Why Not Strike?

The problem when it comes to RICO is that Owner Ops can be charged with collusion if they shut down. For drivers to avoid being charged they would have to be able to prove they were at home with their feet up on the couch or shut down for their legal reset of HOS. The law was meant for Organised crime but crosses most aspects of law quite nicely. They esentially charge you with price fixing and racketeering(you have all decided to shut down your trucks for a common goal which most likely will result in more money for you).
The Government will threaten to charge every Ownwer op with colluding to fix the price of a product/service.

Oil companies do it every day with the price of feul but they won't ever be charged with collusion,but you #### well know the Gov't will charge a few Owner Op's just to make an example of them.

 

I have to chime in here. The biggest problem facing the North American economy as a whole is it went from being a production and export based economy to an import based economy. If you don't produce anything, you will not prosper. Post-WWII America, and yes, I'm including Canada here was an industrial juggernaut. But due in part to increasingly powerful unions and what was perceived to be skyrocketing labor costs and environmental regulations, manufacturers were given the choice of relocating their production base to places where labor was cheaper, or price their goods right out of the marketplace.

In some instances, union workers were given the choice to take a pay cut, or lose their jobs. Inexplicably, they chose to lose their jobs.

As far as cross border trucking goes, there is one particular looney tune on Road Dog who is advocating that the US back out of NAFTA to prevent Mexican trucks from crossing the border. This guy (who is a total Bozo--- HINT) is evidently not aware that doing so would also stop Canadian trucks from entering the US, and US trucks from entering Canada, since NAFTA replaced the previous trade agreements.

I agree that allowing Mexican companies unfettered access to the US is a bad idea, but if NAFTA is rescinded, all kinds of goods and raw materials coming from Canada will stop. The soft wood lumber homes are built with, the peat moss the greenhouses use to make potting soil, the seed potatoes used to grow crops along the gulf coast, the hydroelectricity from the James Bay project, even oil from Alberta.

Anyway, this thread did get a wee bit off topic, so I will say that a general trucking strike is a valid idea. If you look across the Atlantic to the UK and Europe, if the truckers there don't like something, they SHUT THE COUNTRY DOWN. They are a force to be reckoned with because they are united. Over here, you can get two truckers to argue about the price of a free cup of coffee.

Unless and until we get off our own collective butts and act on our own behalf, we have no right to expect that anything will change, be it ridiculous EPA regs, or fuel prices that have no basis in the rate of oil production.

As I stated in another thread, if we will not act on our own behalf, we have no right to expect that anyone will act FOR us.

We have the numbers to potentially be the single largest lobbying force in North America. It doesn't take a union, which will do little more than take our money and make us go by THEIR rules. It will take a collective, a free association of like minded individuals, to say THIS WILL NOT STAND. Seems to me a couple of BIG North American countries were founded on that premise...

 

Where did you hear that one? ... AM radio ... 2 way radio?

What exactly would these owner op's be charged with? parking their own equipment (personal property) in a free country?

How exactly would you "prove" collusion?

You can't, and that is why we have the mega-carriers and cdl mills today - the governments answer to another independent strike.

Govmt scared of another mass shut down - you bet ... but RICO charges? - not a chance.

 

Very well stated...

 

The government isn't scared of you,no one is.

Brokers are registered as a business and businesses can be charged with collusion in regards to price fixing and that would be common knowledge for anyone who knows about business. Brokers that shut down could very well be charged with this. Consult a lawyer if you don't believe it. The gov't doesn't have to prove collusion depending on the state in which the charge is laid,if the law falls under strict liability then the onus of innocence falls on the defendant.

Be carefull of what you tell drivers,your ignorance could cost them.

 

Yeah ... whatever ... driver

Stick with Canadian laws you may know something about ...

 

And btw, your the one trying to "prove a point", back it up - you prove it.

Be careful about spewing BS, you will be called on it.

No one is "scared" of you or your opinions.

 

Theres no point to be made.......it's the law.
There is no BS here,it is fact. As I have said call a lawyer or research it.......Ufortunately for you, GOOGLE won't just spit out an answer on this one.

If you read and understood the post I made it clearly stated that a driver would need to be able to show that he had been "shut down" to reset H.O.S or be "off duty" at home to AVOID being charged. I was advising drivers on HOW to shut down.

I don't expect anyone to be "scared" of me or my opinions,why would I?
I am a nobody,just like you.

 

I thought RICO was used to prove conspiracy or collusion in an ongoing criminal enterprise??

C/P from wikipedia:

"The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly referred to as RICO Act or RICO) is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was enacted by section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (Pub.L. 91-452, 84 Stat. 922, enacted October 15, 1970). RICO is codified as Chapter 96 of Title 18 of the United States Code, 18 U.S.C. § 1961-1968."

I don't see how this would apply to a general trucking strike, unless the US DA's office decides to either categorize truckers as criminals, or decides that we exercising the right to assembly constitutes a criminal act.

 

Assuming that this is true, there would have to be significant proof that a trucker's strike was taking place for the strict purpose of jacking up rates.
But by this same logic, unions can be categorized as ongoing criminal enterprises, and union advocated strikes would be categorized as collusion/conspiracy.

I for one have never seen the police cart off an entire picket line, even in a non-union strike. If they did, you'd better believe the press would have a field day. Besides, if they put all the truckers participating in a general strike in jail, there would STILL be no one to haul the freight, so nothing would be accomplished by playing that card.