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The NYC Trucker’s Strike: How Much Influence Do They Wield?

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Truckers keep things interesting, don’t they? And they’re at it again with a NYC trucker’s strike organized to protest a verdict against former President Trump.

Last week, New York Judge Arthur Engoron ordered former President Trump to pay $354 million in damages in a civil business fraud trial.

While the court accused Trump of dishonest business practices, no financial institutions have ever made complaints about him.  No fine this massive, no prohibitions on conducting business in New York, and no bans on receiving loans from New York banks have ever been handed down in a case like this.  This is pure political persecution.  Don’t take my word for it: that was how legal scholar and constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley described it too.

In response to these punitive damages, rumors started circulating on X about truckers refusing delivery into NYC beginning Monday, February 19. This may get really interesting.

What happens if the trucks stop?

CDL Life put out an infographic in 2012 that’s been resurrected recently, showing what would happen to life without truckers. Daisy wrote about it here.   Within two to three days, food and fuel shortages would become severe, leading to price spikes.  Manufacturing centers used to “just-in-time” processing would have to shut down.  Garbage would begin piling up, rail transport would stop, and business transactions would grind to a halt as banks run out of cash.

Within a week, automobile travel would cease due to loss of fuel.  Within a month, the nation’s clean water supply would be exhausted, and illnesses would begin to spike.  Hospitals would be largely unable to treat people, due to their exhaustion of supplies.

This infographic is from 2012. If anything, things would fall apart faster now.  Our supply chain is less resilient than it was twelve years ago.  Truckers make First World living what it is.

Is this NYC trucker’s strike happening?

While some posters on X insist this won’t happen because trucking companies will never stand to lose money, a few facts are worth noting.

One is that approximately 10-15% of truckers are independent, and these are typically the more capable and experienced ones.  They can simply turn down some delivery jobs and choose others.  We’re in the middle of a labor shortage; workers have some choice.

Truckers already dislike NYC.  On Sunday, an Amazon driver had to fight off a drunk, naked migrant.  And the trucker found himself in trouble with the law. Another Amazon driver was brutally slashed in an unprovoked knife attack in late January  and no arrests have been made.  Who wants to work in that environment?

The tolls are high, streets are narrow, people are unfriendly, and crime is rampant.  Reading truckers’ X feeds, some are happy for an excuse to avoid NYC because of the constant extra fees.  NYC is a less profitable area for them anyway. Turning down business there won’t hurt them as much as it might in other places.

And not every trucker has to go along with the boycott in order to make life miserable for New Yorkers.  Imagine what just a 10% reduction in goods deliveries would do to prices within a week or two.

This decision by Judge Engoron will backfire in other ways, as well.

Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank mogul investor, summed it up nicely on Fox News.  “$355 million as a penalty, plus 9% interest, and there’s no victim?”  He said this decision terrifies possible investors because it’s so arbitrary.

 

Lawfare stunts only increase Trump’s support among general voters.   He’s sounding less crazy all the time.  Many people saw Trump as paranoid when he claimed persecution during the Russian collusion hoax.  Well, he was right about that. Even liberal journalists such as Glenn Greenwald admitted he was framed.

In 2020, many people still believed in the system enough to think that Trump was exaggerating about the election getting stolen.  Now, it looks like he was right about that, too.

The insane lawfare directed at him now makes the Washington elite look deranged.  I didn’t like Trump in 2016.  But the world didn’t fall apart between 2016 and 2020. I’d rather go back to that, than keep power in the hands of people so dismissive of citizens’ rights.

Protests like this can make people pay attention.

Too many people don’t see the connection between what happened to Trump and what could happen to any American not wanting to go along with the DC establishment.  NYC may be home to Wall Street, New Yorkers may see themselves as too sophisticated to care about what goes on in the rest of the country, but Wall Street needs Main Street to survive.  What do they think they’re trading without actual on-the-ground production?

The financial and political elite are used to convenience and physical ease, with no curiosity regarding the people who grow and transport their food, who keep the lights on and the water running.  Throwing a monkey wrench into the flowing goods and services will hopefully force urban consumers to pay attention.

Protesting European workers have had some measure of success. The European farmers’ protests, largely supported by truckers, won some concessions.  They had been protesting punitive tax hikes and unfair competition from cheap imports, as we’ve discussed before. After a few weeks of chaos, they managed to get the European Parliament to agree to a number of concessions, including a continuation of diesel subsidies and tax breaks.

Because truckers and farmers perform so much of the actual production and transportation, they see the effects of regulation before those regulatory effects appear to the average consumer in the form of higher prices.  Since 2020, the cost of producing agricultural goods has increased by 28%.  No one expects this to change; in fact, the USDA is concerned that prices in 2024 may be below break-even levels for American farmers.

The cost of shipping will probably continue to rise, at least in the short term.  Climate change regulations lead to uncertainty regarding fuel pricing; who wants to invest tens of millions of dollars in oil and gas infrastructure when politicians are threatening to make it illegal within the next ten to fifteen years?

Here’s why many truckers support Trump.

Trump pays attention to these issues.  He consistently receives the support of blue-collar workers because he listens to their concerns.  He’s like Kevin O’Leary in that he sees the connection between his own wealth and the health of the regular economy.  He’s popular among the working class because he treats them like valued employees, not “useless eaters” or “deplorables.”

Trump’s natural egomania makes him unwilling to cooperate with the Globo-Blob.  Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords. If we sign on to the upcoming WHO Pandemic Accord, he’ll probably try to get us out of that, too. He sees America as a company that he wants to run and run well.  Trump doesn’t want to share that with anyone else.

Why should he?  His vision of a strong, independent America resonates with the average citizen who mostly just wants predictable work so they can raise their families in accordance with their own values.

Unfortunately, this unwillingness to participate in the schemes of the Washington establishment means that a lot of very powerful people know that they may get fired if he gets elected this year.  They are becoming increasingly desperate in their attempts to make him unable to run.

60% of the world is going to the polls in 2024.

Indonesia just elected an ultra-nationalist.  Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro just had his passport seized. Most of us can assume chaos is headed our way in 2024, and this trucker protest looks to be part of it.

I wish the truckers the best, but for the rest of us, having a plan to survive disruptions in supply chains has never been more important.  The same goes for having trusted networks of family and friends.

I love having the internet as a source of news and practical information. YouTube home improvement videos have been invaluable.  But nothing replaces real-world friends and neighbors that you can band together with in times of distress.  As this crazy election cycle approaches, keep your friends close.

What do you think about the NYC trucker’s strike?

Do you think the NYC trucker’s strike will unfold enough to make an impact? Do you think it will change anything? How much of a problem do you expect this to cause for NYC dwellers?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.

About Marie Hawthorne

A lover of novels and cultivator of superb apple pie recipes, Marie spends her free time writing about the world around her.



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