A Strike that will work OR that will get real Attention

[Rollover the Original]

Just to keep the record clear my CB handle is "Rollover" also known as searching for America" . Has been since 1992, so those of you who know me will recconize the following!

I've been driving since 1975. I saw the last real strike come and go with a some effect on the trucking industry.

Now it's time to have another.

But with the way the past 5,6,7 or so strikes have gone with no one showing up, how do you have one?

The first thing is you don't get a wild hair up the rear and "call a strike" on the CB! Yeah, right, that'll go over like it has!

You don't open a web site with no advertising and no hits and expect THAT to work (see below)

Why have the past several called strikes not worked?

MONEY!

Too many of us out here are working on the thin edge of falling into bankruptcy and all of the negative effects that will have on our lives.

Everyone out there thinks that we have to "shut it all down" to have an effect.

Not so! And follow me on this.

This is what I call the nothing in nothing out plan and I've been preaching it for about 10 years. I wrote this on my My Space page 31 March 2008 and had a few hits and replies but never really thought to put it where more than my small circle of friends could see it or who would listen to me on the CB while I ran across I70 to NYC and back!

THE NOTHING IN, NOTHING OUT PLAN

The Rollover plan to an effective truckers strike anywhere in the world!

31 March 2008
The last week or so I keep hearing on the CB about a trucker strike. It’s getting to the point where I’m ROFLMAO because everyone keeps advertising on these sites at.

First off truckerssrtike isn’t the site! It’s about the strike in Miami from June 2004!
truckerstrike actually IS about calling for a strike BUT we ALL missed the boat on that one as the site was activated in September 2007 and called for a strike on January 3-8, 2008! OOPSIE! The site owner actually gave a lot of time notice for that but just putting a site up and not advertising it doesn’t do a hell of a lot of good! He put it up with a sad excuse of a "strike call" letter and didn’t even introduce himself! Who’s running this strike? Who’s going to tell Washington what we "want"? The CB Radio! LOL! And only now truckers are hitting that site and vowing true support for something already history! It’s almost like something out of Comedy Central!

Seriously people, get someone with the BRAINS to organize, the BRAINS to set the logistics up and the GIFT of GAB to talk to those forked tongued devils in DC! Without that you have nothing but a bunch of COMPLETELY broke truckers! And, NO RESULTS!


Even calling for a strike these days will spell the death of to many owner operators and lease purchase drivers. If they aren’t making any money now, how do you even think they’ll keep their heads above water if they DO shut down? They’re already running in the red and stopping will push them ALL into bankruptcy! No question about it. They aren’t teamsters that can draw a piddlin $100.00 a week strike pay (while their bosses keep eating!)! And if I understand one of the rumors on the CB they are the ones calling for the strike on the west coast! Go for it union!



Now THE PLAN:

I’ve been preaching this on the CB for about 10 years but no one listens and I bet this plan will work better than a total shut down.

Pull out that Rand McNally. Look at either Maryland or Virginia. See that Diamond shaped city called Washington, DC? That’s the nation’s capital. (Really, it is!) That’s where all of the rule makers live and a President lives. That’s where the TAXES come from! Where policy is hammered out.

Next, those of you with children in school, go get the protractor from their notebooks and set it so you can draw a circle that equals 100 miles from the center of that town.

Now, NOTHING in NOTHING out! PERIOD! It’s that simple. Nothing in, nothing out of the circle. PERIOD! Got it? NOTHING into the circle and NOTHING out of the circle! Nothing means NOTHING! NO FUEL, GAS, FOOD, LIQUOR (that’ll get their attention!) toilet paper, tampons, condoms, cigarettes, apples, oranges.

NOTHING means NOTHING!

This way everyone is still driving and paying the bills. Those drivers that live inside the circle can still work and get out side of the circle and when they go home stop and get the groceries to take home! Let the rest of DC starve and WALK to work! If they are local drivers we can go back to the way we used to be and help those drivers honoring the "Nothing Rule" with food and money to stay afloat until issues are resolved! And this means NOTHING IN and NOTHING OUT until the ink is dry on the orders satisfying our demands! None of that "the check is in the mail" #### either! Nothing in nothing out until it’s LAW!

