Don’t know how I got onto it, but I just started thinking about the fuel protests of the early 2000’s. I remember getting stuck behind a “go slow” protest on Clive sullivan way and all the news coverage.
Was that the best show of solidarity us truckers have shown?
Captain Caveman 76:
Was that the best show of solidarity us truckers have shown?
Nah, it was last year when we all stuck together and decided trucker jay was a knob
I was talking about this the other day. The only time we stood together and then it fell like a house of cards.
Was at Fieldings at the time and around 60 of us got herded onto the M602 for a telling off.
Last time it will ever happen, shame really.
The-Snowman:
Captain Caveman 76:
Was that the best show of solidarity us truckers have shown?Nah, it was last year when we all stuck together and decided trucker jay was a knob
Hahaha 
Potentially post of the year right there…
It was solidarity yeh ok, but only, in a lot of driver’s cases because their companies approved. I mean, it wasn’t the drivers paying for fuel was it? It was the company.
So the companies stood to reap any benefits gained, not the drivers (apart from owner drivers of course).
I can not imagine in a million years, many drivers that I know, or have come across showing any resistance, or solidarity for anything directly affecting them on the scale of the fuel protests, (or tbh any other scale)…sadly.
no such thing as solidarity amongst truckers anymore,hasn’t been for a long time,if I remember there was a drivers strike in 79,don’t know how long it went on for.
I was at Cardiff docks in 2000, but we were only to join in after we ran out of fuel from the yard tank 
… the boss was there from the start though, with at least one truck.
Everybody giving it large about spineless drivers not sticking together, should remember that most drivers work alone, so any decision to join any action needs to be taken alone, without knowing if other drivers are backing you up. In every other place where (successful ) industrial action has been held, the whole work force is together, and organised. In such case every worker is protected by the collective. A singular driver, parking up in protest, will have no such protection if no other drivers end up joining him…
the nodding donkey:
Everybody giving it large about spineless drivers not sticking together, should remember that most drivers work alone, so any decision to join any action needs to be taken alone, without knowing if other drivers are backing you up. In every other place where (successful ) industrial action has been held, the whole work force is together, and organised. In such case every worker is protected by the collective. A singular driver, parking up in protest, will have no such protection if no other drivers end up joining him…
Wasn’t so much ‘giving it large’ mate, more stating facts, …or at least my opinion on what I see on a daily basis.
In the potential situation you mention, and as long as there was genuine intent to stick together, a simple phone call, social media or even a forum such as this would suffice to set the ball rolling, maintain contact with each other, and ensure things were going according to plan.
It has nothing to do with lack of contact but more to do with lack of backbone 
… not to mention apathy and the I’m alright Jack so ■■■■ you’ mentality.
robroy:
the nodding donkey:
Everybody giving it large about spineless drivers not sticking together, should remember that most drivers work alone, so any decision to join any action needs to be taken alone, without knowing if other drivers are backing you up. In every other place where (successful ) industrial action has been held, the whole work force is together, and organised. In such case every worker is protected by the collective. A singular driver, parking up in protest, will have no such protection if no other drivers end up joining him…Wasn’t so much ‘giving it large’ mate, more stating facts, …or at least my opinion on what I see on a daily basis.
In the potential situation you mention, and as long as there was genuine intent to stick together, a simple phone call, social media or even a forum such as this would suffice to set the ball rolling, maintain contact with each other, and ensure things were going according to plan.
It has nothing to do with lack of contact but more to do with lack of backbone
My initial response was not aimed at you Rob… but you perfectly illustrate my point. O.k., let’s assume for a moment that most drivers, as you surmise, ‘lack backbone’. How many of the factory workers that have strike, how many of the train drivers, how many of the miners, etc, do you think went along because ‘everybody else’ did, and would not have had the guts to do anything on their own? Part of the group strenght is that noone wants to be seen to be the one who lets everybody else down. The whole strength of union is that. Union, standing together, giving each other support and reason and strenght and conviction. Simply calling an individual who lacks that courage, when on his own, spineless, is cheap and ignorant.
Most drivers will want others to back them up and when numbers dwindle instead of sticking with it they back down too, no mind of their own just follow others like lemmings
the nodding donkey:
My initial response was not aimed at you Rob… but you perfectly illustrate my point. O.k., let’s assume for a moment that most drivers, as you surmise, ‘lack backbone’. How many of the factory workers that have strike, how many of the train drivers, how many of the miners, etc, do you think went along because ‘everybody else’ did, and would not have had the guts to do anything on their own? Part of the group strenght is that noone wants to be seen to be the one who lets everybody else down. The whole strength of union is that. Union, standing together, giving each other support and reason and strenght and conviction. Simply calling an individual who lacks that courage, when on his own, spineless, is cheap and ignorant.
