Those crazy OWS goons are at it again

[War Wagon]

trying to shut down ports in some misguided effort to hurt corporations who will shrug off this minor annoyance like a horse swats flies off its ass with its tail.

Meanwhile, they send longshoremen and truckers home minus a days pay.

fucking brilliant.

[Derron]

They shut down 2 terminals at the Port of Portland today. Watched a bit on the news this morning, the usual pushing and shoving, a couple damn near got ran over, and there was virtually no sign of O Malley at all early in the day.

Fuckin low lives have no idea what it is like to lose a days pay.

[H4ever]

Fuckin low lives have no idea what it is like to lose a days pay.

Fuckin low-life scumbag corporate goons know what it's like to take away careers by outsourcing to low-wage, no benefit, 3rd world shit heap facilities. Seems like a whole lot more than a day's pay. All in the name of greed. And the smelly hippies are the bad guys? Think again.

[mvscal]

Fuckin low-life scumbag corporate goons know what it's like to take away careers by outsourcing to low-wage, no benefit, 3rd world shit heap facilities.

OK...and what in the exact fuck does that have to do with these trustfunded asshats shutting down US ports which employ US workers to transport goods to US stores which are sold by US workers to US consumers?

[H4ever]

Fuckin low-life scumbag corporate goons know what it's like to take away careers by outsourcing to low-wage, no benefit, 3rd world shit heap facilities.

OK...and what in the exact fuck does that have to do with these trustfunded asshats shutting down US ports which employ US workers to transport goods to US stores which are sold by US workers to US consumers?

Ummm.....the very ports where the said outsourced jobs' products of "American" companies come right the fuck back, tariff free, to be sold to American consumers?

[War Wagon]

Those ports export as well as import. I don't care if they picket/protest in front of Freddie Mac or BOA, but shutting down ports is ignorant.

[H4ever]

Those ports export as well as import. I don't care if they picket/protest in front of Freddie Mac or BOA, but shutting down ports is ignorant.

That's a good point (exports) but the trade deficit is such that I bet imports make up a majority of the business at most of these ports.

[R-Jack]

That's a good point (exports) but the trade deficit is such that I bet imports make up a majority of the business at most of these ports.

Not one bit of that changes the fact that shutting down the ports hurts far more of the 99%'ers they claim to support than the evil 1%.

These asshats can't seem to figure out the most effective way to affect the import business is at the retail level.

[BSmack]

That's a good point (exports) but the trade deficit is such that I bet imports make up a majority of the business at most of these ports.

Not one bit of that changes the fact that shutting down the ports hurts far more of the 99%'ers they claim to support than the evil 1%.

These asshats can't seem to figure out the most effective way to affect the import business is at the retail level.

And sanctions against Cuba hurt Cubans more than Castro. And if OWS boycotts big box retailers in large enough numbers, a whole bunch of Wal Mart greeters will loose their jobs. No matter what you do, some poor person is going to get fucked.

The whole point of OWS is to find a new paradigm. I doubt they'll find it. But I'm more than fine with their efforts TO find it, even when those efforts are misguided. They've already put forth a greater effort than the slugs in Congress.

[BSmack]

Chew on this for a while Wags.

An Open Letter from America’s Port Truck Drivers on Occupy the Ports

December 12, 2011

We are the front-line workers who haul container rigs full of imported and exported goods to and from the docks and warehouses every day.

We have been elected by committees of our co-workers at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, New York and New Jersey to tell our collective story. We have accepted the honor to speak up for our brothers and sisters about our working conditions despite the risk of retaliation we face. One of us is a mother, the rest of us fathers. Between the five of us we have 11children and one more baby on the way. We have a combined 46 years of experience driving cargo from our shores for America’s stores.

We are inspired that a non-violent democratic movement that insists on basic economic fairness is capturing the hearts and minds of so many working people. Thank you “99 Percenters” for hearing our call for justice. We are humbled and overwhelmed by recent attention. Normally we are invisible.

Today’s demonstrations will impact us. While we cannot officially speak for every worker who shares our occupation, we can use this opportunity to reveal what it’s like to walk a day in our shoes for the 110,000 of us in America whose job it is to be a port truck driver. It may be tempting for media to ask questions about whether we support a shutdown, but there are no easy answers. Instead, we ask you, are you willing to listen and learn why a one-word response is impossible?

