Here's a great story in Slate by Emily Bazelon on the alliance between labor activists and environmentalists in Southern California that's pushing to help underpaid port truckers reach the American Dream while simultaneously improving the abysmal air quality around the region's ports:
Their goal is to replace 15,000 old and dirty trucks with cleaner 2007 models. The problem they've encountered is that most of those trucks are owned by drivers—most of them Latino immigrants—who make about $12 an hour. These are independent contractors at the bottom of the harbor food chain, and they can't afford to upgrade their own rigs. And so a coalition of labor and environmental groups is pushing for the port authorities to change the rules: Trucking companies will be allowed to operate within the ports' gates only if their vehicles meet strict new pollution standards—and if they hire their drivers as employees, with the attendant benefits...
[I]t's not often that a local branch of government gets to try out a big, bold policy experiment that shifts wealth from powerful multinational corporations to several thousand immigrant truck drivers. And makes it easier for Californians to breathe deeply, too.
You can learn more about the movement at the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports' Web site.