Submitted on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 3:33pm
As many of you know the IWW has been organizing Truck Drivers in Eastern North
Carolina and Virginia for much of the past year. In response to our growing
power and planned founding convention this upcoming weekend, the bosses have
begun firing the union's leadership. Two log drivers and five container haulers
have lost their job over the past two days.
The union is already
discussing legal and direct action means to fight these unjust firing, but right
now we need funds to support our fired drivers.
These drivers have families
to support and this is a part of the country where economic opportunities are
very limited. Please offer whatever you can, drivers are counting on
you.
Checks can be sent to the Freight Truckers Organizing Committee
at
PO Box 274, Waukegan, IL 60079. Please include "emergency relief" in the
memo line.
We are in the process of setting a PayPal Acct for online
donations. You will be informed as soon as it is ready.
Thank you and
please be generous.
Past Press Releases from the Freight Truckers
Organizing Committee:
NC Truckers Form Union, Hold Work
Stoppage - United Truckers Cooperative to Picket Outside of Weyerhaeuser
Mills
http://www.iww.org/en/node/4486
NC Truckers to Formalize
Union Over MLK Weekend - Negotiating Committee Already Formed in Preparation for
Talks
Submitted on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 8:27pm
On the weekend of Martin Luther King Day, log truckers and container
haulers from Eastern North Carolina and Virginia will be gathering to formally
charter the United Truckers Union. This event will be the culmination of a
nearly year-long organizing drive that led to a work stoppage on the morning of
December 8, 2008. That action, which saw small but lively pickets outside of
Weyerhaeuser mills along coastal North Carolina, reduced the amount of logs
entering the New Bern mill by approximately 35% and shut down several tree
stands in the Plymouth area. Only six trucks left BTT's yard, one of
Weyerhaeuser's primary subcontractors and a target of the strike. Following the
mornings' stoppage, a unnamed Weyerhaeuser representative announced to local
media that management agreed to the workers' key demand: that mill management
recognize the drivers' organization and arrange a meeting between the drivers'
negotiating committee, Weyerhaeuser, and representatives of the subcontractors who employ the drivers. Accordingly,
the union has directed a letter to the Vice President for Southern Timberland in
Seattle, Washington offering several dates and places for an initial
meeting.
Community support has proven integral to the drivers' success. In
particular, local churches have vocally supported the organization. "Preacher,"
a union member and an ordained reverend, described this relationship: "The
drivers represent the community, the church represents the community. What
affects one of us, affects all of us. We're all in this together." Along much
these same lines, the solidarity shown by the larger labor movement has been a
source of moral as well as real world support. The drivers would to take this
opportunity to thank the unionists and environmental activists who picketed
Weyerhaeuser corporate headquarters on the day of their recent strike. Likewise,
they are extending their sincerest appreciations to USW Locals in North Carolina
and Washington State, UE 150, and the Northwest Log Truckers
Cooperative.
The drivers have already announced their intention to affiliate with the
Industrial Workers of the World Motor Transport Workers Industrial Union (IWW IU
530). Founded in 1905, the IWW is a democratic and militant rank-and-file
industrial union. The IWW believes that only through organization can the men
and women who carry everything our communities need break the pattern of
injustice faced by America's truck drivers.
Submitted on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 3:17am
For Immediate Release:
Contact: IWW IU 530; Billy Randel – IWW rep, 646-645-6284
On Monday Dec 8, the drivers of the United Truckers Cooperative will hold a work stoppage and picket outside of Weyerhaeuser Mills in Plymouth and Vanceboro, North Carolina. The workers are demanding Weyerhaeuser arrange a meeting between mill management, subcontractors, and representatives of the truckers to address the drivers’ legitimate grievances and negotiate a formal agreement on wages and working conditions.
A local driver who goes by the handle “Hollywood” explained the reason for the action: “If you see injustice, there’s something wrong and you are bound to stand up and say ‘no more.’ What’s going on with North Carolina truck drivers is wrong, so we’re standing up.”
The workers will be joined by concerned community members. In particular, local ministers will be in attendance. “Preacher,” a union member and an ordained reverend, recognized “The drivers represent the community, the church represents the community. What affects one of us, affects all of us. We’re all in this together.”
Submitted on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 2:48pm
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.
Before sunrise on a Monday morning, outside a sterile office park in
Compton, a convoy of small, beat-up cars, none of them newer than 1995, arrives
at the offices of the trucking firm Calko Speedline. One by one, the car's
drivers emerge, ranchera and mariachi and est?s escuchando a Piol?n por la
ma?ana! competing from their radios. They buy coffee from the taco truck that
follows them in, and assemble in small groups, huddled in circles among their
big rigs - hulking red, green, blue and white mammoths lined up along the curb,
their diesel-burning engines grumbling into action one by one.
The drivers' day of waiting begins.
"My name's Chicho. Everybody knows me. You can ask anyone, 'Do you know
Chicho?' and he'll say yes."
Chicho, born Hernan Robleto, is short, round, nearly bald and, when he
speaks, energetically animated. His English is nearly indistinguishable from his
Spanish; sometimes, while listening to him, it's possible to lose any conscious
sense of which language he's speaking. At the Calko office, he paces among the
various groups while office personnel inside quietly field calls from terminal
operators at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach about ship traffic and
schedules; later, they'll give each of the men directions to their first load of
the day, a container of goods destined for an intermediate shipping facility
somewhere inland or farther down the coast, where it will be transported still
farther, to distribution centers all over the country, by truck or
train.
Submitted on Tue, 05/20/2008 - 4:09am
By: J. Pierce with Adam Welch
Independent truckers in California's San Joaquin Valley shut down their rigs on Friday, May 2nd declaring an open-ended strike. At $4.80 a gallon, sky-rocketing diesel prices top the list of grievances. As their main demand, drivers insist on doubling the rates paid for hauling a container. The second biggest demand is a fuel surcharge of upwards of 55%. The brokers currently pay surcharges varying from 30-40%. If drivers can keep the trucking bosses from stealing it, the increased surcharge would help place the burden back on those who can afford it.
"We're fighting for survival." That's how Gerardo Cordoba explains the struggle. He's been driving for 10 years and raises a seven year-old on what he brings home after costs. The rates haven't seen an increase in a decade and most truckers bring home less than $30,000 year. In fact, when asked how much an average driver earns, Dewey Obtinalla, a Filipino driver who regularly does long haul up the coast, replied, "If you're making $30,000, that's good, very good... With fuel, insurance, and registration, I don't know a lot of people who are doing that well." Brave strikers don't need to look far
for others willing to fight.