Owner operator strike

i've heard ALOT of talk from ALOT of friends that owner operator truck drivers are planning a massive strike in the next couple weeks not unlike what happened in the mid 80s and for the same basic reason, diesel prices, anyone else heard anything about this?

if it is true i do hope it happens...maybe gas prices will come down also =) i dunno bout anyone else but gas around here is reaching 1.97/gal and climbing.

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<u>Strike ends in Oakland</u>

They're striking in Portsmouth now.

"Drivers want more compensation for the rising cost of diesel fuel, which is averaging about $1.72 a gallon nationwide, according to the American Trucking Association. Many believe the companies they’re contracted to aren’t passing on fuel surcharges collected from customers."

They aren't. Companies are charging up to double and more in Fuel Surcharges from customers. For companies who employ Owner Operators, the drivers take the hit because they pay for their own fuel. They benefit when their company is a member of a fuel network and provides the driver with a card so he/she can enjoy a discount.

But its the local draymen who are striking. They're owner/ops and mostly run trailers/containers between the port and rail head. They get paid by the load. They encounter delays at both ends and time is money. Their driving hours are restricted by DOT rules. Add in heavy traffic and it becomes difficult to make a living.

The port and rail yards are bohemouths and can't change much to expedite the process of loading/unloading trailers. Traffic won't improve. Now fuel has skyrocketed. Their rate of pay hasn't changed much in years.</font>

<font color="0000ff">There was inside talk of a massive strike last year on the east coast at all the ports. There's almost <u>always</u> talk of a strike. Harder to organize in the southern ports like Charleston and Savannah. It has been predicted for some time now tho.</font>


(Message edited by sweetness on May 13, 2004)

really...glad to see someone else is hip to this..i hope they do go on strike..hell someone needs to try and bring gas prices down.

<font color="0000ff">They're striking for pay increases. Won't affect the fluctuation of fuel prices.</font>

hmmm...maybe im hearing something different then. i'll have to check into it more and get back with ya =)

<font color="0000ff">Source: Charleston Post &amp; Courier
Link

Story last updated at 7:47 a.m. Friday, June 25, 2004

Rising costs fuel truckers' call for strikes at nation's ports

SPA preparing for demonstrations at its terminals as drivers seek relief

BY RON MENCHACA
Of The Post and Courier Staff
Truck driver Carl Hopkins left his Johns Island home in the wee hours Thursday to haul a load of wooden boxes to Georgia.

He spent $230 on diesel fuel to make the 14-hour trip. With meals and other expenses added in, he netted about $150 for the day, roughly $11 per hour.

In 30 years behind the wheel in big rigs, he said, his pay has never been so low.

"It's absolutely ridiculous," said Hopkins, 45, married with three children. "We are just getting raked over the coals."

Hopkins is one of dozens of Lowcountry truckers planning to take part in a nationwide strike by independent port truckers next week to protest rising fuel and operating costs. Five days of peaceful strikes are planned beginning Monday at ports throughout the country, including Charlestonñarea container terminals owned by the State Ports Authority.

Truckers say the health of their industry has been worsening for years, but the skyrocketing diesel fuel prices have pushed their plight to the point of crisis.

Lowcountry maritime leaders aren't sure what level of disruption, if any, to expect at the Port of Charleston.

If enough trucks are idled, the SPA's already-jammed terminals could become backed up if cargo vessels arrive to discharge hundreds of shipping containers and there aren't enough truck drivers to haul them.

"If there is nobody to carry it, it just sits on the yard," said John Hassell, president of the Maritime Association of Charleston. "That becomes a problem pretty quickly."

The owner-operator truck drivers organizing the strike say the shipping lines that hire them have not raised hauling rates to keep pace with rising insurance, fuel and maintenance costs. Among the bigger complaints are the fees some truckers must pay the intermediary companies that negotiate directly with international shipping conglomerates.

The increases affect all truckers, but private contractors that absorb their own costs are getting squeezed the hardest, said Rick Todd, president of the S.C. Trucking Association.

