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TRUCKERS' STRIKE * USA - Talking of ...
Chicago,ILL,USA -The Chicago Tribune, by Stephen Franklin -25 March 2008: -- ... Over a cup of coffee at a truck stop with a stranger, jabbering on their CB radios or unloading their thoughts to a trucker's blog, truckers lament the winnowing of their ranks... "Everything seems to have dried up," complained Wayne Weisser, a Las Vegas trucker who spent a week in Dallas recently waiting for a load. He also helps run Life on the Road (www.lifeonthe road.com), a trucker's blog where the buzz includes the need for a strike to force public solutions to their private agonies... The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Associationis think that not all truckers are affected by high fuel prices, because some are in better-paying niches or can rely on cash reserves to get them through the crisis. A weak strike would hurt only the few who would put their livelihood on the line... Drivers like Dan Kupke, 50, of Martinsville, Ill., figures he will park his truck in five months and get a job with a trucking company... At the Flying J truck stop in Lake Station, Chris Petty, 37, a Detroit trucker carrying a load from Cleveland to Milwaukee, is nursing his coffee, trying to wake up after driving much of the night. It's early morning, and some drivers are hunkered over breakfasts swapping stories... (Photo by Zbigniew Bzdak /Tribune -March 25, 2008: Tim Fischer, a former U.S. Army mechanic living in Carlisle, Ind., inspects his truck after breakfast. He tries to do his own truck repairs, but if anything major goes wrong with his 8-year-old truck with 1.2 million miles on it, "I'm done," he said)* Truck drivers’ strike picks up speed
Davenport,IA,USA -Quad City Times, by Barb Ickes, by Barb Ickes -March 25, 2008: -- It evidently took a few days to sink in... The potential impact of this thing is tremendous, and people are beginning to notice... The call for a drivers’ shutdown started small — with an owner/operator who hauls cattle in Missouri. The trucker, Dan Little, posted his plans to shut down on his Web site, and someone brought it to our attention at the Times... Now it’s been brought to the attention of thousands, and Little’s plan to park his rig, beginning April 1, has truckers lining up across the nation to join him... Several non-truckers wanted to know how they could help the drivers, and some people said they would park their passenger vehicles in a show of solidarity... A clear majority of the people I heard from were sympathetic to the drivers. They said that they understand it is increasingly difficult — impossible, in many cases — to continue to operate a trucking business when most or all of the profits are going into fuel... Here are just a few readers’ comments:...Labels: truckers' strikes
posted by Unknown @ 9:52 AM
2 Comments:
I am a 25yr trucker, one of the few sole female flatbedders. I have been working on an idea to organize a strike using our modern day technoligy to organize with. I was thrilled to here of the April 1st strike date. I just have one question. Who is representing us to congress. We can park all the rigs for months, without a voice to speak for us it will do little good but more harm. Too many times we have cried wolf. The time has come to get serious.
I am 73 years old and have been in trucking for 50 years. I agree with you We need to do something. Owner operators move 70% of the nations freight. They are going out of business everyday. Lets make this work. A 48 hour shut down work have an impact. Something needs to be done and now. Some companies are paying a fuel surcharge but if you are hauling for a broker they keep most of it.
Thanks
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