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Rigged - Forced into debt, Worked past exhaustion, Left with nothing
invite response
2017 Jun 16, 7:06am 6,955 views 36 comments
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Shaman
2017 Jun 16, 7:22am
Then they shouldn't have broken the teamsters union at the port by being damn scabs!
Instead, these (mostly foreign born, possibly illegal) truck drivers decided they'd work for less, non union, and wound up in a wage race to the bottom. Then they get angry they're being abused by the heartless employers? Guess what? Corporate managers will do whatever they can to save on costs, and employee costs are first on the list! Business is flatly amoral, so if you don't have bargaining power with your employer, you will nearly always get screwed! They're truck drivers, not exactly irreplaceable, which is what they themselves proved when they replaced the union truck drivers!
RC2006
2017 Jun 16, 8:17am
They use to be paid a lot more until the illegals and amnestied Mexicans undercut everybody just like they did with every other job they took over. I remember in the late 80s early 90s when this was a big deal and all of the drivers were complaining about it and eventually forced out, now all the Mexicans are complaining boo fucking hoo they deserve everything they are getting. You see them complaining about this in every industry they fucked up, now they want more money fuck them.
Goran_K
2017 Jun 16, 8:36am
Illegal immigration has consequences. Everyone on BOTH sides knows this. That's why it puzzles me that Democrats will argue on one side that illegals are mistreated then from the other side of their mouth they will tacitly support illegal immigration through sanctuary city policies. Makes absolutely no sense.
FortWayne
2017 Jun 16, 8:43am
Fucking over Americans is liberals favorite activity
Illegal immigration has consequences. Everyone on BOTH sides knows this. That's why it puzzles me that Democrats will argue on one side that illegals are mistreated then from the other side of their mouth they will tacitly support illegal immigration through sanctuary city policies. Makes absolutely no sense.
Goran_K
2017 Jun 16, 8:49am
It seems that way. It's like, why can't an illegal go through the process of legal immigration like 10,000 Indians from Bangalore India do every year. Why can't they learn to speak and write in English just like those same Indians from Bangalore?
Do you know that children in grade schools in Bangalore have a higher literacy rate than children BORN in the U.S and currently attending schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District? Democrats will tell you it's because of "racism". Really? Children in India are more literate in English because of "racism"?
I don't fucking buy it.
Fucking over Americans is liberals favorite activity
Strategist
2017 Jun 16, 9:07am
It seems that way. It's like, why can't an illegal go through the process of legal immigration like 10,000 Indians from Bangalore India do every year. Why can't they learn to speak and write in English just like those same Indians from Bangalore?
Do you know that children in grade schools in Bangalore have a higher literacy rate than children BORN in the U.S and currently attending schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District? Democrats will tell you it's because of "racism". Really? Children in India are more literate in English because of "racism"?
I don't fucking buy it.
India has an overall literacy rate of a pathetic 70%+. They will quickly reach much higher levels of education. If they are already contributing more to technology than any other group, imagine what happens when they reach 99% literacy rates.
http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21710784-america-needs-consider-what-it-might-lose-if-it-curbs-influx-clever
Today Indian-born Americans number 2m and they are probably the most successful minority group in the country. Compared with all other big foreign-born groups, they are younger, richer and more likely to be married and supremely well educated.
RC2006
2017 Jun 16, 9:36am
It seems that way. It's like, why can't an illegal go through the process of legal immigration like 10,000 Indians from Bangalore India do every year. Why can't they learn to speak and write in English just like those same Indians from Bangalore?
Because unlike all other immigrants Mexicans feel they are entitled and this is their land.
Shaman
2017 Jun 16, 9:45am
These port truckers -- many of them poor immigrants who speak little English
This is the rub. I deal with these guys and their lack of language skills all the time. They could learn English but choose not to, and can be very difficult to communicate with since many don't even speak proper Spanish!
If drivers missed payments, or if they got sick or became too exhausted to go on, their companies fired them and kept everything. Then they turned around and leased the trucks to someone else.
Reminds me of Democrat & Republican voter serfs
letting their elected officials screw them 24/7.
