Profile For Andrew A.

My point in this is that the issue is not caused by huge exec pay

Now, talk about corporate cash reserves and stock buybacks. How do you feel about those?

stock markets aren’t much better. The stock market is broken in my opinion. Passive investments are a sham way to base an economy in the first place, it places a “blind” trust on the company that is implemented with no way for the investor to ensure compliance with laws, or even basic human decency. It comes with the implicit expectation that the company generates even more money, which turns into scamming the customers. As for cash reserves, those aren’t as deep as I think you give them credit for. Most blue label (like S&P 500) are only sitting on a few tens of billions. They don’t have much of a reason not to sit on that amount. In fact it would be rather reckless not to, since a downturn in the economy would result in the business crashing. How would you think about your (trucking) company if they had let’s say less than a million in reserves? Let’s say there’s two crashes resulting in the totality of a truck within a month. And freight slows down of course. The half million (approx) to replace 2 tractor-trailers could easily dry things up, resulting in selling assets (maybe your truck) not to mention increased insurance costs

Last you mentioned stock buybacks. I’m not really sure what I think about that, since I’m not a huge fan of the stock market to begin with my default opinion has to be that it’s a necessary evil at some point to make the companies private, but of course that’s not what the companies are buying back stock for.

The red line is cool and all, but being pro-union means you’d have to have two charts: one for unionized workers and one for non-unionized workers; and, particularly you’d have to show a remarkable difference in the profits:wages ratio between the two. I’d just like to reiterate my previous that the issue isn’t related to anything internal to any workplace. The issue is two-fold: consumers (you and I included, most likely) continuing to patronize these businesses, and corporate lobbyists buying our politicians. These issues will not be resolved IMO because the politicians will not vote themselves a smaller bribe

Just watched the Baseball Series with my brother. In the early 1900's baseball players annually made in today's dollars around $73,000 per year.

In the 1950's, NFL players had part-time jobs in the offseason. They'd be making what truck drivers are making today if they didn't have the representation they have.

I'll give you guys who vote down the unions another chart with a pat on the back for ya:

The blue area is corporate profits. The red line represents the percentage of profits that go to wages. As you can see, profits exploded while wages sank.

I'll remind you of the previous chart I posted which shows that executive salaries have exploded compared with worker wages:

Also, the article that Rob posted (I fixed the link) is typical of modern news. The catchy headline talks about the loss that the union had in three locations, but 90% of the article is about one win after another the union has had in the past couple years. They've had major victories with numerous companies and I'll bet you're about to see another huge win at Anheuser Busch, who is struggling mightily still after going woke for a time there.

Just a handful of simple charts paints a clear picture of what has happened without worker representation in recent decades. It's shocking to hear workers fall for the corporate propaganda and blame the unions for the loss of jobs instead of seeing the obvious: overpaid management moving American jobs overseas while giving themselves raises they said they couldn't afford to give workers and politicians allowing them to do it.

I'm going to give you a list of things American workers suffer with today:

• Record high corporate profits
• Record high executive salaries
• Record low savings rate for households
• Record high credit card debt for households
• High inflation
• Unaffordable housing
• Record high immigration

This clearly shows that over a period of decades, our politicians and corporate executives have siphoned off most of the corporate profits for themselves, and you guys sit here blaming the workers for trying to get a fair wage.

Don't be so simple. Without collective bargaining, they're picking off workers like fish in a barrel and tricking you into blaming each other for wanting fair compensation.

Now, you might be thinking, "Hey, it's not my problem. I'm a trucker, and I make a great living."

Thank God that's true, for now. But how long will that last?

After all, don't we all 'know' there's a trucker shortage? Maybe overpaid truck drivers are part of the reason we're experiencing so much inflation in our society, right? They could sell that to the American people, who will say that our politicians better do something about this. What could they do?

Well, we do have a few million new immigrants that just streamed across the border the past couple of years. You don't think they'd allow them to get a CDL 'temporarily' just to 'help us through hard times,' do you?

Nah, they would never do that. But even if they did decide to pass some laws allowing that, there's no way they could pull that over on you guys. After all, you're all union-free, isolated individuals. You'll figure it out, I'm sure.

What's funny about it is that you would indeed figure it out. How? You would band together and go on strike is what you would do. Gee, where have I heard that idea before? Interesting how there's always only one real solution to the problem; to unite.

Alot of autoworkers have and are loosing their jobs because of the union actions.

PJ, you're a sharp dude. You seem to "get it" with just about everything. So maybe I'm the one who just doesn't get it this time. I'm asking you or anyone who has a better understanding of this situation to explain it to me.

If the company can't afford to pay their workers a little more money, how can they afford these yearly salaries?

General Motors:

Mary Barra (CEO): $28.98 million

Total Executive Comp: $109.8 million (includes CEO, CFO, COO, EVPs, General Counsel)

Ford:

James Farley (CEO): $20.99 million

Total Executive Comp: $70.7 million (includes CEO, CFO, COO, EVPs, General Counsel)

Stellantis (formerly Chrysler):

Carlos Tavares (CEO): $24.80 million

Total Executive Comp: $88.5 million (includes CEO, CFO, COO, President - North America, CFO - North America)

Elon Musk (Tesla CEO):

$231.50 million (note: this compensation package consists almost entirely of stock options)

Total Executive Comp (not including Musk): $69.7 million (includes CFO, Chief Legal Officer, President - Automotive)

So your CEO makes $30 million per year, and the top 10 people make $100 million per year, but when they say they can't afford to give anyone a raise, you believe them and blame the union for even asking?

