sometimes have to dig 4 the truth!

[dodgeman]

maybe some of u better read this again. i found it right on point. the drivers who cant figure what the teamsters are doing in savannah look for yourself. theres more of these articles on the net. no hiding what they are up to but now that is not what they told me. looks like a sneak attack on savannah.




"Obama uses ‘green’ emissions standards to push truckers into Teamsters union"


President Barack Obama’s administration is using new “environmental standards” to force independent owner-operator truckers into becoming part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union that gave more than $2 million to Democrats in the last two election cycles.

By increasing the number of “green” requirements truckers have to comply with in order to get into some major United States ports — like Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland — the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are helping push previously independent truckers into companies, which then makes them vulnerable to unionization or, in many cases, forced to join a union. As these aren’t administrative laws from the EPA per se, trucks that don’t fit this new “green” standard, which is meeting at least 2007 EPA emissions levels, are still allowed to operate throughout the country. But each of the major port authorities won’t let them in if they don’t fit the new environmental regulations, which would force many independent truckers out of business if they resist since many truckers depend on business from the ports to survive.

Alex Cherin, an attorney who represents a trucker advocacy group opposed to these forced unionization attempts, told The Daily Caller the Teamsters have been trying to get independent truckers classified as employees of a company for years because “under federal labor law, they [the Teamsters] cannot unionize independent contractors.”

“They [the Teamsters] see this as their window of opportunity,” Cherin said in a phone interview. “They know that most drivers want to stay independent contractors to keep their freedom, but that many can’t afford these new ‘green trucks.’ They want to piggyback their agenda onto an environmental initiative.”

Cherin said the Teamsters has been pushing unionization more and more lately, and it has “really heated up with the ‘green trucks’ program.” He said that the air in Southern California is cleaner as a result of the program, but that this is really a unionizing effort disguised in a “green” initiative.

Americans for Limited Government spokesman Rick Manning said this effort is definitely driven by labor unions, especially since the leader of the Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., is pushing it.

Hoffa, Jr., the current president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and son of the infamously “disappeared” union boss Jimmy Hoffa, alluded to his real intent with the program while advocating on behalf of the new “green truck” rules in a Huffington Post blog.

“We want the trucking companies to buy and maintain clean new trucks,” Hoffa, Jr. wrote in March 2010. “We also want them to pay their truck drivers a fair wage and the employment taxes that go with it. The trucking companies would prefer the federal government protect them from those obligations.”

These new “green trucks” cost more than $100,000 and, to meet the “green” requirements, truckers have to join companies and, by extension, the Teamsters union.

[robert k]

i suspected they were up to more then they were telling us. we are here to help you win. that's what one of them said. i asked how to you plan to help with getting us better rates? we own our trucks so how do we become members of the union? the guy told me they had a plan to help but we would have to wait see. i said you can't give me an idea how this will work? no we are not able to talk about that but you should to talk with other drivers and tell them that. tell them what? i don't know anymore now then i did before i came. now i see what the plan is. no wonder they don't want to let the cat out of the bag.

[withheld]

they have delivered a load of crap is way i see it. there are a few drivers who believe they are really going to do something to help the independent trucker. they want to believe so bad there is no reasoning with them. i ask why don't they unionize companies that already hire employee drivers? now that makes sense to me. there are hundreds of company drivers in savannah but they pick us over them to screw with. most of us own our trucks. mess with my truck and somebody will get hurt. i worked to hard to pay it off for some sob to come here talking about dirty truck replacement.

[ilovdieselsmoke]

I would like to see the union organize a few of the motor carriers who already have employee drivers such as Gemi trucking, Williams brothers, MCO, Crown, to name only a few around here. It would help bring some of these stagnant rates up especially organizing drivers at a cheap outfit like Gemi who even employees temp help in their cross dock operation.

It's funny they have these companies that fit the union labor organizing profile but the union leadership still chooses to go after our independent status instead. Some say they see port truckers as a stepping stone to the DC warehousing they so badly want to organize next like Wal-Mart..

When they start talking this clean port truck nonsense in order to go after the individual owner/operator trucker I'm done with listening to their socialist reasoning. We are totally on opposite sides of the fence. Once other truckers here find what they are up to that will certainly dampen the Teamsters outreach program to attract any new owner/operators who value their ownership rights.

All one has to do is look at a few of the ports the Teamsters have recently visited over the past few years "or for a better word walked off and left behind" to see how much driver opinion has shifted against them now since they started this clean truck suicide mission. Many of the older Teamsters members don't like the tactics of the Change-to-Win leadership who is actually running the Teamster port campaign.

If they would shift in the right direction who knows they might even receive some support but with the current leadership I don't believe any of them can be trusted to do what they say.

Today it's up to independent truckers working together collectively as a group to bring any real change here in Savannah. No one from outside is going to do anything for us. No group is mysteriously gonna ride in here and rescue you driver. Perhaps it's time to look at other options such as forming a transportation coalition with a few decent companies who may be just as tired of the bottom feeders as we are. Remember many of these same companies who cause us these problems also cause much grief among their own counterparts within the same trucking community. Their destructive business tactics make everyone look bad and cost hundreds of thousands each year in lost revenue (well maybe not lost but for a better word hijacked!) from owner/operator truckers.

[j clifton]

do you guys really think we can get these drivers to agree on anything? i would love to see that day come. sorry about doubts but we have not seen much in the way of unity in savannah for years. i guess anything is possible.

[peterbuilt500]

Teamsters are going to screw you like they did NY/NJ. I don't need a green truck I need green dollars! These well paid oppressors tell the politicians that your trucks are making THEM sick. They bleed their benefits blame the s#*t on us. We are why we sit on lines a day long right. Long lines overtime HELLO. They back up the lines let us idle and blame us. Then big Trucker union saves them from evil trucker YEAH! BOO!