This link is fake news supported by alternative facts.
D & R ideology have made America,UTOPIA.
The country is in such good shape that Ds & Rs play a child's ball game.
They could stay home & never come to D.C.because of their brilliance.
Strategist
2017 Jun 16, 10:19am
This is the rub. I deal with these guys and their lack of language skills all the time. They could learn English but choose not to, and can be very difficult to communicate with since many don't even speak proper Spanish!
If they expect me to learn Spanish....They can kiss my hairy ass.
Just ask a Republican politician to start enforcing laws against hiring illegals--put business owners who hire illegals in jail--and see how fast he runs or laughs in your face.
Republicans do NOT want to stop illegal immigration as long as they can exploit them.
Heraclitusstudent
2017 Jun 16, 10:52am
That's why it puzzles me that Democrats will argue on one side that illegals are mistreated then from the other side of their mouth they will tacitly support illegal immigration through sanctuary city policies. Makes absolutely no sense.
Many democrats are in the top 10% and want cheap nannies and gardeners. It doesn't go beyond this.
They don't want to pay what an american citizen would ask.
They will say you are a racist if you are against illegal immigration.
Tenpoundbass
2017 Jun 16, 11:03am
Well get those poor immigrants who speak little English the fuck out, there's plenty of Americans that would gladly take those Trucking jobs.
There was time it was a honored profession until No Peeky Englie Jose fucked it up. Go home Jose your mamacitta is calling you.
Besides we're fucking sick and tired hearing the Liberals piss and whine how bad you've got it while we're in the foodstamp line checking our status updates.
Rew
2017 Jun 16, 11:11am
That's why it puzzles me that Democrats will argue on one side that illegals are mistreated then from the other side of their mouth they will tacitly support illegal immigration through sanctuary city policies. Makes absolutely no sense.
There is no conflict with A) supporting legal immigration B) desiring fare working conditions, living wages, and decent healthcare for all and C) supporting clearer paths to citizenship, immigration reform, and legal understanding on both labor and business side, for those in the country illegally now.
Goran_K
2017 Jun 16, 11:12am
There is no conflict with A) supporting legal immigration B) desiring fare working conditions, living wages, and decent healthcare for all and C) supporting clearer paths to citizenship, immigration reform, and legal understanding on both labor and business side, for those in the country illegally now.
What does "supporting clearer paths to citizenship" mean? Tens of thousands of people from India and Asia do it every year. Are illegal mexicans not as smart as indians and east asians? What's not clear about the process?
RWSGFY
2017 Jun 16, 12:05pm
Uh, China experienced the most civilian DEATHS in the 20th century due to "safety net" social policies under Mao.
I don't think Mao provided much of a "safety net"....
Goran_K
2017 Jun 16, 1:35pm
I don't think Mao provided much of a "safety net"....
In practice no, but in THEORY which is what Democrats usually spout off about, that's what he promised. A cultural revolution where the peasants have power, and unity to serve each other needs is what I believe Mao envisioned for China. That certainly sounds like the socialist ideals that Bernie and crew are advocating.
In practice, it fails because socialism in all its form sucks ass.
RWSGFY
2017 Jun 16, 1:53pm
Serious question: can an illegal alien get a CDL in our beautiful sanctuary state?
curious2
2017 Jun 16, 2:13pm
Serious question: can an illegal alien get a CDL in our beautiful sanctuary state?
"In practice no, but in THEORY which is what Democrats usually spout off about, that's what he promised. A cultural revolution where the peasants have power, and unity to serve each other needs is what I believe Mao envisioned for China. That certainly sounds like the socialist ideals that Bernie and crew are advocating."
If that's what you think Bernie is advocating for, then you need to open your eyes and ears. You have no effing clue.
Goran_K
2017 Jun 16, 2:39pm
If that's what you think Bernie is advocating for, then you need to open your eyes and ears. You have no effing clue.
Bernie Sanders is 99% the communist Mao was except he doesn't have an army yet to impose his ideals.