Todd said his organization, which represents mostly company truck drivers, does not support the strike but is sympathetic to the complaints of the independent drivers.

Some manufacturing companies are uneasy about the possibility of cargo slowdowns, Todd said. July is typically a busy period at container terminals as retailers begin pre-stocking for the holiday season.

Though the truck drivers behind the strike are non-union, their demonstration has backing from two of the nation's largest labor groups, the Teamsters and International Longshoremen's Association.

Some truckers say the strike is part of a larger effort to unionize independent truckers. That could be difficult, if not impossible, because federal labor laws prohibit the independent truckers from participating in collective bargaining, Hassell said.

The SPA is preparing for a total of about 150 demonstrators at its Lowcountry container terminals in North Charleston, Mount Pleasant and downtown Charleston.

Similar strikes in recent years have largely fizzled locally. But Todd and others say the industry-wide buzz about next week's strike is cause for concern.

SPA spokesman Byron Miller said the agency plans to set aside space outside its terminals for the protests.

What no one can predict is how many truckers will honor the pickets out front.

"Our terminals are public, and the commerce flowing through them is vital to the people of the state," Miller said. "We will take the necessary steps to keep them running."

While the truckers' main concerns are fuel costs and fees, issues that the ports authority has little control over, Hopkins said the agency could do more to improve "turn times."

Port truckers thrive or fail by the amount of time it takes for them to get into a terminal, pick up a container and a chassis and get back on the road.

Hopkins said he's been stuck at some local terminals for up to three hours waiting in line, cutting into his allotted driving hours, which are strictly regulated by the federal government for safety reasons.

Miller said the SPA has spent millions of dollars at its terminals over the past five years installing computer tracking systems and improving container yards to help speed truckers through its gates.

Turn times are not likely be a major spur to draw protests locally, Hassell said, but there are enough other issues needling Lowcountry truckers to generate a significant turnout.

"We just really don't know what to expect," he said. "They've certainly got everybody's attention."
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<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

really...glad to see someone else is hip to this..i hope they do go on strike..hell someone needs to try and bring gas prices down.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
Wake Up America.
Read this Month's National Geographic's article on Gasoline.
Americans have been enjoying low prices for far too long, which has solidified our dependency on imported, and domestically produced oil. We are a selfish lot.
If I'm not mistaken drivers in Great Britain payed $5.79 a gallon Wednesday. So lets not hear any whining. Personally I'm tired of it. Americans must take responsibilty for the monster they have created.
Make no mistake,I am on the truckers side they are getting the short end. So pay the surcharge and pay your way in the world.
We as American's must reduce our use of oil to bring supply up and cost down.
Wars are waged for it!!!!!!!!!!!!
So if you are one of the wasteful people who have to have the front parking space in the lot, you have it coming. I'm going for a walk
Joe

(Message edited by oreganojoe on June 25, 2004)

and some people think
oil is not worth fighting for.
this shows just one side-effect
of the jihadists' attacks against
the world oil market which is
a very serious threat to us all,
much more than any mere car bomber.
this is why we are fighting and dying
in iraq and arabia.

(Message edited by admin on June 25, 2004)

Exactly. It is why we are fighting and dying in Arabia.... sad but true. If there wasn't oil there, we wouldn't give 2 f#cks about those people.

I say "strike on" brothers and sisters. I myself am a union man and support them wholeheartedly.

<font color="0000ff">Fighting over oil and we all lose. Let's save money and lives and help protect our energy grid. Hydrogen. </font>

Fighting over oil and we all lose.

Unfortunantly, I think thats what its going to come to.

