Vol. 72/No. 15      April 14, 2008

Owner-operator truckers are sick of watching their income dwindle. The average price of diesel fuel nationwide has hit $4.02, a record high. At the same time, truckers say, freight rates have been stagnant for years.

The strike was built by word of mouth.

On the New Jersey Turnpike, about 300 truckers staged a protest at a major truck stop. Southbound rigs as far as the eye could see jammed traffic as they crawled along the road at midday.

More than a dozen truck tractors blocked traffic into Chicago on Interstate 55 near the Dan Ryan Expressway. State cops ticketed the drivers.

The Salt Lake Tribune said commuters reported seeing fewer trucks on Utah’s main highways.

A convoy of about 30 trucks circled Atlanta’s beltway in protest. The truckers were prevented from driving into the city to demonstrate at the state Capitol, and some were ticketed.

About 70 rigs parked outside the port of Tampa. Owner-operators protested there against local brokers’ low freight rates.

Some truckers are planning further actions. One leaflet calls for a week-long strike starting May Day.
 

Mahr has paid off two trucks and two auto carriers that he and his son operate. “Auto haul business was better a few years ago,” Mahr explained. “If I still had those monthly bank payments like I did a few years ago, with the added diesel fuel cost, I would be in big trouble now with my banker.”

“We support the shutdown by the drivers,” Mahr said. “Something needs to be done, and we need to show that people are fed up.”

“I just heard about the truckers’ strike on the radio yesterday,” said Alr Rafle, who is originally from Kenya. “In the three years I have been driving, there has been ongoing CB chatter about a strike,” he said. “I have not yet decided what I will do on April 1.”

“I know what the independent drivers are going through,” said Roy Jones, now a fleet driver from Austin, Texas, in an interview at Pilot truck stop. “If I was still an owner-operator I wouldn’t be able to survive.”
 
 
Related articles:
Support truckers’ fight against squeeze on standard of living!
New Jersey truckers join nat’l protest
‘We need a labor party based on fighting unions’
Candidate joins Georgia truck convoy  
 
 
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