"Bernie Sanders is 99% the communist Mao was except he doesn't have an army yet to impose his ideals."
lol--Bernie is to the right of FDR. It just shows how effective the Koch Bros. propaganda has been on folks like you.
Goran_K
2017 Jun 16, 2:45pm
lol--Bernie is to the right of FDR
FDR was a huge leftist statist so you're not really helping Bernie Sanders case here.
Bernie is probably worse than FDR because his policies (healthcare, college) would actually have bankrupted and destroyed America.
"Bernie is probably worse than FDR because his policies (healthcare, college) would actually have bankrupted and destroyed America."
Hardly. You severely underestimate how much money is locked in the hands of the 0.1%. Free it up and a LOT of things suddenly become doable.
Goran_K
2017 Jun 16, 2:50pm
Hardly. You severely underestimate how much money is locked in the hands of the 0.1%. Free it up and a LOT of things suddenly become doable.
Are you kidding? You could completely liquidate the 1% in the U.S and not even pay for ONE year of Bernie's stupid policies. Bernie doesn't understand cost or basic arithmetic because he's a socialist.
It's like when Bernie goes on his stupid rants about the Walmart CEO making 20,000% more than any of his workers. Okay, cool, don't pay the Walmart CEO any money ( $19.8 million total compensation in 2016 / 2.1 million employees ), great, you just gave all Walmart workers $2 for the year.
Like I said, Bernie doesn't even know how to do basic math.
Booger
2017 Jun 16, 4:21pm
Just ask a Republican politician to start enforcing laws against hiring illegals--put business owners who hire illegals in jail--and see how fast he runs or laughs in your face.
Republicans do NOT want to stop illegal immigration as long as they can exploit them
I want to end all immigration, and shot to kill JFK style anyone who tries to illegally enter the US.
I want to end all immigration, and shot to kill JFK style anyone who tries to illegally enter the US.
If you want to end immigration, you have to eliminate the incentive to come. If there are no jobs, illegals will stop coming.
It's like when Bernie goes on his stupid rants about the Walmart CEO making 20,000% more than any of his workers. Okay, cool, don't pay the Walmart CEO any money ( $19.8 million total compensation in 2016 / 2.1 million employees ), great, you just gave all Walmart workers $2 for the year
OK, this is actually quite hilarious. You're trying to call out someone for basic arithmetic and you think 19.8MM/2.1MM is 2?
Are you kidding? You could completely liquidate the 1% in the U.S and not even pay for ONE year of Bernie's stupid policies. Bernie doesn't understand cost or basic arithmetic because he's a socialist.
That's BS, as usual. The top 1% owns > $1.5 Trillion, probably closer to $2T. Sanders proposals were estimated at $18T over 10 years with the vast majority of that coming from increasing Medicare coverage. And that number is highly misleading because it doesn't subtract out what everyone is currently paying for health insurance. The delta is the real increased spending and it's MUCH less than the scare numbers that the Koch Bros. propaganda puts out and you eat up.
That's a 200% increase in overall cost since Clinton's supposed "restructuring", and over 1000% increase since the Moynihan Report was released. Shouldn't Clinton's restructuring have lead to LOWER cost if his legislation actually accomplished anything?
The problem is wealth and income inequality keep growing so more and more people are forced onto welfare. Keep sending subsidies to Walmart and McDonalds so they can hire people at slave wages and then wonder why welfare spending is rising. It's a great look.
curious2
2017 Jun 16, 5:30pm
Will anyone consider addressing the elephant in the graph: most of the increase results from medical spending, including during recent years when life expectancy has flatlined and even more recently fallen?
FortWayne
2017 Jun 16, 8:15pm
Democrats create welfare state that can't sustain itself. Real party of loser deadbeats
Booger
2017 Jun 17, 6:54am
If you want to end immigration, you have to eliminate the incentive to come. If there are no jobs, illegals will stop coming
I would execute anyone who hires illegal aliens as well
Shaman
2017 Jun 18, 5:36am
The traffic is still horrible most of the time. Too many trucks and not enough road. He port volume has increased tremendously, so any improvements to the roads have been radically outpaced. I avoid the freeways and take surface streets mostly.
