite a bit over the last several months, similarly to how we we regulate the construction industry with prevailing wages. I think there needs to be some sort of prevailing wages for for poor truckers as well, too, to ensure that we are being fair and that they are being treated fair. And again, benefiting from from the great wealth that they are creating for for our our country. And they deserve fair compensation. I can't can say that enough. They I'd like to think that this model that we currently have and I've heard this for years, I've been around long enough to to 20 years to to understand, you know, where it went when this this first started with with with. With the labor organizations that have been working to so, so tirelessly over the last 20 years to to get us to a place where these these workers are sharing in the economy as well, and have been on the lines the job actions with these workers. I mean, I'm going to say that I am fully supportive of their efforts to to to actually unionize and become part of the collective bargaining process. That, too, is the American way. And so the objective, when somebody gives up and goes to work every morning, the objective is for them to make money. Right, not to pay the employer to for or for an opportunity to drive a truck and then come back with a deficit. And so, again, I'm glad that this issue is front and center. I hope this issue won't go away until we we get to a place where there is some real justice here. You know, but I will say that this feels a little bit like deja vu, right? Because just a few months ago we were here, we heard the same many of the same testimony. And I'd like to say, like I said, I'd like to think that we are moving in the right direction. Um, but, you know, just in the last few months, I'm not too encouraged by that. So for, for these workers less than solid and let's continue to move it. I like the fact that we'll have a report back on SB 1402. I like the fact that we are instructing our city attorney to to look at creative ways for us to to help regulate labor violations. And then I can't say enough for the Port of Long Beach and their efforts. Thank you for being here. President Garcia, you I know you care about, you know, the the the port and its place in our city. I would just ask that that your or your organization, your agency, our Port Commission, also continue to work with all the stakeholders to make this right as well. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I yes, I had one comment that I left off, and I did want to highlight, I think, the conversation around the labor piece part. And as I'm reading the memo that we have, we do have labor peace at our airport and our convention center. And I understand that in the memo that we're looking at, that we talk about entering into a third party agreement. And so I would like to ask if it would be possible to have a report back to the Tidelands Committee on the the difference in between why we can have that for these two entities and why not , or what might stand in the way or what challenges we might have at the port. Are you able to answer that now? Yes, absolutely. We can certainly provide you. With that report. But if you'd like the answer now, I can give it to you now. Okay. Basically, at the convention. Center and at. The airport, we have a direct contractual relationship with the concessionaires at the port. We do not have a direct contractual relationship with the trucking companies. So that provides a entirely different setting. There is case. Law that established that when a municipality is essentially acting in the market and has a contractual relationship for services, they have the right and ability to enter into labor peace agreements. So under that law, it works out just fine at the airport, at the convention center. But at the port there is not that relationship. We do not have we do not hire truckers. Others hire truckers who then come in and serve the people who are hiring them. So we do not have that direct relationship with them. And our direct relationship, though, is with just the Marine, with the terminal operators. Right. The people who we have leases with. Mm hmm. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else. You have public comment? Mm hmm. Okay, fine. I have folks over. It's about. Okay. Motion carries. Yes. I'm going to move that item 25.