MILTON, Ontario — Truck drivers in the Greater Toronto Area, who haul the sand and gravel needed to produce ready-mix concrete, won a 20% rate increase from trucking bosses after a two-week strike that closed quarries and shut down much of the construction industry.
Jagroop Singh, president of the Ontario Aggregate Trucking Association, told the Militant that about 1,000 truckers joined in the fight. Rates paid to owner-operators “haven’t gone up for the past two decades while inflation is sky-rocketing,” Singh said. “Diesel fuel costs around $700 for the average driver,” triple what it was two years ago. “Everything else has gone up as well. It can cost $550 for one tire. Insurance is crazy!” Strikers carried signs saying, “Fuel price high, wages low.”
Company drivers, who were also part of the fight, won a $50 a day wage increase. Another group of aggregate truckers is still on strike, along with close to 2,000 dump truck drivers, who are also fighting for a rate increase.