forums.altnews.com.au

Instead of causing the australian population so much angst, the general public don't make the rules and laws the government do. So why not pick a day when they are all sitting on their fat buts in parliment and blockade them in, 10 or more deep in trucks right around parliment house and the only way out would be by air. the public are not the enemy we will only get them off side. Hubbie and I are owner driver with 1 truck and we cannot afford to take 2 weeks off, we wish we could some of the laws and rules do need to be changed but no-one else is going to pay our fuel bill or truck repayment, feed our teenage kids or rent for those 2 weeks. No-one but us so we cant take that much time off. What will happen when everyone returns to work? Everyone will be going hammer and tongs trying to catch up on losing 2 weeks worth of wages and for those that live week to week, my god, look out on the Pacific hwy, tragedy will happen trying to make up for lost time and money. We are all for what the strike is wanting to achieve but making the publc pay is the wrong way to go, but making sure that the pollies can't get home from parliment one day may achieve far more, keep them stuck in that bloody moseleum that they love so much, they are the ones that make the rules.

HOW ABOUT TARGETING THE BIG COMPANIES THAT HAVE BROUGHT THE RATES DOWN, AND MAY I ASK WHY OWNER DRIVERS ARE STILL PULLING FOR THESE COMPANIES AND MAKING NOTHING!!
WHY DONT YOU PUT YOUR EFFORTS INTO TARGETING THEM TO BRING THE RATES BACK UP!
IF ALL OWNER DRIVERS DIDNT PULL FOR THESE BIG COMPANIES...WHAT WOULD THE BIG COMPANIES DO????

I will be watching this page for a clear indication of what is really going to happen on the 28th July. We are farmers of perishable fruit and veg who live in the Top End and we rely heavily on truckies to transport our produce to southern and eastern markets. So far any enquiries i have made to trucking people whether it be drivers or business can't give us a clear picture of whats going to happen come the 28th July. So we lose our produce because i'm buggared if i'm paying backpackers to pick it to find i can't get it to market in 3 or 4 days time. If i could find someone to take it, no doubt i could make money, as theres probably not going to be much in the market place if all most truckies strike!
anonymous nt too

tansport stopage
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 25/07/2008 - 22:41.
I am just a wife of a hired truck driver for small company here in our little country town in vic, we have kids, rent, bills etc etc. We live week to week on that wage, Now, I and my hubby do beleive something needs to be done, but this stopage... I can only see the people that NEED our truckies the most, getting hurt!!! The people upstairs will still be sitting having coffee with there biscuts, watching all our farmers (whom have been though enough)the small business (which are always struggling), and the general public suffering, and all upstairs will do is dunk their biscut again and get another biscut, oh...they wll make a press releae to the public, siding with the public of the understanding of the hardship of what the truckies have done to them!!
My heart pounds for what may happen, with this stopage.
Tonight my hubby came home with the fax from the aldoda group.(I have nicknamed them al-dodo's) Warning that my hubby might get hurt, There scare tactic to stop my hubby from driving. HE WILL STILL DRIVE, WE HAVE TO SURVIVE
This is all to much!!! My heart now sinks in worry over the next 2 weeks for my hubby as well as for the people.
I dont know what can be done, but this stopage is not the way to go about it.

Iam not in a financial position to stop however to support the cause I was going to stop for a couple of days. Now that I have read the threats from ALDODA Queensland President Lyn Bennetts saying shutdown advocates will not stand by and let operators continue to work, advising them to stay at home to avoid putting their "life or health at risk during this shutdown" I think I will go to work. If this is what is going on inside Lyn Bennetts head this stoppage will be a wast of time.

Do you people live in your life in fantasia. The age old saying united we stand divided we fall the transport industry will never unite, there is always someone ready to step in and shaft you. I do agree and through personal experience understand how hard it is we had 6 running interstate and now are just another statistic. I feel if you support it and your own union will not support you resign from it and send a message to the union that takes your money and offers nothing in return.
Like averyone else we are on casual work no work no money if i thought it would do any good what so ever i would go without food and rent and try and explain it to my children why this has happened but i think we all realise this will not do one bit of good. Most blokes i have spoke to in brisbane have no intentions of stopping it seems to be confined to the top end.