We love being behind the wheel. We are proud of the work we do to keep America’s economy moving. But we feel humiliated when we receive paychecks that suggest we work part time at a fast-food counter. Especially when we work an average of 60 or more hours a week, away from our families.

There is so much at stake in our industry. It is one of the nation’s most dangerous occupations. We don’t think truck driving should be a dead-end road in America. It should be a good job with a middle-class paycheck like it used to be decades ago.

We desperately want to drive clean and safe vehicles. Rigs that do not fill our lungs with deadly toxins, or dirty the air in the communities we haul in.

Poverty and pollution are like a plague at the ports. Our economic conditions are what led to the environmental crisis.

You, the public, have paid a severe price along with us.

Why? Just like Wall Street doesn’t have to abide by rules, our industry isn’t bound to regulation. So the market is run by con artists. The companies we work for call us independent contractors, as if we were our own bosses, but they boss us around. We receive Third World wages and drive sweatshops on wheels. We cannot negotiate our rates. (Usually we are not allowed to even see them.) We are paid by the load, not by the hour. So when we sit in those long lines at the terminals, or if we are stuck in traffic, we become volunteers who basically donate our time to the trucking and shipping companies. That’s the nice way to put it. We have all heard the words “modern-day slaves” at the lunch stops.

There are no restrooms for drivers. We keep empty bottles in our cabs. Plastic bags too. We feel like dogs. An Oakland driver was recently banned from the terminal because he was spied relieving himself behind a container. Neither the port, nor the terminal operators or anyone in the industry thinks it is their responsibility to provide humane and hygienic facilities for us. It is absolutely horrible for drivers who are women, who risk infection when they try to hold it until they can find a place to go.

The companies demand we cut corners to compete. It makes our roads less safe. When we try to blow the whistle about skipped inspections, faulty equipment, or falsified logs, then we are “starved out.” That means we are either fired outright, or more likely, we never get dispatched to haul a load again.

It may be difficult to comprehend the complex issues and nature of our employment. For us too. When businesses disguise workers like us as contractors, the Department of Labor calls it misclassification. We call it illegal. Those who profit from global trade and goods movement are getting away with it because everyone is doing it. One journalist took the time to talk to us this week and she explains it very well to outsiders. We hope you will read the enclosed article “How Goldman Sachs and Other Companies Exploit Port Truck Drivers.”

But the short answer to the question: Why are companies like SSA Marine, the Seattle-based global terminal operator that runs one of the West Coast’s major trucking carriers, Shippers’ Transport Express, doing this? Why would mega-rich Maersk, a huge Danish shipping and trucking conglomerate that wants to drill for more oil with Exxon Mobil in the Gulf Coast conduct business this way too?

To cheat on taxes, drive down business costs, and deny us the right to belong to a union, that’s why.

The typical arrangement works like this: Everything comes out of our pockets or is deducted from our paychecks. The truck or lease, fuel, insurance, registration, you name it. Our employers do not have to pay the costs of meeting emissions-compliant regulations; that is our financial burden to bear. Clean trucks cost about four to five times more than what we take home in a year. A few of us haul our company’s trucks for a tiny fraction of what the shippers pay per load instead of an hourly wage. They still call us independent owner-operators and give us a 1099 rather than a W-2.

We have never recovered from losing our basic rights as employees in America. Every year it literally goes from bad to worse to the unimaginable. We were ground zero for the government’s first major experiment into letting big business call the shots. Since it worked so well for the CEOs in transportation, why not the mortgage and banking industry too?

Even the few of us who are hired as legitimate employees are routinely denied our legal rights under this system. Just ask our co-workers who haul clothing brands like Guess?, Under Armour, and Ralph Lauren’s Polo. The carrier they work for in Los Angeles is called Toll Group and is headquartered in Australia. At the busiest time of the holiday shopping season, 26 drivers were axed after wearing Teamster T-shirts to work. They were protesting the lack of access to clean, indoor restrooms with running water. The company hired an anti-union consultant to intimidate the drivers. Down Under, the same company bargains with 12,000 of our counterparts in good faith.

Despite our great hardships, many of us cannot — or refuse to, as some of the most well-intentioned suggest — “just quit.” First, we want to work and do not have a safety net. Many of us are tied to one-sided leases. But more importantly, why should we have to leave? Truck driving is what we do, and we do it well.

