Yesterday, a Congressional Bill which would be extremely beneficial to truckers across America (and Canada and Mexico, most likely) finally made its way out of Committee and was introduced to the House and Senate.
The Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act, a simple, one line bill, would remove an exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that excludes truckers from the overtime pay that most other workers enjoy, balancing out an unnecessary disparity that sees truckers work, on average, 50% or more hours than anyone else, often away from home for long stretches of time, without any extra compensation for all of that effort.
Readers of this Substack may recall that I have publicly advocated on behalf of this bill in both Newsweek and at The American Conservative.
Some quotes from the Newsweek piece -
Truckers, those essential workers who keep the country fed and keep the material economy moving, are a caste apart from all other wage workers when it concerns overtime.
"Truck drivers across the country face brutal working conditions marked by inadequate pay and long hours," Levin said when introducing the bill. "Despite their tireless work, truck drivers do not receive overtime pay for overtime hours. As a result, the trucking industry faces an extremely high turnover rate as truckers cannot keep up with the thankless demands of their work. We all stand to benefit when truckers are paid what they're owed."
And from TAC -
One might be skeptical that a one-line bill, focused only on America’s truckers, could significantly help rural despair or bump up the wage floor for blue-collar Americans. Consider, though, that there are around 3.5 million active truckers in America, roughly split between working in a local capacity, or out Over The Road, spending weeks away from home to make sure America’s material economy continues to function. “Trucker” is the number one occupation in 29 states, most of them in Red America.
You have 3.5 million people in America being grossly underpaid for the work they do, as mandated by an act of negligence on the part of someone like FDR. Many of those people live where rural decay and wage stagnation are eroding American communities. It only follows that paying these people properly, as everyone else is supposed to be paid, will go some way to increasing the wider economic prospects of those communities. Republican politicians, and the conservative commentariat more broadly, employ the rhetoric of “good paying American jobs,” but more often than not this is all noise with very little in the way of action following it. Now is a chance to change that.
Both articles are worth a re-read to understand the arguments for the bill.
Readers of this Substack may also remember that I interviewed one of the co-sponsors of the bill, Representative Jeff Van Drew, Republican of New Jersey, on my Voice Of GO(r)D podcast.
ICYMI -
It’s not often you will ever hear me congratulate a politician for anything, but some credit is due to those sponsors of this bill who have enough guts to go up against corporate turds like the American Trucking Association, who have held sway in Congress for quite some time, and have done everything possible to make life difficult for the American trucker.
Speaking of the ATA, they have some thoughts on introduction of the GOT Act, including some real doozies from their CEO, Chris Spear -
“This proposal is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to boost trial attorneys’ fees. It would reduce drivers’ paychecks and decimate trucking jobs by upending the pay models that for 85 years have provided family-sustaining wages while growing the U.S. supply chain.”
Man, I know that lawyers can be responsible for often ridiculous litigation, but I fail to see how mandating overtime pay for the nations truckers is going to increase court action … unless, of course, it is because ATA’s membership refuse to pay. Quite the tell, Mr Spear.
”The bill would not affect owner-operators, who, as independent contractors, are not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
Mr Spear must be a Flat-Earther, a position which requires you to deny basic facts of nature, like the effects of the moon on tides, who, when rising, tend to lift all of the boats out there in the ocean.
To be honest, it would be better if Mr Spear were a Flat-Earther rather than an obtuse merchant of disinformation; typically Flat-Earthers don’t get the ears of Congress.
Alas.
“Rather than plaintiffs’ bar bailouts, lawmakers interested in actually supporting drivers could begin by fixing the nationwide truck parking shortage that costs drivers on average $5,500 in lost earnings annually.”
If Mr. Spear was interested in actually supporting drivers, he would be demanding an end to the corporate welfare that greatly subsidizes the CDL Mill Industrial Complex, which overproduces truck drivers and therefore debases our wages.
Instead, Mr Spear is the loudest proponent of the biggest lie in the industry, the truck driver 'shortage'.
If Mr Spear was interested in actually supporting truck drivers, he would do something about one of truckers highest priorities, cited year after year by his own in-house research organization, the American Transportation Research Institute, which is driver detention. When detention causes accidents and has deleterious effects on the economy, as well as having major effects on our supply chains, and, most importantly to truckers, wastes a great deal of our time, more often than not unpaid, you would think Spear would be leading the charge to work with Congress and have detention solved, once and for all.
Instead he wastes all of our time on utterly useless identity politics and lying about automated trucks.
Chris Spear and the ATA could easily be regarded as ‘Beyond Parody’ or considered in the same company as Justin Trudeau and his ability to invert reality, but that is to ignore just how much power and influence this guy has. Spear and the ATA, and more importantly, its membership, hate you, and want you to remain underpaid and treated like indentured servants.
They must be fought, tooth and nail.
For more insight into this Bill and related political matters, please read this piece from the excellent Rachel Premack over at FreightWaves -
Bipartisan bill introduced to guarantee truck drivers overtime pay
As always, comments, feedback, suggestions, and Hate Mail, are both welcomed and encouraged.
gordilocks@protonmail.com
What is the bill number? So, I can call my congress critter for his support.