Fruit, nuts and wine are again flowing through the Port of Oakland after truckers quietly ended a multi-day blockade over the weekend amid a crackdown on protesters by port authorities.
The protest put a choke hold on the port, delaying Central Valley agricultural exports at one of West Coast’s largest shipping hubs and sending jitters through global supply chains. But on Monday the truckers, who are not backed by a union, largely returned to work as they now face the possibility of arrest for blockading the port and hope to recoup days of lost income.
The self-employed truckers have no conflict with the port. But they successfully held the cargo flow captive for days as they called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to amend AB 5, a controversial labor law that would require about 70,000 truckers and other independent contractors to register as employees.