People are way too complacent and don't give a sh#t about future generations. We need a race to fuel efficiency in this country, and fast. I read today that the EPA has done some commercials that lampoon energy efficient cars. It shows this goofy, nerdy type guy trying to make his car more efficient through various stupid means (sails, less weight, etc.) and his wife is the smart one in the family because she wants to buy energy efficient appliances and the point of it all is that energy efficient appliances will save more energy and cause less pollution than energy efficient automobiles (sorry for the rambling there). Just goes to show that Big Business is practically running the EPA now.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

If I'm not mistaken drivers in Great Britain payed $5.79 a gallon Wednesday<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

Nope, your not mistaken. Over here its about 80p a LITRE and rising. Thats maybe £3.20 a US gallon. With an exchange rate of approx 1.8 (I'm guessing at the exchange rate), that makes it $3.70 a gallon approx. And the government takes well over half of that in tax, possible more than 75%, claiming "its to protect the environment" despite the fact that most CO2 is realeased by volcanoes and then heavy industry. It doesn't hit us as hard as it does you, seen as we travel a lot less due to a smaller country, but it still sucks. I reckon you could get from Lands End to John'o'groats in 14 hours (thats from north Scotland to the most southernly point.)

<font color="0000ff">Source: AP/Raleigh News Observer Online
Link

Independent truckers strike at U.S. ports

By ALAN SAYRE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Upset over wages, fuel costs and anti-union laws, hundreds of independent truckers went on strike at several U.S. ports Monday, slowing the movement of cargo containers that can hold everything from furniture to electronics to frozen food.
Nationwide independent truckers, who get paid by the load, had called for a strike from Monday to Sunday. It was unclear how many truckers went on strike.

About 200 independent truckers demonstrated at Port Newark, one of the nation's busiest container ports, said Tiffany Townsend, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

"We're certainly open for business, but obviously volume is down," Townsend said.

About 30 independent truckers went on strike at the Port of New Orleans. While some terminals reported slower-than-normal business, it was too early to tell if the boycott was responsible, said David Wagner, the port's chief operating officer.

Calls made to three of the approximate 20 trucking companies that employ independent drivers at the Port of New Orleans were not returned.

Dozens of independent truckers walked picket lines in South Carolina outside the Port of Charleston, the nation's fourth-busiest container port.

"Shut it down!" one picket shouted above the roar of engines as a container truck moved through the gate of the Columbus Street terminal in Charleston. "Go back home!" shouted another.

"We just peacefully want to come out here and let people know we are doing a whole lot more with a whole lot less," said Chris Stonier of Ladson, S.C., who started driving big rigs a decade ago when fuel was 95 cents a gallon. The average price for a gallon of diesel fuel was $1.70 last week and has been as high as $1.76 this year, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

The protest seemed to take a toll on port traffic. Grady Hendrix, who joined about two dozen other truckers outside the Columbus Street Terminal, counted 20 trucks leaving the terminal in the first two hours it was open. On a normal day, he said, there would be that many trucks in a half hour.

At the Port of Boston, two or three independent truckers stood across the street from the entrance of the Conley container terminal, said Massachusetts Port Authority spokeswoman Georgeane Tacelli. She said they were holding signs, but had no effect on operations or traffic.

Truckers are upset over rising costs and low wages. But they also want to be able to form unions and collectively bargain for better contracts from shipping and trucking companies that hire them out.

Owner-operators of trucks are considered independent business people and are forbidden by federal price-fixing laws from negotiating or talking with employers together.

"The carriers are taking advantage of the independent operators due to their lack of representation and due to their lack of recourse," said Robert Fezekas, a Meraux trucker and lobbyist.

Fezekas said he would like to see Louisiana exempt independent truckers from the antitrust laws.

Abraham Venson, an organizer of the New Orleans strike, said the group does not want the federal government to re-regulate the industry but said a way has to be found to keep independent drivers in business.

Associated Press writers Cain Burdeau in New Orleans and Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C., contributed to this report.</font>

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

"We just peacefully want to come out here and let people know we are doing a whole lot more with a whole lot less," said Chris Stonier of Ladson, S.C.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

<font color="0000ff">They may be peaceful in SC but in other parts of the country they certainly are NOT. Neither independents nor company drivers want to go near the ports/railheads during strikes due to the violence. Some drivers avoided work today simply due to the possibility of having bottles thrown at their windsheilds or other equipment damage while entering the port/rail yards.</font>