It seems to me the CEO and his buddies in top management are stealing all the dough, sending American jobs overseas, and laughing their asses off all the way to the bank when they hear it was "the union's fault" this happened. At least, that's what I thought was happening.

Am I just a simple fool who can't do basic math? Maybe the ways of the business world are beyond me. Please, someone help me understand why the top 10 people should earn $100 million per year, but the workers should shut up and be happy for what little they get.

I see people quoting CEO pay frequently, and not just with these employers. All of the massive corporations. So I also googled some info. General Motors employs just over 160k people. If the executives got paid nothing and their salaries went to the employees, then each employ gets about $690. That’s not hourly, or even monthly. That’s for the year. It’s not a nothing amount but also not as much as I think some imagine

Ford: 177k employees $400 per year Stallantis (Chrysler): 258k employees less than $400 per year

All exec pay taken from your post and employee amounts taken from motor trends. I’m not doing the rest of the math because I know it’s all going to end up similarly.

My point in this is that the issue is not caused by huge exec pay. I agree that they get over compensated. The issue is shareholders. You know how to reduce their influence? In my opinion it’s by not buying from these companies. Chances are you don’t need whatever you’re buying anyways. Also corporate lobbying. That one isn’t in any of our hands, but that’s the issue

I agree that employees should have more influence over their businesses decisions. But the implementation of unions under US law are not sufficient, and in some ways harmful to the worker. That being said, it might still be better than no unions

My favorite thing I’ve hauled is split between steel coils shotgun and steel coils suicide. I have a slight preference to suicide because it means the customer can side unload, which is either the same speed or slightly faster than rear unloading. Of course this comes with the safety implication of loading suicide. A extra chain mitigates the risk, and my company provided more than enough chains for an extra one on each coil’s rear.

I’ll be starting flatbed at WE tomorrow, and I’m hoping I get lots of coil loads

I see you’re preparing for school. Seems to me that you have a few more things that matter more than the size of a tv.

Anyhow, grab a tape measure and take your own measurements. Make sure the mount and TV are both VESA compliant. VESA is the industry standard for TV mount sizes. The TV box should tell you which standard it is following. As far as I’ve seen in the past decade or so all manufacturers are now making their tvs VESA compliant (no one will buy them if not).

You can’t rely on the manufacturer’s dimensions because of course a quarter inch discrepancy could mean it is too large

I just want to reiterate that you are concerned about the wrong things right now. Also who is putting you in a brand new truck and you’re not even finished with school? I question their judgement

I can recommend Capacity Logistics in Clarksville, IN. They have a OTR job between Clarksville, IN and Birmingham, AL. The terminal manager, Ed, is solid. Very knowledgeable and a good dude. He’s a 20 year Army vet and 20? year trucker.

This might not be what you’re looking for because for one thing it’s flatbed and for another it’s all on the same I-65 corridor. Weekends off, rarely Saturday routes

When I went through training, the company told me to ensure 4/32nds of an inch tread depth for all tires. That was the company policy. DOT requires only 2/32nds inch for drive tires and trailer tires.

My point in this is that your school might have given you bad info. Check your green book, and measure with a tread depth gauge.

For the inspection. What makes you think it needs one? The plastic case on the head board should have its most recent inspection (good for one year as far as I’ve always seen) and registration (non-expiring). Is the inspection in here past its date? If so, someone has to deadhead it back to the yard. Just get with your DM to make sure they pay you for it.

What I did at TransAm (80% drop & hook) is pull out my phone and record my pre-trip any time I picked up a new trailer, and the one time I got a new truck. If there’s any significant issue, not only could I send that to my manager, but I also have documentation that I didn’t cause the issue. Thankfully I was one of my DM’s top performers (his words not mine) and never had any issues with damage discrepancies. It sounds like you’re not in WE’s best graces at this time, so maybe you should do the same

Quick side note / addendum to recording pre-trip inspections. Showing a DOT cop a recording (he only watched the first 5 seconds and looked at the time stamp) got me out of a ticket for a popped tire at a weight station when I was quite new, since it showed at least a modicum of responsibility

I am curious what your motivation for a cabover is? Is it just because you’ve found a deal on one, or is there some other reason? If it’s another reason than price or aesthetics, there’s a good chance that you’re simply wrong in wanting a cabover

Just to reiterate what BK stated, I got my Kentucky CDL from an Indiana school while living in Kentucky, and have since then worked for a company in Indiana, Kansas, and will start working for a Tennessee company in two days. The only issue I’ve run into is filing my taxes (I got rejected lol but this is quite common for Louisvillians working in Southern Indiana)

Good gawd I had to make an account for this. There’s nothing to say that hasn’t been said already but yes, I concur