Independent truckers

Oakland, and definably Los Angeles, has had a taste of the militancy of the truckers who are fighting back by means that remind you of the direct action of the IWW 80 years ago. They have been shutting down ports, freeways and even shut down the Long beach port on June 7, stopping distribution of cargo in the name of stopping the war in Iraq.

They are not recognized as workers by the national labor relations board but "independent contractors" who don’t have the right to bargain collectively or unionize. The truckers, for the most part, have not recieved a wage in 10 years even though diesel prices has sky rocketed. For many truckers, this has cut their income in half and has been driven to poverty like conditions.

They need as much help to organize, specifically to prepare for the national wildcat strike on July 28 and build a long term structure where the can represent themselves. The teamsters have offered in the past to represent them for 700 dollars a member. But through the past struggles of the independent truckers, the teamster have shown to stand on the sidelines and say that for legal reasons there was nothing they can do; inversely implying that the only thing they would do is legal actions.

The truckers are an example of what can be done outside of the conservative union approach of which way to move forward. The AFL-CIO has the lowest percentage of membership that it has since the turn of the century and has not been implementing a strategy that can counter the offenses of the employer, which have been chipping away from the conditions of the working class. Direct actions inside of the work place during the 1930’s won 4 billion dollars of purchasing power during the worst economic depression that our country has endured.

There is a new campaign to help organize the truckers-specifically start a west coast newsletter that will be a formal informational outlet for the truckers and a political tool to structure their informal network. All those who are willing to help in any way will be welcomed in the project.

This is a BASSO/IWW hosted project.

Javier