Kings of the Road ↔ Truck Drivers, “What Are You Rebelling Against?”

 “Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?”

    “Whaddaya got?” – The Wild One

Truck Drivers, it’s on! Bring’em down to their knees!

Wild boys, wild boys, wild boys
Wild boys

The wild boys are calling on their way back from the fire
In August moon’s surrender to a dust cloud on the rise
Wild boys fallen far from glory, reckless and so hungered
On the razor’s edge you trail because there’s murder
By the roadside in a sore afraid new world

They tried to break us, looks like they’ll try again

Rebel on wheels was best portrayed by Marlon Brando. Films like The Wild Angels and Easy Rider followed. And though, these “Kings of the Road” were seen as outcasts, more and more people are identifying with their rebel yell. Now, the OUTSIDER is government.

Recall “The 1936 Strike That Brought America’s Most Powerful Automaker to its Knees”? No protest, no marching, no job walk offs. That’s right, sit it out my fellow riders. “Over 136,000 GM workers participated in a sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan.”

From Korea to Australia to the UK to Europe and back to the Americas, Truck Drivers are taking a stand.

Canadians, Driv’em Out of Office

“The truckers have more integrity in their pinky finger than you had in your entire scandal-plagued cabinet” -Pierre Poilievre

Canadians, time to get your ‘House in Order.’ Trudeau, you and you’re cabinet’s days in office are numbered. Truck Drivers see the power they hold in their hands and have seized it.

As the 1936 GM workers, Canadian Truck Drivers stand has resulted in “forcing car manufacturing plants to shut down and disrupting billions of dollars in trade with the United States.” But their stand appears to have also given rise to a political change-Conservative.

As the New York Times points out, “Long After Blockade, Canada’s Truckers Have a Political Champion.” And joined by “their supporters have become an important constituency and are being courted by the country’s Conservative Party, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s main political opposition.”

Stall for time Canadians. 2025 will be here before you know.  Make time your friend, not a factor. As days in the week race along, see a year as 52 weekends where work and play are meshed. Three years mean three Christmas’ come and gone because life happens fast in between.

Some may see you as a “second factor” or representing “outsiders” as New York Times Ian Austen points out, “highly motivated following that is angry, excited, engaged and eager for change.”  What’s at stake here is in how you tactically use this energy and transform it into a long-term strategy.

Recall, “General Motors had been taken by surprise; though it had suspected workers might strike, it wasn’t aware that they would use the new tactic of “sitting down,” or occupying the plant.”

Patience and knowing when to strike are key. “Sitting down was a way of ensuring the factories wouldn’t operate and workers wouldn’t be replaced,” says labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian who directs the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara.” 

Gerald Butts, a close friend of Mr. Trudeau and a former top political adviser reportedly stated, “If I were in my old job, I would not be assuming that Poilievre can’t win a general election.”

Conservatives, what ya got to lose?

Mexican-Texas Hold’em

Canada and US may be two sides of the same coin. But in the MCA Agreement, US has made Mexico, the “third amigo,” the enemigo.

Truck drivers from North and South have similar grievances. For Canadians it’s about infringement of their rights by government (vac mandates). For Mexicans, it’s about Texas Governor mandating repeated vehicle searches reportedly for drugs.

Mexican Truck Driver’s protests have led to trade disruption similar to their second amigo, Canada. As the Texas Tribune  reports “many commercial products produced in Mexico — like electronics, vehicle parts and medical instruments — also held up.”

But this blockage of trade goes further than proposed ending of Title 42 by Biden administration. It’s about a country whose workforce, city, county and state is diminishing in astronomical numbers.

Pandemic revealed America’s hidden fault lines building up for decades. What we are witnessing now are US “beltways” snapping from coast to coast and border to border.

“This time, importers and local officials are bracing for an even longer disruption to cross-border trade. Even without state troopers stopping vehicles, inspection times at international bridges have long been a source of delays due to federal staffing shortages as well as technology and infrastructure problems.”

Irony is that as a Democrat U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez notes, “Governor Abbott’s unnecessary secondary inspections are killing business on the border,” business of guns are killing people on both sides of the border.

Mexicans Truck Drivers, no olvidar, poder y control es en no dejar su estancia. “The Flint sit-down strike proved sitting still was just as powerful as walking off the job.” 

Rid’em, Wild Boys

In a time when the professionals –ESSENTIAL WORKERS- truck drivers, firefighters, police, nurses, and teachers are retiring and not being sufficiently replaced, the last thing governments want to do is piss them off.

If anything, this pandemic has shined a spot light on how critical Truck Drivers are to our supply chains, our economy, OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOOD AND CRITICAL ITEMS!

Like cops and firefighters, Truck Drivers need their wheels. But unlike them, truckers’ long hour hauls sometimes require them to ride and rest overnight in their vehicles. Hell, some say they practically live in them. Basically, drivers and trucks are likened to TRANSFORMERS – man and machine.

Facing snow and storms is the “nature of the beast.” Transformers face and handle it without complaining. It’s bad enough truck companies are monitoring drivers with cameras in their trucks.  Now governments are forcing their policies on the road. Recent pushback is an example of Truck Drivers against government overreach.

Start-ups pushed electric trucks a few years back calling companies to do away with drivers. Drivers with decades of experience, some nearing retirement, were “given the ax.” Company execs called it “innovation.” Of course, there were ulterior motives. But that’s between Accountants and their M$$bosses.

And where exactly was this idea put into practice? Sure, you’ll find a start up here and there showcasing a prototype. But if this idea had any “teeth” why the recent concern for shortage of truck drivers?

Recall Joe’s deal with Port execs, dock workers, corporate warehouses and transportation unions threatening a strike? Not unlike these venues, “The General Motors body plant in Flint, Michigan was usually a thankless place, filled with loud sounds and the feverish, dangerous work of turning metal into auto bodies.”

HOWEVER, General Motors sit-down strike shows how workers successfully pushed back by sitting on the line bringing production to a halt. Taking the fight on the road in the seat is no different.

Driving across State or Country borders can be mentally and physically tiring especially in extreme weather. The last thing one needs are extreme mandates stopping one in their tracks.

The last bastion of Truck Drivers is being a free rider, a feeling best described with the image of “The Wild One“ or Easy Rider. You try taking that away, be prepared to face the “Rise of the Beasts.” It’s their way and their highway.

“You got sirens for a welcome, there’s bloodstain for your pain
And your telephone been ringing while you’re dancing in the rain
Wild boys wonder where is glory, where is all you angels
Now the figureheads have fell…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lyrics

“The Wild Boys“

Song by Duran Duran