Walmart Truckers Score $100 Million Lost Wages Victory In Court

In 2012, Walmart CEO Mike Duke’s salary was $18.2 million.[5] In 2013, press reports indicated that the total value of Duke's pension, deferred compensation and other retirement accounts totalled over $113 million.

As Chief Executive Officer, Director at SWIFT TRANSPORTATION CO, Jerry Moyes made $2,522,413 in total compensation for the 2014 fiscal year.

As President and CEO at HUNT (JB) TRANSPRT SVCS INC, John N. Roberts III made $4,346,470 in total compensation.

etc., etc., etc., ......

I think some of your complaints might be misplaced...

"Whose" not "who's" ... just a dumb caveman trucker... what can I say?

Companies are being put on notice to better compensate their drivers ... how is that a bad thing? Who's side are you on?

I wish that would be the case... But the only thing that will compensate drivers more is supply and demand. Wages are going up now because there is more freight than the amount of drivers to haul that freight.

Companies are not being put on notice to better compensate their drivers. They are being put on notice that they might have to shuffle around their pay structure to fit the ruling of this case. Basically cpm goes down. On duty pay rises to minimum, the driver gets paid the same.

Companies are being put on notice to better compensate their drivers ... how is that a bad thing? Who's side are you on?

I wish that would be the case... But the only thing that will compensate drivers more is supply and demand. Wages are going up now because there is more freight than the amount of drivers to haul that freight.

Companies are not being put on notice to better compensate their drivers. They are being put on notice that they might have to shuffle around their pay structure to fit the ruling of this case. Basically cpm goes down. On duty pay rises to minimum, the driver gets paid the same.

I don't accept such defeatism. Neither do our brothers at Walmart. Wish them even greater success. It can only help the rest of us...

Indy, it sounds like you're just jealous o CEO salaries. If you want it that bad, go out and become a CEO! Oh what's that you say? It's not that easy to just become the CEO of a multimillion dollar corporation? Exactly.

One might say, "well they still make way too much!" But then who decides what is "too much?" Where do you draw that line? Should every single employee be paid the same regardless of position? If that was the case, who would want to be the CEO, with all that responsibility, when you could just be the janitor and make the same amount? Why even apply yourself and try to advance in your career if that was the case? Clearly that wouldn't work, so should the CEO get $1,000 more per year than the janitor? $10,000? $100,000? You see where I'm going with this?

Like it or not, we live in a free-market, capitalistic society. It's what built this country up from nothing. Of course nowadays the free market is being stifled by government regulation, and capitalism is considered to be this great evil force that must be vanquished, but the alternatives are socialism, communism and fascism.

If the CEO of Swift can keep his gigantic company profitable and growing, while keeping tens of thousands of people gainfully employed and basically being solely responsible for their livelihoods and the welfare of all their families, as well as all the day-to-day business operations which keep his company competitive and keep millions of store shelves continually stocked so people all across the country can buy what they need when they need it, who's to say that's not worth $2.5 million?

Companies are being put on notice to better compensate their drivers ... how is that a bad thing?

Walmart drivers have one of the most highly coveted jobs in trucking. Walmart goes through the trouble and expense to compensate their drivers better than anyone else, give them top benefits, give them top equipment, and send them home more often. If the only result from that is a huge loss of money from paying higher wages and an endless series of lawsuits from these well paid drivers then Walmart will be forced to eliminate some of the best jobs in the industry.

But that's only the start of it.

What happens to all of the other private fleets that are in the same boat? Will more companies begin eliminating their private fleets?

What about other large corporations that may have been considering Walmart's model of paying great money for the best of the best drivers? They're probably no longer going to consider creating a new fleet of higher paying jobs that get people home more often. Instead they'll just stick with the old model of subbing out the work to common carriers that pay half the wages they were going to pay and save themselves the costs and hassles.

Brett's speculation that Walmart will be forced to eliminate their fleet... and all of those drivers will be out of their "cushy" jobs... might come to pass. No matter... court decisions such as this can only be a good thing for most of the rest of us drivers ...

No matter??? No matter if the best jobs out there start getting eliminated because that will somehow help truck drivers as a whole make more money in the future? Explain how that's going to happen exactly because I can't follow that line of reasoning.

I think you're not looking at the whole picture. Is this judgement good for the Wal-Mart drivers? Yes it is. They're going to get paid for work they did. Great! Everybody's happy. Oh wait. Except Wal-Mart has to pay out a hundred million dollars. Even for a company as big as Wal-Mart that'd no drop in the bucket. Add that to the lawsuits from the Tracy Morgan accident and they're losing big money in a hurry.

Now picture yourself running a business such as this. You take pride in providing the top jobs in a particular field. All of a sudden you get slammed with a huge lawsuit by those same workers your were trying to make happy. Now it's costing you more money than you're willing to invest. And oh look at that there's an outside source that can do the same job and save you money. You can't seriously tell me as a business owner you would choose the one that's going to hurt your profits and bottom line. If you would than you must be the "stupid" truck driver.

Have a great day

They're going to get paid for work they did.

Except that's not the issue. They're already getting paid for the actual work they're doing. What they're whining about is not getting paid for not working...or not as much as they seem to think they're entitled to. They already get paid for their 10 hour breaks, but they want to be paid MORE for not working.

Indy, it sounds like you're just jealous....

Lol.... I've resisted saying the saying the same of most of the commenters in this thread. You all seem to be offended that these "rich" (yes, someone here called them "rich") Walmart drivers would dare want to be paid for all of the work they do ... Just because they are already among the highest paid drivers out there. You're offended by their action because they make more than you.... Simply, out of envy.

Me, I think they are helping the rest of us... Raising the bar.

Me, I think they are helping the rest of us... Raising the bar.

No, they are pushing upwards on a bar that is being held by the people who pay their salaries. Eventually the people holding the bar will just say, "Dude, we're holding this bar as high as we can, but since you won't stop pushing on it, we're gonna let this 4'2" guy with the stubby arms hold it for us. Have fun with that."