Posted on 06/23/2017 2:17:51 PM PDT by rey
Title and link only, due to restrictions.
Essentially about the crummy contracts certain truckers submit to. Many of these issues arise from CA's CARB law that essentially banned all trucks older than 2015 forcing drivers and industries to spend mega bucks on new equipment and updating equipment. A classic case of what Bastiat call the seen and the unseen and a good example of Leonard Read's, "I Pencil," in practice.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html
1. The entire Los Angeles metropolitan region is considered a non-attainment area under Federal air quality standards. This forces the state, county and municipal governments to adopt measures under threat of financial penalties that they might not otherwise adopt on their own. The CARB is aimed at addressing the non-attainment issue head-on.
2. The combined Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the largest container port in North America, and while they are major drivers of the local economy they also have a substantial impact on air quality in the LA basin. What makes this a real problem for the region is that about 80% of the cargo moving through the port is being shipped to or from locations in the U.S. far from California. The diesel emission regulations for the port trucking industry in LA are directly aimed at minimizing local health impacts associated with a transportation hub that has national importance.
It reminds me of the sub prime auto loans Uber and lyft drivers are sucked into here. They are slaves to it. It is too expensive to rent in sf so they sleep in their cars. Yes they were stupid but they were also lied to and they are easily intimidated due to illegal status.
It’s not my intent to validate wrongdoing on the part of employers. Wrong is wrong. Being an illegal alien should not remove your basic rights as a human being.
On the other hand, it’s hard for me to judge the employer to be 100% of the problem here.
Being an illegal chips away at that 100%. Choosing not to contact an illegal alien advocate chips away at it. Allowing this situation to fester for a decade or more chips away at it too.
With these thoughts, it’s hard for me to think this person didn’t see something fishy going on, and leave. Just watching the other drivers and what happened to them should have been a tip-off.
There seems to be a part of this story missing.
If you see a glaring problem with my take on it, please feel free to explain what I’m missing.
“It’s also applicable to citizens, because trucking companies are offloading the costs onto citizen truckers, who have to work with very minimal margins despite their long hours.”
Yup. All truckers have seen their lifestyles get trashed.
CA CARB CRONYISM
Small independent trucking companies have been bankrupted by CA CARB junk science. Big trucking writes regulations the State of Calif passes, which destroys their smaller competition.
One rule change and small business people are losing their entire $1mil or $2million dollar business. Yes it is junk science because the smog rules are reversed a few years later, destroying more drivers.
Other eastern states benefit with a glut of cheap trucks.
Semi trucks are further obsoleted because CARB law routes engine exhaust into air inlet, degrading engine bearings.
Semi trucks become junk, fast.
Commerce clause is no longer.
Calif CARB turned a trucking industry into a mess. The junk science benefits big truck compaies and unions.
Truck driver, BEWARE!
There is a strike going on as of Monday this week, though small. This LA Times article says appx 100 workers are participating.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-port-truck-drivers-20170619-story.html
From this LA Times Article, Monday 6/19/17:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-port-truck-drivers-20170619-story.html
This is the 15th strike by the port truck drivers in the last four years. The union contends that the workers are misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees, are not paid for all the hours they work and are forced to lease their trucks under abusive terms.
The strike announcement follows a pact signed June 12 by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia to “move toward the goal of zero emissions” at the ports and establish goals for zero-emission trucks by 2035. The union has complained that the goals don’t mention the effect on truck drivers.
Okay. Thanks for the mention.
Once you get the unions involved, you can scarcely trust a thing that is said.
Every trucker would be justified in parking it for a week with all the abuse they take.
Ever see how much disrespect truckers gets by the DOT? Shameful. If the truckers shut down for a week the country would come to a halt.
And the freedom to form a Union is founded in the U.S. Constitution. Look that up.
Exactly. And the FREE market mean workers have the freedom to organize. Are you suggesting that as an American on the factory floor I should not have the right to join with my fellow workers and seeks better wages? Man, that is Communism what you are suggesting.
Capitalism is the best economic system there is but it does not work if there is no middle class.
Glad to find FR still has thinking members. I enjoyed you reply.
Unemployment rate in Mexico < 5%.
IT/STEM workers need a powerful union to fight H-1B abuse and to influence(buy off) congress to stop the invasion. Some unions would make sense.
It’s funny, nearly every time wages are brought up, suddenly the employers get all concerned about the customer. What are they worried about? Most everything being sold has only gone up and up and up in price. Not to mention what government loots or increases every single year.
I guess there are a lot of people out here who believe most in Middle America get raises every few months. I can assure them, that isn’t happening.
Capitalism is not perfect because it fails to recognize borders, customs and different standards of living of various countries.
Good article.
Thanks for posting this.
Nobody who can do all that will do it to net 67 cents a week.
A free market is one in which no group —not the government and certainly not some “organized” group of thugs — is allowed to distort market forces, which are as God-given as any force of nature.
By “seeking better wages,” what you mean is extortion through threat of violence or shutting down production, backed up by government statutes that allow you to do that. And statutes are always ultimately backed up with guns.
And you think the corporations are not organized? Yea, right. What you are preaching is Communism and you just don't realize it.
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