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Yellow | Trucking, labor haggle over driver work rules

Razorblade said:
There can be no debate that unions are based on socialist ideology. As I have said, America works because the socialist unions balance the capitalist corporations. Do you deny that a highly regulated transportation industry with government deciding how many companies can exist, where they are allowed to operate and how much they must charge was socialist? My pension will continue to exist because the mighty IBT went begging to government to subsidize the funds, more socialism. Overpaid? Yes, some classifications of employees are overpaid. All labor is not of equal value, that's socialism. Skillsets define the value of labor. Driving a forklift from 106 door to 93 door does not require the same skillset as pulling a set of triples from Cleveland to Gary Indiana.
Today is as different from my 30 year tenure as 1974 was from the days when Teamsters actually drove teams of horses pulling wagons. Unions that negotiate, and members who ratify contracts that don't allow their companies to be competitive in the marketplace will eventually kill their jobs. The Teamsters Union has moved on. Freight is no longer a priority and no longer the focus of their business. Yes, I said business. The Teamsters Union is big business.
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And so is the us gov.
 
Trucker09 said:
All companies are willing to put inexperienced driver's behind the wheel union and non union
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That's true. ABF has with their military driver training program, but it has created problems for them. It is a natural consequence of wanting cheaper and cheaper help. I laughed my a** off in Portland several years ago when I was laid over in the same motel with a Roadway sleeper team. We went to dinner together and I asked them about Roadway and this one dude says" I didn't have a lot of experience, but they were advertising for drivers in Akron, if I remember correctly,, so I went in and talked to them. The road boss takes me out for a check ride, and I was doing fine until we took the off ramp back to the terminal. I was sitting at the light, and let the truck roll back and hit the car behind me and damage the front end pretty good. I looked over at him and said I guess I just flunked, right? and he says Not at all. Let me jump out and give those folks our insurance info and we'll go back to the terminal and fill out the new-hire paperwork. We can probably get you out tomorrow." His co driver was a black dude and he just sat there smiling and nodding his head. Swear to god...
 
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hangbelly said:
That's true. ABF has with their military driver training program, but it has created problems for them. It is a natural consequence of wanting cheaper and cheaper help. I laughed my a** off in Portland several years ago when I was laid over in the same motel with a Roadway sleeper team. We went to dinner together and I asked them about Roadway and this one dude says" I didn't have a lot of experience, but they were advertising for drivers in Akron, if I remember correctly,, so I went in and talked to them. The road boss takes me out for a check ride, and I was doing fine until we took the off ramp back to the terminal. I was sitting at the light, and let the truck roll back and hit the car behind me and damage the front end pretty good. I looked over at him and said I guess I just flunked, right? and he says Not at all. Let me jump out and give those folks our insurance info and we'll go back to the terminal and fill out the new-hire paperwork. We can probably get you out tomorrow." His co driver was a black dude and he just sat there smiling and nodding his head. Swear to god...
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I enjoyed the story until the very end.
How about, His co-driver just sat their smiling and nodding his head.
 
Razorblade said:
You never stopped reading. You just have no reasonable and rational response. It's not 1960 anymore. The rest of the world has recovered from the devastation of WW2 and has become competitive. The United States is committing economic self destruction by refusing to balance budgets and replace a tax structure that was implemented in 1913.
China? yes China will be the dominate power within 10 years. China already has a middle class larger than the entire population of North America and still growing. 1.5 billion consumers live in China. More cars are sold in China than in America. China has a larger and more modern Navy than the United States and the ability to bankrupt us by selling off the 1.1 trillion dollars of U.S. debt that they now hold. China has found a way to make limited capitalism and one party rule work to their advantage. The Chinese government is authoritarian but it's also stable. Business knows what the rules are in China. Here the rules, regulations and the cost of doing business change with every new administration.
But that's okay. Just ignore the facts and pretend that all of our problems are caused by the evil corporations and the shareholders who own them.
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You bet China sells more cars than N America. They own the chip manufacturing now along with Taiwan and S Korea and our entire 2021 model year production is sitting in parking lots waiting for chips to complete manufacture. Used cars are selling for premiums because there are no new cars on the lots. Extrapolate that to tanks and fighter aircraft and you begin to see what happens when corporations are allowed to cut production costs by off-shoring production. Crony capitalism at it's finest. We need to stop arguing about who messed up the deck chairs and get our life preservers on. I like you RB. You're a sharp dude and you do have valid points, but we all need to come together for America's sake. Time is getting short. What China has planned for America is terrifying, and American labor didn't cause it. Unfair trade agreements and cheating and corrupt politicians did. American labor could NEVER have offered to work cheaply enough to have prevented it.
 
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