If drivers would just join forces and boycott all these companies that pay shitty wages, we would surely change the game, there would be no choice but to increase the wages.

Posted by Sea-Bed-1332@reddit | Truckers | View on Reddit | 44 comments

Most drivers are isolated, exhausted, and scared to lose what little they have, so companies know they can keep lowering standards and somebody will still take the load. Meanwhile executives and brokers keep profiting while drivers sit unpaid at shippers, sleep in parking lots, and spend weeks away from family just to barely survive.

Every industry that improved wages did it because workers acted together instead of competing against each other for scraps. Trucking is one of the most essential jobs in America, yet many drivers are treated like disposable labor.

If drivers collectively refused to work for poverty pay, unpaid detention time, and impossible schedules, companies would be forced to adapt. They need drivers more than drivers realize. The problem is division — experienced vs new drivers, company vs owner operators, local vs OTR — while the corporations benefit from all of it.

Nothing changes until drivers understand their value and stop accepting conditions that would be unacceptable in almost any other skilled profession.

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dstrezzd@reddit

We'd have to be united.. we aren't remotely, thanks to government programming.

anxious_polarbear@reddit

Literally the problem with our country as a whole.

They're giving us pillows and forcing sleep aid down our throats. We the people haven't existed for the past 100 yrs

Fluxus4@reddit

With the supreme court decision today, and the administration's crack down on visas, right about now would be a perfect time to organize a national labor union.

peffer32@reddit

Great idea. Maybe you could give it a catchy name like the Teamsters.

greedybanker3@reddit

i think thats already taken by this one group thats running the railroad into the ground.

I think you may be on to something there!

SaltAndBitter@reddit

All these corpo pieces of shit seem to have forgotten that the unions were the compromise.

Spankpocalypse_Now@reddit

The problem is that way too many drivers hate unions because then they couldn’t be a rugged individual snowflake cowboy.

Tricky_Big_8774@reddit

Keep telling yourself that's the problem, and not the fact that delivering at union warehouses is like taking a roller grill shit. (Long and painful process that you naively promise never to do again).

Junior-Credit2685@reddit

YESSSSS

SleddyEddie@reddit

Whe can have this guy named Jimmy run it.

Got some bad news for you. The administration was on CH Robinson's side on this case. It's almost like their whole crusade for American drivers is a lie.

9-0. That's all that matters.

Very true. I didn't think you could get these 9 to agree water is wet.

Wasabi-Kungpow@reddit

Water is not wet its a liquid

ImaginaryCatDreams@reddit

I haven't read the decision, however I'm willing to bet they'll just start going by CSA scores if they already don't.

I know my last carrier came close to losing a major client a few years ago because of CSA points.

I just don't understand how you could form a union with all the blocks in your way. The truck stops aren't going to let you on their property to recruit. These trucking companies don't have to allow you on their property either. It's not like you can recruit on exit ramps

It sounds good however they have been doing everything in their power to destroy trucking unions, the STAA was the first step.

When yellow freight disappeared overnight I don't think the union was much help to its members

RedlineM5@reddit

Like the last 50 times I've seen this. I wish you luck.

ButterOnToads@reddit

They’ll just outsource to India

Specific-Aide9475@reddit

Lol

DecadentEx@reddit

Face it. As much as I hate to write this: the oligarchy has won. Many tried to warn us that "a country divided cannot stand" and those who pay to write the law learned that if we all fight each other they can go about doing whatever they'd like. 50% of the country hates the other 50% and will never side with one another to do anything that's right for themselves. We now live in the age where everyone is suspicious that everyone else they come in contact with might be a part of the 50% they oppose. It's quite sad.

I think there is still a chance. It isn’t the government that’s keeping us divided. It’s the ones that control our pay. We took down monopolies with the help of the government. The government was setup to prevent anyone from getting too powerful. Although a lot of details of how our government functions, I think the government could still work for the people.

That’s just the beginning. Class consciousness doesn’t come without suffering. Don’t give up now!

EmbarrassedTime9947@reddit

Never gonna happen. Organized labor is dependant on a racially homogenous workforce and leadership which would operate like a criminal network. Because the government would absolutely treat them like criminals. It's also seen as immoral to organize along racial lines or argue against the crux of the issue: foreigners acting as scab labor to depress wages & conditions.

DoctorZebra@reddit

This is weapons grade white nonsense.

PlymouthSea@reddit

The carriers and lobby organizations that back them (cough ATA cough) will just spread fraudulent claims about driver shortages. Followed by a cry for the need for "immigration".

Claiming there's no drivers because you don't want to pay is like me going to the grocery store, seeing someone on the shelf that I want but is more expensive than I want to pay, and then crying that there isn't enough supply. It's right there on the shelf. All I have to do is grab it, take it to check out, and pay for it. Market forces can't always affect the employer if they are allowed to play out. Unfortunately, the moment those market forces ebb and flow in favor of labor, the companies fraudulently claim about labor shortages and demand central planning and interventionist policy.

chico-dust@reddit

Personally I don't know a single full-time truck driver who is independently wealthy and can just not work long enough for a strike to be effective.

My bills dgaf whether I'm employed or not.

gooba1@reddit

Jesus Christ not this again.

GroundbreakingSir386@reddit

Food service should pay more money, but the problem is sentiment around the seniority system because there are maybe 2-3 good routes with decent pay that will always keep people there in slavery for years till they reach the top then they like to brag while everyone else is stuck with $300 days while the other guy gets $500 days.

Same is true with most LTL companies but idk about swift and others I never worked OTR

Dangerous_Ad4451@reddit

Desperate new drivers will take anything to get the experience

Upbeat-Interview8554@reddit

Insurance industry is the shadow man in this. Mega corps insure themselves. Small time companies are left having to pay for a two mil liability insurance forcing them to get drivers that don’t cost them an arm and a leg to insure. They gotta pull back a bit so new drivers have a chance. There’s no reason we’re forced to give up two years in a shitty company

Dane_Jerr@reddit

Schneider would rather close down than pay it's drivers a decent wage

Rikishi6six9nine@reddit

They've done it before, they would certainly do it again😅

Schneider transport shut down all its unionized shops systematically And replaced them with Schneider national

DazednConfuzed62@reddit

And that's the direction they're going

Supart91@reddit

Isn't trucking in the agriculture category? Thats where you need to change it first....

Aggravating-Ideal-56@reddit

Yeah but nobody can afford to do that because of the shitty wages lmao they know what they are doing

Ye_Yuan@reddit

Covid was our literal best chance…

I hear there’s a rat virus coming soon!

Top-Confidence4496@reddit

Main reason it won't work is because it would require a sustained nationwide effort that doesn't let up until all demands are met. That's asking for a lot

It would last a few days, lol. They are up a shit creek without us. What are they gonna force us back to work? We need to work on education and solidarity, first, though.

Signal-Employer9889@reddit

The problem is getting everyone organized when drivers are literally scattered across the country and many are just trying to keep their families fed. I see this in fitness industry too - people undercut each other instead of standing together for better conditions

Plus lot of drivers are independent contractors so they think union stuff doesnt apply to them but really they have even less protection than employees. Companies know exactly how to keep everyone divided and desperate

I’ll hand out homemade flyers at every truck stop I end up at!

TwoToadsKick@reddit

Yes. Luckily being alive is expensive and nobody can afford to not work.

Look up “strike fund”.