$150.00 dollars to fuel a truck, and I am fueling up more often so I don”t run out!
“barely able to survive.. just pennies in my pocket”

Truckers Set to Strike Soon, We have had it?
By Dana G Smith
Keywords: truckers, strike, diesel, gas, prices

How high can it get? During Katrina, gas prices spiked at nearly $5.90 a gallon for regular gas. Now with those prices gone, diesel prices are still running much higher than regular gas. This has truckers steaming mad. As a result a group of independent truckers are declaring a nationwide strike.

The nationwide trucker’s strike is set to begin Jan 3 2008 and run through Jan 8, according to various sources, including the strike website, www. highdiesel.com. A review of the web based network for the strike revealed that the truckers strike in Italy, which made news, revealed that such a strike achieved good results for the Italian drivers. The independent drivers co-opted together and a decision was made to have a strike here in the USA.

On the strike website mentioned above, it listed only one goal, which is to bring the cost of Diesel fuel $.15 lower than Regular pump gasoline at both truck stops and retail pumps. The thrust of the strike will be to lower the cost of fuel for truckers, which can be achieved the drivers say, by “lowering the excise tax of Diesel fuel or lowering the distributed price of Diesel fuel”. The website and truckers who are bringing this strike together have instructions on their www.highdiesel.com website:

“We are asking all truckers to join with us January 3-8, 2008 at noon Central time. We are requesting all commercial trucks to shut down in protest of the outrageous fuel costs and the ridiculously low freight rates. We are the only ones that can make an impact in our profession. If we continue to wait for “someone else” to do it, it will never happen. In other professions, they join together in a strike to get their point across. I propose we, as truckers, do the same thing. The trucking community can have higher paying wages for both owner operators and company drivers, but it will take all of us working together to achieve this goal.”

I researched the online forums, sites, and found that some truckers think this independent strike is “Stupid”. As I found on one such forum, a trucker said:

“I”ve heard this stupidity for a long time, and that’’s all it is. STUPIDITY! Want to strike? Really? Here’’s what you”ll get: Fuel prices will take off due to the lack of fuel deliveries nationwide. Prices in stores will take off shortly following this due to the time it takes to deliver freight and the cost of fuel to do so. Truckers that are not in a union will be fired if working for companies. Owner Ops that are already on the borderline of being broke will go broke and never make up for the loss of income. Truckers will get bad press for shutting down and messing up the economy. Stock markets will take off south on the news of truckers shutting down nationwide, ruining the economy. The value of the US dollar will plummet, effectively ramping up inflation of prices on top of the already rising prices.”

Now, while some may think this strike is stupid, the fact remains that there is a problem. Worldnetdaily quoted American Trucking Association Chief economist Bob Costello, who said “We are now at a critical point for the industry in terms of fuel prices,” he further spoke of the tough choices the industry was having to make by saying: “The industry was coping with the rising prices fairly well, but now many carriers are having to make tough choices, including employment and investment decisions. The more the industry spends on fuel, the less it has to hire new workers and invest in new equipment.”
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Further, it is also important to realize important contracts, such as those with the Teamsters are expiring soon. According to an article on the iww.org website, (Industrial Workers of the World), various contracts will expire in 2008. The article titled General Transportation Strike Looming in 2008 by Meredith Schafer, who is a freelance researcher for unions in Oregon, and her co-author Chris Kutlik who is co-editor of labornotes.org, reveals that due to contracts expiring in 2008, major strikes will occur. The Teamsters, for example, “will see its three largest national contracts expire that year.” Now while all this may not be due to high diesel prices, these will definitely add fuel so to speak to the proverbial fire. The article also states that “nearly all contracts for major U.S. airlines will expire in 2008 to 2009”. The authors also point out that the strike may not be “limited to Teamsters or airline workers.” For example, “on the West Coast, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union coast wide agreement with the Pacific Maritime Association expires in July of 2008.”
Drivers face long hours, high prices, and lonesome times on the roads. Drivers feel that the public has forgotten how their stores, gas stations, and other provisions get to their cities. While they face high diesel prices, with many barely surviving the fuel crunch, the talk of a traffic stoppage has been put forth before. For many drivers, however, such talk is all it is, just talk. They feel that no matter what goes on, the challenges facing drivers will not improve. Putting $150.00 in your gas tank to get from one stop to another with supplies for stores, where consumers shop and think nothing about the true costs of getting the products there becomes the main problem. For drivers today, these costs are bringing them to a point where they will not survive. For many in the public today, their main source of groceries, fuel, and other items continue to be where they can get at them. If a point arrives when Joe customer goes to the local store and the shelves are empty, then the reality of the problem will then hit them.

The forecast strike seems to be one of Independent truckers only. In several calls I made locally to confirm the reports of such a strike, I found no one who knew anything about it. From Flying J stores, North Park transportation, and other truck related services, I could find no one who even knew what I was talking about. I first heard of the strike from my wife, who was told by a friend, who was told by a trucker to get prepared, for a truckers strike was about to hit. The only confirmation I could find was on the websites, forums, and other places where people go to find solace and comfort. In those places, drivers that are lonely, tired, and wanting to tell their stories, do so by sounding off. It is there, I found that if Joe consumer doesn’t listen soon, then they will be forced to listen anyway. It will be at the stunning revelation that their gas pumps are dry, the store shelves are empty, and the government is doing nothing, still.

+<>+BIO+<>+
Dana G Smith is the author of D-Day For America, a prophecy book of what is coming to America. Published by Xulon Press, ISBN: 1-59781-843-7. Dana is the editor of the W.I.B.R. online Web Sites.
He Hosts WARN Radio, “into the night”, airing Fridays 9 PM Pacific on The America Voice radio network. He also is The Watchman of W.A.R.N. Radio Network, www.warn-usa.com.
His articles appear on his own news sites at www.wingswatchman.org, www.ddayforamerica.com, www.warn-usa.com , and on many sites around the web.
Dana is a Watchman, “let the Watchman declare what he see’’s Isaiah 21:6. He is also an investigative and research journalist who lives in the Midwest. You can contact him through his websites or email watchman at wingswatchman.org.