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Jim Hoffa

2010 will see valiant efforts to create a sustainable economy fueled by clean energy and full employment. There will be successes and failures.

In recent decades, many businesses increased profit by slashing labor costs and refusing to take responsibility for the environmental degradation they caused. That worked for a while, and it paid off for a few people at the top. But those practices led to environmental disaster, a shrinking middle class and near economic collapse.

Two factors may force a change in such business practices at U.S. ports: the Panama Canal’s widening, and increased competition from Canadian and Mexican ports. U.S. ports will have to compete for limited public infrastructure dollars to make needed improvements. Ports that can create good jobs without contributing to deadly pollution and climate change will win.

In 2010, Southern California ports will exemplify the struggle to transition from predatory capitalism to sustainable business practices.

For decades, bad business practices went unchecked at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The trucking industry exploited workers and filled the surrounding community with dirty emissions.

In 2008, the Port of Los Angeles created the clean-trucks program to bring low-emission trucks into service and raise standards for drivers. The program attracted substantial private capital, but a lawsuit by the American Trucking Associations ended it. The ATA wants to shift the billion-dollar cost of cleaning up the port onto drivers who earn poverty wages.

Recently, hundreds of drivers protested at Los Angeles City Hall because they can’t afford new clean trucks. The day before, law enforcement officials issued more than 200 citations and arrested four port drivers for safety, security and environmental violations.

Clearly, the old business model won’t work any more in Southern California. Port and city officials, environmentalists, unions and community leaders will work this year to transform drayage into a decent-paying job fueled by clean energy.