California Diesel Protests Slow Rail Shipments

Spurred by California truckers protesting high diesel prices, Union Pacific railroad will stop accepting cargo bound for state ports starting Monday so traffic does not bottleneck its operations, the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times reported.

Tha nation's largest railroad will continue the embargo until the protests subside, UP spokesman John Bromley told the paper.

Independent truckers who protested high diesel prices at several California ports Friday said they would return this week, the Times reported.

Chuck Mack, Oakland port division director of the Teamsters union, told the paper that the union will submit a proposal this week to encourage shipping companies to pay the truckers an additional surcharge to cover rising fuel costs.

More than 100 independent truckers protested at the Port of Oakland, the paper said. A Teamsters official told Transport Topics April 30 that about 500 truckers rallied near the Port of Long Beach, though the union did not sponsor the protest, he said.

The protests were part of a grassroots statewide campaign and slowed traffic at Oakland, the nation's fourth-busiest port, to a trickle, the Times said.

Most drivers who haul port cargo operate their own rigs, the paper said.

Just 15 percent of the state's 10,000 to 12,000 truckers worked Friday, Stephanie Williams, senior vice president of the California Trucking Association, told the Times.

Williams told the paper CTA is continuing to lobby Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) for lower diesel prices in California, which she said is forcing some trucking companies into bankruptcy.