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Jul 7, 2015

BORDER TROUBLES * France: Chaos in Calais

* Calais' migrant border chaos

 
-- The French authorities are attempting to halt the flow of asylum seekers on their way to Britain... Calais is the staging post for numerous attempts to cross the channel by asylum seekers. They are being offered temporary visas by local police if they promise to leave Calais. The police are keen to see them go and resort to harassment to get their way. Locals believed to be assisting the asylum seekers also face arrest. A volunteer wishes he could do more to help. “If I had the means to help someone I’d do it without qualms. It maybe illegal but it’s humane, “ he states. Yet the police believe that this kind of attitude supports a network of “people smugglers and mafia networks.” But for most of the refugees, the goal of reaching Britain remains imperative... 
Calais, France - Video from Journeyman Pictures - Jun 24, 2015

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Jan 26, 2015

TRUCKERS' TROUBLES - Time for trucker to focus on his family's needs

(Video by Taylor Haney/ATVN -Nov 13, 2014: Truck drivers at the Port of Los Angeles went back on strike today to demand better pay and working conditions) -- Like many workers, Julio Cervantes has a job but isn't an employee... Cervantes, 46, drives a semi-truck around Southern California, picking up cargo at the local ports and delivering it to warehouses and rail yards... Since 2002, he has worked for a series of trucking companies as an independent contractor, which means he lacks many of the benefits and workplace protections of a full-fledged employee... Cervantes was satisfied with that arrangement at first, and he made a nice living. Then changes in the economy and the port trucking business squeezed the Long Beach resident and many of the other estimated 12,000 short-haul drivers at the local ports... With union backing, Cervantes and other drivers have staged short-lived strikes against several Southland trucking firms and filed lawsuits and complaints with state and federal officials contending that the companies were unfairly denying them employee status... Independent contractors became more plentiful in the last several years as employers sought to increase flexibility and cut costs — including employee medical benefits and unemployment insurance taxes — by contracting for services rather than hiring employees... Also more common: employers who incorrectly designate workers as independent contractors whether because of confusion over complex rules or an effort to evade taxes. The Internal Revenue Service has estimated that millions of workers are misclassified as independent contractors, with significant loss of employment taxes... Only about 10% of the local port truckers are direct employees of trucking companies, experts estimate...In the meantime, the couple are optimistic in spite of their rough financial ride... Los Angeles,CAL,USA - The Los Angeles Times, by Ronald D. White -25 Jan 2015

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Jun 18, 2014

TRUCKERS TROUBLES * USA

* North Dakota - Trucker troubles sharing the road 

Fargo,N.D.,USA -The Valley New Live -Jun 16, 2014: -- The Valley New Live, discovered what safety precautions local truckers take to make sure you're safe on the roads... Traveling over three million miles, trucker Craig McManus has made a lifetime career of driving big rigs. Safety is always a top concern... The ND Highway Patrol tells me truckers have to obey the 11-14 hour rule. A driver can only be behind the wheel for 11 consecutive hours in a 14 hour window. Then, that truck's got to be parked. And, for every eight hours hitting the tar, a 30 minute break is required...
* New York - Truckers resist rules on sleep, despite risks of drowsy driving
(Photo credit Oklahoma Highway Patrol: The scene of a June 2009 accident near Miami, Okla., in which 10 people died. Investigators said the 76-year-old driver of the semi, which plowed into stopped and slowed traffic, had probably fallen asleep) 
NY,USA -The New York Times, by JAD MOUAWAD and ELIZABETH A. HARRIS -June 16, 2014: -- The tractor-trailer set off at 2:30 a.m. from Springfield, Mo., the usual time and place. Nearly 11 hours later, along the Will Rogers Turnpike in Oklahoma, fatigue caught up... At mile marker 321.5, near the town of Miami, the semi plowed into a line of cars stopped on the highway. Ten people were killed. The 76-year-old truck driver, who survived, had probably fallen asleep, federal investigators later concluded... What is remarkable about these events, which took place five years ago this month, is how common such accidents are. For decades, federal authorities have tried to ensure that truck drivers get adequate rest. But in a business that lives by the clock, miles mean money. Commercial truck operators have resisted, arguing, in effect, that Washington cannot regulate sleep... But now sleep-deprived driving — an open secret among truckers — has once again come to the fore, after the June 7 accident involving the comedian Tracy Morgan on a dark stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike 45 miles south of New York City. Prosecutors say the Walmart truck driver whose tractor-trailer slammed into a van carrying Mr. Morgan, critically injuring him and killing another passenger, had not slept in more than 24 hours... Still, truckers work under enormous pressure. Independent drivers are paid by the mile and therefore have big incentives to drive as much as possible...

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Nov 27, 2008

Truckers Vulnerability * USA - To State Governments Seeking Owner/Operator Revenue

Change May Force Truckers to Seek Federal Protection

Sun City,AZ,USA -News Release Wire -November 26 2008: -- California has won its court claim that FedEx owner/operators are indeed employees -- and not independent contractors... Other state governments are reviewing their employing status of trucking companies which hire owner/operators. States that also determine their owner/operators to be employees can subject the 1.2 million estimated owner/operator settlements and their estimated $240 billions in revenue to be subject to employment security and workers’ compensation premiums, industry experts argue... That new status could yield an estimated tax windfall in the billions of dollars for the governments...

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