My husband and I own 3 trucks which means we not only have our family to think about, but the lives of 2 other families. I also work full-time elsewhere and run the office side of the business, so you can appreciate that my husband and I work 7 days a week to keep the business going ie. maintenance/office. As we are only a small company we to feel the pain that everyone else feels in the industry ie.rising petrol costs,repayments, registration, insurance,tolls etc. We ceased working for 2 major companies in the last year as the rising costs of fuel (50c in 6 months)and road tolls. We now have a contract with another major company, but fear if we shut down for 2 weeks our position will be filled by the company trucks as this company is not supporting the stoppage and where will that leave us? The text we received weeks ago was for a stoppage for 1 day, which we felt we could afford to participate in. My husband and our drivers are stopping on Monday, but will return to work on Tuesday. Will our trucks be damaged, will our drivers be harmed?

Lyn Bennetts was taken completely out of context. We have our not so wonderful media to blame for that. Not surprisingly the TWU have jumped on the band-wagon of dishonest representation by the media. At no stage whatsoever has Lyn Bennets or ALDODA condoned or suggested that violence is acceptable. Lyn Bennetts has gone out of her way to say that violence is NOT acceptable, nor even necessary. Wake up to yourselves and realize that the only reason the situation has come to this is because the government and the unions have done nothing to protect drivers and small operators. Lyn Bennetts is a realist and she realizes that while violence is unacceptable, there are some people who deal with conflict using violence. She was NOT placing threats. She was simply attempting to warn people of the reality that some people do act violently in the hope of reducing violence. The union's attempt to twist Lyn Bennetts intentions is just a sign that they are very worried. But you can be sure the union's concern and worry is NOT about the welfare of drivers and small operators. No it is about whether they are at risk of losing their salary.

Let me start by saying, if you want results, you need organisation. And you need organisation as a whole, not one faction here and one faction there all doing their own thing. Nothing is going to happen whilst you have the ego of the TWU throwing stones at the ego of ALDODA. ALDODA organising their own blockades and the TWU organising their go slows in different locations on different dates. Action needs to be National and at the same time for a length of time to have an impact. You want the attention of the Federal Government forget about state governments, they are useless and there are too many agendas spanning the different states. A nationwide shut down with cooperation and organisation by all parties is the oly way to go. The rest is just a whinging statement that will bear no fruit. Whilst Trucking unions and organisations are infighting and doing their own thing, they are no better the politions they are trying to influences. Hit em hard or not at all.

I fully support the truck stoppage but i think that limiters should be removed for safety reasons as all drivers understand the saftey issues with them. I have recently removed myself from the industry mainly because of the demands that we are looking for. I agree with those that stopping for one day will not do anything at all or in that case blocking canberra as well what will that achieve? My opinion the public are reasonably responsible for the timetables of truck drivers and companies wanting freight yesterday, this would also be the reason why so many drivers are losing their lives. I was offered to drive for a local company but turned it down to show my support in this stoppage. I can't really afford it either but something has to be done and soon. I would like to know if there is something set up in the form of a bank account for donations for those wanting to stop but trying to meet the demands of family life and business as well, My heart truely goes out to these people and if something is set up i would be the first to offer what i can to help. Thanks to those drivers and companies that fully support this stoppage, those that really can't i feel your pain but those just too ignorant to care don't whinge when nothing changes.

http://www.atatruck.net.au/Media%20Releases%202008/26%2006%2008%20propos...

In this media release the ATA state several things that OD's should do to deal with fuel prices as striking will not change anything. Why is it when the prices go up overseas our fuel goes up even though we are filling up with old fuel (that was purchased before the price rise) but when the prices overseas go down our fuel prices dont drop??

They also state that another great step would be to join one of the ATA member organisations. LOL what good has it done us so far????

They are such a supportive mob!!