Trucking And Unionization...

It's possible this connection between the two is naturally tipping the scales back in the other direction again.

Yes, I agree 100%. Everything goes in cycles. Management abused workers at one time, so unions formed to correct the problem. Over time, the pendulum swung too far. Many of the unions became too strong and abusive, so they had to be reigned in. Now the pendulum has swung too far again and the abuse of workers has returned in the form of unfair compensation to a handful of executives at the top.

I'm a business owner and a "fierce individualist," as I like to put it. I believe 100% in creating free and fair markets that are open to competition. Capitalism is clearly the best economic system mankind has come up with so far, but it has some fatal flaws that require monitoring and corrections from time to time. The government obviously plays a big role in protecting the workers from abuse, but at this point, they haven't stopped a handful of people from taking almost all the money for themselves.

There will always be a lot of gray areas. What's fair and what's not? How much money is too much money for one small group of people? Who should have the power to decide? At what point does protecting the workers impede fair competition that would benefit the majority?

All great questions with no easy answers.

Do you know if this chart is a comparison between only employees in the United States and their CEO's? Because if it takes into account employees working overseas for American companies, at much lower wages, that would also contribute to the widening gap.

They did not specify in the article. Here are a couple quotes from it:

According to a report published earlier this summer by Lawrence Mishel and Jessica Schieder of the Economic Policy Institute, CEOs of the 350 largest companies in the US by sales earn an average of about 276 times what the average worker at their company makes.

Still, Mishel and Schieder observed that this ratio was "light years beyond the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965." They also noted that while CEO compensation grew by about 940% from 1978 to 2015 after adjusting for inflation, the typical worker's pay grew just 10% over that time.

If that last statement (940% compared to 10%) doesn't make your heart skip a beat, I'm not sure you have a heartbeat!

I think one of the tough issues to deal with is that as the wage gap would close, everything else will also correct. Sure, people at the bottom will make more money but when goods and services go up in price (which they will), people are no better off than before. It also begs the question of quality of products. If the cost of labor increases, manufacturers will search out cheaper parts, ingredients etc because those at the top aren’t going to take a pay cut and investors aren’t going to be impressed when profits fall. As you said Brett, it’s riddled with issues but no clear answers in sight until those at the top determine that they just don’t need to make the money they make.

I watched a video the other day regarding Tesla vs other domestic auto makers. Tesla, pays employees well from my understanding (not gonna lie, I didn’t dig into it) and as far as using American products, they blow the other domestic car companies out of the water. Tesla uses 50% American made products in their vehicles. The big three, roughly 25%. Maybe Musk has a model in place that works better? Who knows but it’s worth looking at.

Wow! That is a huge difference.

Wow! That is a huge difference.

It truly is. Then take into account that every Tesla vehicle is made in the US and it’s easy to see why Tesla is now the most successful car company, taking over that position from Toyota.

This is a really good thread.

I’m now in a union where I’m working. Polar opposite of what I was accustom to running Walmart Dedicated for Swift. I hustled on that account, that’s how we made top pay and dispatched on choice routes. Although there are some very good, profession drivers where I’m now employed, others would prefer to do as little as possible and be happy making the daily minimum or milking their hourly clock. Having spent weeks in the yard jockeying I observed this casual behavior frequently. Sad. Because in the end, we all suffer as a result of this.

Call me old fashioned, but professional integrity is important to me. IMO unions do not foster/promote this mentality and never will.

Call me old fashioned, but professional integrity is important to me. IMO unions do not foster/promote this mentality and never will.

100% agree. In my admittedly limited experience around unions, I've seen where they completely incentivize sloth. They negotiate for abnormally high wages, yet there is no corresponding increase in production. Quite the opposite, actually.

In the end, I think unions hurt workers more than they help. Cost of goods go up, inflation goes up, layoffs are more frequent, outsourcing is rampant.

Thanks Turtle... you didn’t let me down. I know who the line-minded drivers are in this forum.

I've seen where they completely incentivize sloth. They negotiate for abnormally high wages, yet there is no corresponding increase in production. Quite the opposite, actually.

I actually had a driver on anther shuttle route say to me; Bro you need to take it down a notch down, you’re making the rest of us look bad.

My reply? Sorry, no. You sir are making me look good. 👌

My observation and opinion is that the free market system is working pretty well in the trucking industry. Almost all of the experienced, savvy drivers here seem to be in agreement that it's not a broken system so it doesn't need to be fixed (Unlike my truck, lol) What I know is that if I think I can do better, I'm free to hire on with another company. However, companies need good drivers and they are not likely to mistreat their drivers and make them jump ship.

I've been a member of three unions. Only one of them was worth anything, and it was actually a professional public sector union. We didn't have people milking it there the way they did in the other two private sector unions. In the private sector, they were extremely adversarial with the company to the point where it made our jobs difficult. The public sector union readily worked with the agency to ensure our contract was adhered to, and to ensure the safety and security of the public; generally speaking, I'm not a fan of unions, but this one was truly top notch and had its priorities in order.

I'm perfectly happy not paying union dues now, and would rather keep it out of my trucking career. My company treats me well, I can call anyone I want to talk to right up to the founder and president himself day or night, and I'm paid very well. And I certainly don't think the government should force anything else on this industry... we already deal with enough as it is.