We are the skilled, specially-licensed professionals who guarantee that Target, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart are all stocked with just-in-time delivery for consumers. Take a look at all the stuff in your house. The things you see advertised on TV. Chances are a port truck driver brought that special holiday gift to the store you bought it.

We would rather stick together and transform our industry from within. We deserve to be fairly rewarded and valued. That is why we have united to stage convoys, park our trucks, marched on the boss, and even shut down these ports.

It’s like our hero Dutch Prior, a Shipper’s/SSA Marine driver, told CBS Early Morning this month: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

The more underwater we are, the more our restlessness grows. We are being thoughtful about how best to organize ourselves and do what is needed to win dignity, respect, and justice.

Nowadays greedy corporations are treated as “people” while the politicians they bankroll cast union members who try to improve their workplaces as “thugs.”

But we believe in the power and potential behind a truly united 99%. We admire the strength and perseverance of the longshoremen. We are fighting like mad to overcome our exploitation, so please, stick by us long after December 12. Our friends in the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports created a pledge you can sign to support us here.

We drivers have a saying, “We may not have a union yet, but no one can stop us from acting like one.”

The brothers and sisters of the Teamsters have our backs. They help us make our voices heard. But we need your help too so we can achieve the day where we raise our fists and together declare: “No one could stop us from forming a union.”

Thank you.

In solidarity,

Leonardo Mejia
SSA Marine/Shippers Transport Express
Port of Long Beach
10-year driver

Yemane Berhane
Ports of Seattle & Tacoma
6-year port driver

Xiomara Perez
Toll Group
Port of Los Angeles
8-year driver

Abdul Khan
Port of Oakland
7-year port driver

Ramiro Gotay
Ports of New York & New Jersey
15-year port driver

http://cleanandsafeports.org/blog/2011/ ... the-ports/

[Left Seater]

If these truckers wanted their letter to resonate in large swaths of the country they might have wanted to have a jeff smith or similar sign the letter. These guys might well all be citizens, but many will see those names and think who cares that immigrants lost some money.

[Dinsdale]

They shut down 2 terminals at the Port of Portland today.

Including the largest wheat-shipping port in the world.

They sure showed those 1%ers out there plowing the fields a thing or two.


Although I'll bet Kelley Point was a sight, with all those grainers stacking up in the river. Ships for miles, I'm sure.

[Mikey]

If these truckers wanted their letter to resonate in large swaths of the country they might have wanted to have a jeff smith or similar sign the letter. These guys might well all be citizens, but many will see those names and think who cares that immigrants lost some money.

Just how many "Jeff Smiths" do you think there are driving those trucks? Except that they've now come under the OWS spotlight, most of the country would not give a flying fuck whether these guys lost a day of work or not.

[Left Seater]

I agree with you Mikey, just saying from a PR standpoint they had the wrong guys sign the letter.

[Mikey]

True. Maybe it should have been Jeff the Truck Driver.

[BSmack]

If these truckers wanted their letter to resonate in large swaths of the country they might have wanted to have a jeff smith or similar sign the letter. These guys might well all be citizens, but many will see those names and think who cares that immigrants lost some money.

Those are the folks who haul your produce and ensure that "just in time" delivery actually works. And their story of getting fucked over is one that I've seen plenty of times up close and personal. I knew former truckers 15 years ago who realized even back then that the big shipping companies were shafting their drivers. That is why they are former truckers.

I have one friend who dropped his rig off at the dealer he originally bought it at because he knew they were going to repo it soon enough and he didn't want to wait for them to come to his house to pick the damn thing up. The reason? Because the company he worked for slashed his pay at the same time his fuel costs were going through the roof. He still drives, but now he's a company driver making half what he used to make.

I guess if it matters, I should tell you that those folks are all white, natural born citizens. But it shouldn't matter.

[War Wagon]

That's a good point (exports) but the trade deficit is such that I bet imports make up a majority of the business at most of these ports.

Not one bit of that changes the fact that shutting down the ports hurts far more of the 99%'ers they claim to support than the evil 1%.

These asshats can't seem to figure out the most effective way to affect the import business is at the retail level.

Exactly.