Yeh, I understand what you mean, but I was not intending to come across as cheap, and I certainly do not consider myself ignorant (ok, that’s open to opinion )
One man on his own trying to achieve something is pointless and as you say you need a group structure, or mentality, to achieve better terms and to avoid injustices in the job, we agree on that.
My point was not aimed at an individual lacking courage to stand on his own, but to actually get his arse into gear to join that group in the first place.
(I’m deliberately avoiding the word ‘union’ because of the perceived negative connotations)
This is mostly, I have noticed, through illogical fear of his boss, (or at the very least fear of offending him ) apathy or a combination of both.
So because of this strange trait among many drivers (that I again have noticed) a joining of a group.(…or go on then a Union,) would never get off the ground to stage 1.
I am not trying to put guys down here, but you see it every day, it’s ■■■■ pathetic, drivers just going along with injusticies and moaning to each other about it until the next injustice or ■■■■ take comes along that they just accept and put up with.
truckman020:
no such thing as solidarity amongst truckers anymore,hasn’t been for a long time,if I remember there was a drivers strike in 79,don’t know how long it went on for.
I was just learning to drive trucks at that time, and as far as I remember it was over a govt limit on pay raises.
The strike lasted a couple of months and the drivers (that I knew anyway) ended up with a much bigger pay raise after it all went to an arbitration commitee. (May be well out with details here as it was a long time ago)
At the risk of sounding like Carryfast here 
,
Later on, Thatcher sold everybody their rented council houses (gaining a little popularity at last) but the true agenda was the aim of removing the hunger for resistance among workers because of their mortgages…very clever woman, whether you loved her or hated her.
But…To get back on topic, what good did the 2000 blockade do when you look at fuel prices today.
robroy:
truckman020:
no such thing as solidarity amongst truckers anymore,hasn’t been for a long time,if I remember there was a drivers strike in 79,don’t know how long it went on for.I was just learning to drive trucks at that time, and as far as I remember it was over a govt limit on pay raises.
The strike lasted a couple of months and the drivers (that I knew anyway) ended up with a much bigger pay raise after it all went to an arbitration commitee. (May be well out with details here as it was a long time ago)At the risk of sounding like Carryfast here
Later on, Thatcher sold everybody their rented council houses (gaining a little popularity at last) but the true agenda was the aim of removing the hunger for resistance among workers because of their mortgages…very clever woman, whether you loved her or hated her.But…To get back on topic, what good did the 2000 blockade do when you look at fuel prices today.
I was still at school in 79, but remember talking to the in house drivers at the canneries where I started work(in the wharehouse) a few years later, They told me that because they were already being paid more than what was being asked for, the Union (t&gwu) gave them some kind of pass that allowed them to keep working and to go through picket lines with the picketers acceptance. I think from how it was explained to me, that the Union were saying to other employers, pay what we are asking for and your drivers can work with our blessing 
Got to say that you are spot on with what you said about Thatcher and her home owning democracy, and said in so few sentences
The trouble with Carryfast is that there are some real nuggets of wisdom in his posts, only that you have to mine such a lot of crap to find them
Having been part of some industrial action, work to rules mainly, it is so true that as part of a factory set up, especially a closed shop, its a lot easier to be a part of any action. A work to rule as a driver is very difficult, and requires a lot of trust that you are not stuck out on your own whilst others are capitulating, phone calls to a shop steward will give you support, but then you know he’s trying to keep everyone focused, aand he wont know exactly who’s doing what. The management team play on this to break the action being taken, and then there is the knowledge, that those of you who stuck your necks out the longest, will pay the price, as those that pay the wage will control your earning capability for a period of time after wards
robroy:
the nodding donkey:
Everybody giving it large about spineless drivers not sticking together, should remember that most drivers work alone, so any decision to join any action needs to be taken alone, without knowing if other drivers are backing you up. In every other place where (successful ) industrial action has been held, the whole work force is together, and organised. In such case every worker is protected by the collective. A singular driver, parking up in protest, will have no such protection if no other drivers end up joining him…Wasn’t so much ‘giving it large’ mate, more stating facts, …or at least my opinion on what I see on a daily basis.
In the potential situation you mention, and as long as there was genuine intent to stick together, a simple phone call, social media or even a forum such as this would suffice to set the ball rolling, maintain contact with each other, and ensure things were going according to plan.
It has nothing to do with lack of contact but more to do with lack of backbone
I like that!!!