COMMUNITY VOICES
LOS ANGELES PUBLIC INTEREST LAW JOURNAL
2 L.A. PUB. INT. L.J. 220
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DIRTY DIESEL:
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT*
Hailee Didio

My name is Hailee Didio and I am a student at California State University Long Beach. I am in my last semester of college and have been a student intern for the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports (CCSP) since March of 2009. In this time I have had the opportunity to learn a lot about the connection between labor and the environment. The poor air quality in Long Beach, where I live and want to live for a long time in the future, is closely related to the working conditions that port truck drivers endure. This is because drivers are required to provide their own trucks—which cost tens of thousands of dollars—despite their small earnings. As a result, they drive old, diesel-fuel trucks that spew toxic and unhealthy fumes into
the Long Beach air.  My time with CCSP has shown me that without
adequate protection for these drivers, it will be very difficult to clean up the air around the ports.

*This is an excerpt.  For the entire piece, please download the PDF.

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Hailee Didio is a 23-year-old student activist, and founder of Students United 4 Justice (SU4J) working towards a Bachelors degree in sociology at California State University Long Beach. SU4J is a progressive campus organization that addresses local issues such as poverty and environmental degradation by educating the public through lectures and demonstrations.