I’ve had drivers tell me that they (congress) would get the National Guard to haul the freight in. Can’t happen as they don’t have the correct equipment or the funds to play trucking company!

After we get the attention of the rule makers and get what the COUNTRY needs such as NO FREAKIN TAX BREAKS FOR BIG OIL! They cleared HOW much each quarter? Yeah right! That’s the reason we’re paying this much for diesel! Also, add drilling our OWN oil in ANWAR! Screw the LIBERALS and Tree Huggers who won’t allow us access to our OWN oil! Do you want to be told you can’t drill for water on your OWN property? Keep pounding until HOS is fixed and DOT has a reality check and congress has figured out that we're not the morons portrayed by the press and movies, as if we can shut down the nations capitol what COULD we shut down that would really hurt?


Once we get THAT fixed, switch! Maybe look way west to California! Get THAT idiot state to get their ducks in a row!

Then, switch again to my favorite state of Ohio. Keep drawing the circles and stop going inside of them and we’ll finally get America back in line. Even these monster trucking companies can’t argue with this logic! Especially if their drivers can grow a pair to actually have a pair to tell dispatch "no, I won't go there!"



America WON’T stop, no one looses their trucks and homes, or lives!

And hopefully, the college educated politicians WILL get the message!

It’s so simple even a trucker can figure it out!

NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT

NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT

NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT

NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT

NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT

NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT NOTHING IN- NOTHING OUT

Got it?
Now print this and pass it around!

Rollover


Anyway, that's the only way I can see this generation of truckers doing a strike. We keep moving freight, but not to the area that the ones we call "strike bosses" have called. No one looses their trucks, homes or lives and attention is drawn to the areas that WE know needs improvement in this industry! We have got to stop letting small groups like C.R.A.S.H. and M.A.D.D. tell the government what HAS to be done and have actual ex drivers make the laws! (Oh, well, THAT was a dumb idea!) What driver would want to live in THAT snake pit?!?)

What do YOU think?

[Nighthawk34]

I think that is a very logical idea. In theory it should/could be very effective and at the sametime it would solve the problem of O/O's and fleets going out of business due to not moving at all.. At the same time I'd almost bet it would drastically increase the freight prices for stuff that they are trying to get into the circled area !!

On the downside there would still be the challenge of getting everyone to work together on it as well as finding someone to deal with the goberment to negotiate...

[notarps4me]

It is the most sensible plan I have heard, but there is a problem. The ones that could do this would soon be out-sourced by the company driver that is under forced dispatch that can't afford to lose his bennies or his pay to provide for his family. The co's are looking to cut other co's and this would open up more freight for them even giving the opportunity for them to charge more for these hot loads.

I do give you credit tho, at least you have a plan and are not in the feeding frenzy like you see during a riot of looting or a so called truckers strike. I have seen many a driver like to buck up just so he can rebel against something. Often the case is they don't know why they are bucking up. Some say fuel, some say rates, some don't care. I understand that O/O's have situations different from company drivers, but at the same time I know O/O's that made a bunch of money when fuel went up.

[parrett3]

Well that sounds GREAT Now when do we start and how do we make sure that the Big Companies don't take advantage of the strike and cross the "Picket Line" The only way a strike will work is if EVERYONE works together. Back in the 70s truckers were like a close knit family and stayed together thur thick and thin. Not that way anymore the trucking business has turned into a "Cut Throat" business like everything else has. When you get the problem of ALL of US banning together fixed, post a thread. I will be one of the first to stop my trucks from going into any of the heavy populated areas. But not until I am sure that I am not just going to be making the profit higher for all the "BIG DOGS" Guess this sounds like a put off but HONTESLY it's NOT just don't want to help the BIG GET BIGGER. Like I said it would work GREAT IF EVRYONE WOULD DO IT.