As for the trucks, well mostly they've been mandatory upgraded. There was a port initiative that was fought bitterly but ultimately prevailed: all trucks must be upgraded to smog standards. So we don't see the old beaters we used to. This has hurt a lot of the independent outside truckers, but as I mentioned earlier, these are mostly Latino scabs with limited English so IDGAF. Port trucking used to be a good way to earn a living, and the business was tied up with no way to outsource it, but they broke the union and destroyed a livelihood for thousands. Fuck em.
“This is a classic case where the little guy gets screwed†These port truckers -- many of them poor immigrants who speak little English -- are responsible for moving almost half of the nation’s container imports out of Los Angeles’ ports. They don't deliver goods to stores. Instead they drive them short distances to warehouses and rail yards, one small step on their journey to a store near you.
A yearlong investigation by the USA TODAY Network found that port trucking companies in southern California have spent the past decade forcing drivers to finance their own trucks by taking on debt they could not afford. Companies then used that debt as leverage to extract forced labor and trap drivers in jobs that left them destitute.
If a driver quit, the company seized his truck and kept everything he had paid towards owning it.
If drivers missed payments, or if they got sick or became too exhausted to go on, their companies fired them and kept everything. Then they turned around and leased the trucks to someone else.
Drivers who manage to hang on to their jobs sometimes end up owing money to their employers – essentially working for free. Reporters identified seven different companies that have told their employees they owe money at week’s end.
The USA TODAY Network pieced together accounts from more than 300 drivers, listened to hundreds of hours of sworn labor dispute testimony and reviewed contracts that have never been seen by the public.
Using the contracts, submitted as evidence in labor complaints, and shipping manifests, reporters matched the trucking companies with the most labor violations to dozens of retail brands, including Target, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Hasbro, J.Crew, UPS, Goodyear, Costco, Ralph Lauren and more.
Among the findings:
•Trucking companies force drivers to work against their will – up to 20 hours a day – by threatening to take their trucks and keep the money they paid toward buying them. Bosses create a culture of fear by firing drivers, suspending them without pay or reassigning them the lowest-paying routes.
•To keep drivers working, managers at a few companies have physically barred them from going home. More than once, Marvin Figueroa returned from a full day’s work to find the gate to the parking lot locked and a manager ordering drivers back to work. “That was how they forced me to continue working,†he testified in a 2015 labor case. Truckers at two other companies have made similar claims.
•Employers charge not just for truck leases but for a host of other expenses, including hundreds of dollars a month for insurance and diesel fuel. Some charge truckers a parking fee to use the company lot. One company, Fargo Trucking, charged $2 per week for the office toilet paper and other supplies.
•Drivers at many companies say they had no choice but to break federal safety laws that limit truckers to 11 hours on the road each day. Drivers at Pacific 9 Transportation testified that their managers dispatched truckers up to 20 hours a day, then wouldn’t pay them until drivers falsified inspection reports that track hours. Hundreds of California port truckers have gotten into accidents, leading to more than 20 fatalities from 2013 to 2015, according to the USA TODAY Network's analysis of federal crash and port trade data.
•Many drivers thought they were paying into their truck like a mortgage. Instead, when they lost their job, they discovered they also lost their truck, along with everything they’d paid toward it. Eddy Gonzalez took seven days off to care for his dying mother and then bury her. When he came back, his company fired him and kept the truck. For two years, Ho Lee was charged more than $1,600 a month for a truck lease. When he got ill and missed a week of work, he lost the truck and everything he’d paid.
•Retailers could refuse to allow companies with labor violations to truck their goods. Instead they’ve let shipping and logistics contractors hire the lowest bidder, while lobbying on behalf of trucking companies in Sacramento and Washington D.C. Walmart, Target and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies have paid lobbyists up to $12.6 million to fight bills that would have held companies liable or given drivers a minimum wage and other protections that most U.S. workers already enjoy.
Full Article - Very Long Read: https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forced-into-debt-worked-past-exhaustion-left-with-nothing/
#Trucking #Economics #Labor #BigBusiness