Truck owner-drivers blockade over pay rates

Truck owner-drivers blockade over pay rates

BY JIM McILROY

BRISBANE — Truck owner-drivers blockaded the Cunningham Highway between Brisbane and Toowoomba as part of a national Transport Workers Union campaign for improved cartage rates.

TWU federal president Hughie Williams told Green Left Weekly, "Long distance owner-drivers are struggling to get decent rates of pay, for their own survival. Currently, they are forced to drive long distances and take pills to stay awake. This is killing people on the roads."

Williams said that the launching pad for the blockades was TWU efforts to improve safety in the industry, including an 18-month "Dob in the Boss" campaign to "reveal those employers who are rorting the system".

The campaign began with a meeting of owner-drivers at Tarcutta, NSW, on May 17, and continued with further meetings at Acacia Ridge and Rocklea in Brisbane in the days following.

The immediate cause of the meetings was moves by some large transport companies to lower prices paid to owner-drivers once the GST and the diesel rebate scheme come into operation.

The owner-drivers are calling for the introduction of enforceable cartage rates, and for payments to be made within 14 days of a job being carried out. They also want loading agents and road transport companies to be licenced.

From GLW issue 407