TRUCKERS' PROTESTS * WORLDWIDE
* Australia - Slow truck convoy may occur again
Sydney,Australia -AAP/The Sydney Morning Herald -23 July 2008: -- Truck drivers involved in a "go slow" convoy into Sydney to protest against high fuel prices say they may hold similar actions in the future... Up to 150 heavy vehicles joined the convoy which started at 6am (AEST) in the Southern Highlands and set a steady pace of 60km/h along the Hume Highway to Casula, where the vehicles dispersed about 9am (AEST)... Transport Workers Union (TWU) spokesman Joshua McInto said, the convoy's main aim was to attract attention to the impact of rising fuel costs on truck drivers... The union says drivers are having to absorb the price spikes along with the cost of maintaining their vehicles... Retailers increasing the cost of their goods blame the rising price of fuel, but those increases are not being passed on to drivers, it says... Police accompanied the convoy, which used the highway's left lane and caused minimal traffic disruptions...
* Australia - TWU: Woolworths and Coles can help save truckies
Owner drivers and employees protested outside a Woolworths supermarket, claiming the retailers should pass down the revenues they gained from the lifted costs of goods
Sydney,Australia -Transport Logistics News -22 July 2008: -- Truck drivers are calling for a cost recovery system to help sustain the trucking industry amid soaring fuel prices, as their protest against major retailers continues... “The major retailers like Coles and Woolworths increase the costs of goods for every member of the public and use the rising fuel costs as an excuse, yet this money isn’t passed down the transport chain to the drivers,” said the Transport Workers Union (TWU) secretary Tony Sheldon... Mr Sheldon said the industry would continue to fight for national legislation that permits a system of safe enforceable rates and cost recovery from the major retailers to support the already crippled sector...
* USA - Labor rally at Port of Oakland
Oakland,CAL,USA -The Bay City News/ABC7 -July 22, 2008: -- Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke briefly at a labor rally today aimed at pressuring the Port of Oakland to require that trucking companies hire drivers as employees instead of just using them as independent contractors... Speaking to about 300 cheering truck drivers, union members, public health advocates and environmentalists... Dellums said the current system in which truck drivers who work at the Port of Oakland work as contractors and only get small hourly wages and no benefits is "a false wage perpetuation of poverty and pollution"... Public health advocates say the diesel-spewing rigs used by truckers who can't afford to upgrade to cleaner trucks pollute the air in neighborhoods near ports, such as the West Oakland community... Dellums praised Los Angeles for being the first city in the state to have a "clean truck program" and said he hopes Oakland will be the second city to have such a program... The program in Los Angeles has three elements: incentives and fees for clean trucks, a requirement that trucks operating at its port be owned by companies, not by individual drivers, and creating community-friendly provisions for areas near the port... (Photo KGO: About 300 people gathered to protest trucking companies' hiring practices)
Labels: truckers' protest worldwide
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