WHY CAN'T WE DRIVERS STICK TOGETHER

C'MON MAN

 

Jesus man... just quit driving for ####ty companies.

 

My father told me once this standing together topic has been around since the 50s. Years ago drivers would sit at a big table away from the driver counters drink coffee and solve all the worlds problems. Sound familiar?

 

Don't know what brought this on but how the industry is as a whole has everything to do with how drivers behave to eachother.

 

And how do you think this will be organized; through word of mouth, cb radio's and this forum?

It seems a couple times a year someone comes in with the same bright idea...
TRUCKERS UNITE!!!

It has never, and never will happen.

And really, everyone taking a 30 minute break at the same time is supposed to cause a ripple in the time line?
Strike fear in the nation?
Get real.

 

The same reason "universal health care" can't work in the USA is the same reason truck drivers can not be brought together under a unified cause ... we are too many in numbers and far to diversified in a myriad of ways. Too many different types of truck driving jobs. Too many different wants, needs, and expectations. No. one size does NOT fit all.

It's called INDEPENDENCE! Show me many any trade where there is not any back-stabbing and rate cutting. When a market or nation becomes saturated with eligible workers beyond the available jobs, you end up with too many in desperation. This can not be expected to lead to "unity"

 

Another reason is that we like to earn, and KEEP, our own money to do with as we please.

Universal health care requires that certain people work and suffer more so that other certain people don't have to, to receive the same benefits.
Not quite that simple, I know.

 

You do know this has been brought up and tried 464,864,112 times before...

IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN

 

The last great trucker strike happened in 74' in response to the opec oil embargo and rising fuel prices, not because of low wages. There has to be a major, sudden event that shocks and upsets a majority of drivers to get a strike going. Slowly increased regulation and stagnating wages are a slow boil effect.

Ever heard of the frog and boiling water? Boil a pan of water and put a frog in it will jump right out. But put a frog in a pan of tepid water and slowly raise it to a boil and the frog will sit and boil to death because it happens slowly and gradually over time. This is what we have had happening in trucking since the 1980s.

Also I will add strikes are not as glamorous as you might imagine. In 74 you had bricks and rocks being thrown at trucks "scabbing" from overpasses and trucks being shot.

Really only unions strike. If you think unions are what we need more of go look on trucking boards dot com and read the yrc and holland forum. See how happy those guys are and how much the Union has stood up for them