Just a few thoughts.

My Grandmother told me something once you might want to consider...


When everybody else is wrong but you......... you might be the one who is wrong!

You keep spouting that fighting the good fight stuff long enough maybe you even believe it, BUT your strike nonsense will not help everyone....

Take it for what it is worth, when the whole word is wrong, right yourself!

My Senators and my congressman never act like they don't care about a group of truckers... wonder why it seems so different?

When the government was all set under our glorious leader to allow 12 million or more people to "pay a fine but become legal", My Senator stood up to the head of his party and said NO... because he knew he was representing people who wanted that nonsense stopped...

Maybe your government officials have never had comments from you before and are not listening to you because you never spoke with them before? I can't say, but I have had a voice in government circles for years, they may not always do what I want but they sure know before they do it what I think they should be doing...LOL Email makes it so much easier to have 2 way conversations, Do you email your Senator and congressman often? Do they send you replies? Mine do!

 

It is NEVER too late till they are throwing grass seeds on that fresh mound of earth you are under.

Let's talk alternatives.

YOU say the only answer is striking and getting PUBLIC attention.

I say the last thing that will accomplish anything you CLAIM to be trying to accomplish is a strike, and the public will not need to be involved.

So let's explore this difference.


What was a strike for? What definite plan other than striking did you put forth?
Did you know clearly what you were striking for? What was it? State it clearly one time here and we can all plan some way to accomplish it. Failing to state a clear idea of what a strike would accomplish and HOW it would be accomplished, people like me are left with the fuzzy feeling that you had no plan but were simply frustrated and striking OUT rather than striking for a solution.


If you identify the high price of fuel as your problem, Striking cannot lower the fuel costs... we have no authority in AMERICA to lower prices on a product set by a private supply chain made up of companies.. We can demand lower TAXES they are a function of the government, BUT to lower taxes in one place while living in a country spending trillions of dollars more than it has to spend, you have to offer some plan to replace the revenue you are demanding the government give up.

The Truckers who demanded the lowering or elimination of fuel taxes were acting in the finest traditions of our ancestors who revolted against a king over a 1 percent tax. Being as we have no KING now however, the demand to drop fuel taxes should have been accompanied with a solution for the continence of the projects that tax is dedicated to pay for... In that way there would be a debate over whether to TAX fuel, or to gain the required revenue from some other source. OOIDA has been preparing for that battle for months by ( specifically in Pennsylvania) exposing the truth about where those fuel taxes are spent and how much of that revenue stream is being diverted from the projects the government created and still today justifies those taxes with specifically road building and repair.

A general unspecific call to strike to raise rates or lower fuel costs was a doomed effort from the beginning, even the least business savvy American trucker has to have a pretty clear reason to stop his business and refrain from it.

Of course the strike was popular with those truckers who are NOT WORKING because they have no work. It was also popular with those who have little to offer different from the may others offering the same service. I saw dirt contractors and local haulers who deliver construction based materials and services who have discovered the real meaning in RECESSION is less freight to haul and there for lower prices because of the overage of available truckers to the available freight. They were much in evidence in the fore front of the strikes carried by the press to the public consciousness, but in the back ground the OTR bring the food from far away places could be seen still struggling to cope with the longer than usual excess of trucks as flats hooked up to their winter reefers and cattle haulers pulled their winter flats while HHG carries move industrial products and trade shows while they waited for the annual summer time blitz of house hold movements.

The recession and decrease in retail purchases by consumers has found its' way to the distribution centers where daily loads are being converted to loads when full resulting in dedicated drivers finding themselves working 3 days a week instead of 6.. It will be hard for a distribution network that has power and drivers sitting around waiting for loads to justify paying extra when they can simply let attrition winnow the excess away.

Small companies who shut down out of fear of violence more than in any understanding of what a shut down could do to help them in their struggle to survive will think twice about participating in further work stoppages.

So once you figure out why you wanted to strike, maybe we can help you figure out what can be done about it, and what might even be a successful way to do it.
Of course if all you were striking about was some ones inner desire to lead a strike and be famouse.... you are right, this strike failed miserably to accomplish that!

 

Carolina, why do you insist that the "strike," such as it was, had no effect? To the contrary, over the past month I have seen the national media becoming increasingly interested in the plight of truckers -- particularly the plight of the owner/operators.

Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither, for that matter, was any national labor reform. As truckers take more actions to publicize the high cost of fuel, the greed of brokers, the absurd "anti-idling" laws and other concerns which we have as drivers, those actions will draw more and more attention. You may not be at the head of this movement. If that is your real concern, might I suggest that you reconcile yourself with not being a prominent figure in labor history, and simply do what you can, when you can?

To say that it is now "too late" to accomplish anything simply because the masses didn't rally 'round your flag is sour grapes.