[Rollover the Original]

Yes, I know the problem with the big companies jumping on the loads and this is where the company drivers will have to come down with stomach rot, brain jump start problems and a lot of other medical problems and mechanical break downs to at least slow down the freight into the designated areas. I do hope that the JB's and Schneider's will see where the problem lies and honor such a move and even if they don't after firing all of the drivers that refuse to move freight into the area they will at one firing hurt themselves because if every company driver sticks to this plan then the big companies will have to do the orientation thing with how many drivers? Pay a ton of cash for bus tickets for said new hires and after the first round of firings guess what the next group will be? All of those that were fired in the first place as the schools can't put them out that fast nor are there THAT many going through the schools! And think of all the freight that will sit while they are going through orienation! Slow down is slow down!Not to mention the COMPLETE loss of revenue to big boy company as their trucks sit with no drivers!
This could be a win win situation for us the drivers if we could all agree that red is red and blue is blue instead of argueing and fighting like a bunch of 5th graders over the toys in the playground!
Want to get the attenation we need? Help put this plan or a better one together and working! Print this forum and spread the word and PLAN CORRECTLY! That's been the problem all along!

[notarps4me]

Originally Posted by Rollover the Original

Yes, I know the problem with the big companies jumping on the loads and this is where the company drivers will have to come down with stomach rot, brain jump start problems and a lot of other medical problems and mechanical break downs to at least slow down the freight into the designated areas. I do hope that the JB's and Schneider's will see where the problem lies and honor such a move and even if they don't after firing all of the drivers that refuse to move freight into the area they will at one firing hurt themselves because if every company driver sticks to this plan then the big companies will have to do the orientation thing with how many drivers? !

Well; another way to look at that is you are asking the company drivers to throw away their jobs that put shoes on their kids feet and braces on their teeth. Are you willing to just give your truck away to someone else? Part of being an O/O is taking a chance on things. One reason why guys go company is because they don't want to take the headaches that comes with owning a truck. Co drivers do not have the freedoms that O/O's have, but you asking them to step up to your cause is putting them in a tighter squeeze. They don't get the payoffs that you get being an O/O and when your cause backfires or falls thru you take you and your truck elsewhere. Now the co driver now has a dinged DAC and can not get work. He just lost his home and his kids have to suffer.

[Rollover the Original]

AHHHH, Company driver here! Sold my last one in 92.

Reread and understand, you take a chance just getting out of bed everyday.
They aren't "throwing away" anything.
If they are fired for being sick and it's documented on Qualcomm, then that company wasn't worth waking up to in the first place! Besides, they are then getting unemployment, yeah I know but it's money coming in, BUT the company IS given the choice of either rehiring you or paying the wages.He was fired for being sick! I do believe that's a violation of the fair employment act!

And your next argument is he has to prove he's sick.

"Ah doc" the big company driver satd as the doctor is looking down his ear in his office," I don't feel well enough to drive an 18 wheeled, 80,000 THOUSAND pound truck SAFELY, I need an excuse!"

Ask the next DOT or State trooper you meet if you can drive a truck while "sick" Yes, JB will know it's BS, but cutting their own throats isn't taught in that fancy college they went to! Learn to think WAY OUTSIDE this circle of big companies and you have the upper hand!

[outerspacehillbilly]

Rollover I have talked to you on the radio before. This is the best idea I have heard for a strike that could actually work. The thing is "IF" and thats a big if, all of us drivers would actually stick together and do this and I mean ALL OF US we could make a difference for all of us. The companies would not be able to fire anyone for refusing to go there cause then they would have no drivers IF WE STUCK TOGETHER and everyone refused to go there! That in itself would be the hardest part of the whole thing getting EVERYONE to stick together. We could get things accomplished that would benefit ALL of us. I've said we should do this to California for a long time myself to get them to change their thinking.

[kajidono]

Well my truck don't go to California anyway so I'm all for that.

[notarps4me]

Originally Posted by kajidono

Well my truck don't go to California anyway so I'm all for that.

I can't go there either. I tore that page out of my map...