Submitted on Sat, 04/12/2008 - 1:15pm
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
By Barbara Ehrenreich - The Nation, April 7, 2008
Until the beginning of this month, Americans seemed to have nothing to
say about their ongoing economic ruin except, "Hit me! Please, hit me
again!" You can take my house, but let me mow the lawn for you one more
time before you repossess. Take my job and I'll just slink off somewhere
out of sight. Oh, and take my health insurance too; I can always fall
back on Advil.
Submitted on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 4:16pm
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
Filed by Oren Liebermann - Wavy.com, April 3, 2008
NEWPORT
NEWS, Va. (WAVY.com) -- Chris Evans remembers the good ole' days of
truck driving, not too long ago, when diesel prices were about two
dollars a gallon.
"It was awesome. It was great to be a trucker then," remembers Evans.
But
now, he says those days are gone, replaced by soaring gas prices and
shrinking profits for independent truckers, who rely on driving more
miles to make more money.
"I hold about 240 gallons, but I haven't filled up," Evans says. "I haven't topped off these tanks in three to four weeks now."
The
U.S. Department of Energy says high worldwide demand for diesel has
forced prices near the $4 per/gallon mark. Adding to the problem, a
switch to low-sulfur diesel has slowed production for American
refineries.
Submitted on Thu, 04/03/2008 - 3:21pm
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. The image pictured to the right did not appear in the original article, we have added it here to provide a visual perspective. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
RIDGEFIELD, N.J. (AP) -- Tons of freight idled across the country Tuesday
as independent truckers pulled their rigs off the road while others slowed to a
crawl on major highways in a loosely organized protest of high fuel
prices.
Using CB radios and trucking Web sites, some truckers called for a strike
Tuesday to protest the high cost of diesel fuel, hoping the action might
pressure President Bush to stabilize prices by using the nation's oil
reserves.
"The gas prices are too high," said Lamont Newberne, a trucker from
Wilmington, N.C., who along with 200 drivers protested at a New Jersey Turnpike
service area. "We don't make enough money to pay our bills and take care of our
family."
Submitted on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 2:40pm
To truckers and media:
Our members and organizers in the trucking industry have been hearing about the called for April 1, 2008 trucker shut down.
The IWW is not organizing or calling for this shutdown, but supports all truckers taking action to improve their lives and protest the skyrocketing fuel, low pay, unpaid waits and all the other conditions that grow worse by the day.
Truckers unite! Only through organizing a union across the transportation industry can we begin to change this.
The IWW is committed to building a democratic, fighting union in the trucking industry whether you are an independent contractor driver or company driver, intermodal, LTL or over-the-road. Please contact us if you and your co-workers need support or are interested in making trucking a job worth keeping.
Motor Transport Workers IU 530 contacts:
- Pat Tresca- Midwest (224) 381-4088
- Billy Randel- New York (646) 645-6284
Submitted on Mon, 01/14/2008 - 2:43pm
Disclaimer - this campaign is not an official campaign of the IWW nor is this report confirmed.
December 17, 2007
300 troquer@s based in South Gate and Mira Loma went on strike against HUDD et al.
These workers were mostly young latino migrants with a very visible
participation of women truck drivers. Most of them had been in the
harbor about 5 years with maybe as few as 10% going back to the CWA
days of 1996 and only a handful that were present during the 1980s.
HUDD