What OWS doesn't seem to understand is that the evil corporations are feeding their insatiable demand for low cost foreign made products.

how many of these occupiers drive foreign nameplate cars, do you suppose?

[Dinsdale]

how many of these occupiers drive foreign nameplate cars, do you suppose?

I'm not sure they're too selective -- some of the Occutard Portland dorks got popped on their way to the terminals in a stolen truck... because the 1%ers all drive beater pickups, so they sure showed'em.

[Left Seater]

Just in time would work even better if we had fewer truckers and used more trains to do the jobs. But that is another thread.

Sounds like your friend made a poor decision to buy the truck in the first place. As long as someone was willing to be a company driver he was going to be in trouble. Further most of us who work for ourselves know going in that we will make less than we would if we worked for the "company", but we do it to hopefully lead to something bigger and better where we are an alternative to the said company. Your buddy who was working for himself at twice the wage might have missed that part.

Yeah it sucks that some guys missed a days pay, but OWS losers are hurting the 99% far more than they are the 1%. Where these losers might get the best results are in blocking board meetings from happening, but any other protest or blockade is just going to end up hurting the little guy instead of the intended target.

Maybe you glossed over the part where I said these guys may well all be citizens, but the PR part still stands. You may not like it, but many will care more about Jim Armstrong than they will about Abdul Khan. But for shits and grins please go ahead and prove that these are all "white" and citizens.

[Derron]

how many of these occupiers drive foreign nameplate cars, do you suppose?

I'm not sure they're too selective -- some of the Occutard Portland dorks got popped on their way to the terminals in a stolen truck... because the 1%ers all drive beater pickups, so they sure showed'em.

And one dude had a warrant and another was a felon with a concealed weapon. They did not make it to the protest.

[Derron]

He still drives, but now he's a company driver making half what he used to make.

I don't know he is making half of what he was. When my business started going down hill, I hauled a few containers to Seattle and back and gave that shit up after about 3 trips. What I was getting paid covered the truck cost and in that cost was about $ 16 per hour for the driver. The cost per hour to operate the truck was about $ 74.15 in those days (2008). There was no ROI for owing the truck. Sold the truck for what I paid for it 3 years before and got damn lucky there.

No independent truck driver is making $ 32 per hour.

[BSmack]

Maybe you glossed over the part where I said these guys may well all be citizens, but the PR part still stands. You may not like it, but many will care more about Jim Armstrong than they will about Abdul Khan. But for shits and grins please go ahead and prove that these are all "white" and citizens.

My "white and citizens" comment was about the folks I know personally who can vouch for what the six brown folks said in that letter.

[Kansas City Kid]

boycotts big box

Leave UCUNT's mangina out of this.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Maybe Marty will catch LFL fever

I think I'm catching that fever!







PS ~ Please don't tell trev. She must never know of this. Scott, we are bro's. Don't go breaking the "bro code".

[R-Jack]

And sanctions against Cuba hurt Cubans more than Castro. And if OWS boycotts big box retailers in large enough numbers, a whole bunch of Wal Mart greeters will loose their jobs. No matter what you do, some poor person is going to get fucked.

Terribly narrow minded and shortsided take. Demanding American made at the retail level creates manufacturing jobs for a displaced work force. Big box stores will either adapt to the changing needs of the customer or die. Ones that can adapt will take the place of one that dies, which would minimize the job loss at the store level.

It's common fucking sense. You want to stick it to money-grubbing 1%ers, you do it in terms they can understand. You vote with your dollars.

[Moving Sale]

They sure showed those 1%ers out there plowing the fields a thing or two.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the paychecks of union employees. Now quit whining you insufferable tard.

[Goober McTuber]

Time Names 'The Protester' Person Of Year
Magazine Says Protesters Changed The World

Time magazine has named its Person of the Year -- it's "the protester" for voicing their complaints and changing the world.

"Everywhere this year, people have complained about the failure of traditional leadership and the fecklessness of institutions. ... But leadership has come from the bottom of the pyramid, not the top," the magazine said on its website. "For capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century, the Protester is TIME's 2011 Person of the Year."

The runners-up were William McRaven, Ai Weiwei, Paul Ryan and Kate Middleton.

Last year's winner was Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Previous individual winners have included Ben Bernanke and Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

The title goes to the person or persons the magazine believes most influenced events of the past year.