Truck drivers and owners should take a look at how Russian truck drivers are protesting a new crippling tax per kilometer. The Caucasus drivers are striking a road tax, dubbed “Plato,” on trucks weighing more than 12 tons are charged more for each kilometer of federal highway they drive.
There are more than 2 million trucks registered in Russia. The 1.5-ruble tax is to be doubled in March to 3-rubles-6 kopecks per kilometer. If truckers refuse to pay the tax, entrepreneurs are fined 40,000 rubles ($634.43 U.S. dollars), and companies 450,000 rubles or $7,109.38 in U.S. currency. If a driver makes 40 to 50 rubles per trip, and the trip tax would be 15,ooo rubles, how are the truckers supposed to support themselves?
Adding insult to injury, the collection system has been turned over to a private company by the son of a close associate of President Vladimir Putin. The Russian truckers converged on Moscow crippling the beltway in what they called the “snail,” driving slowly tying up traffic for weeks.
Think this can’t happen here? State gas taxes are dropping rapidly due to more fuel efficient vehicles. To solve the deficit, state governments are considering a road tax or mileage toll. California is considering this tax to compensate for the $59 billion backlog in highway and bridge maintenance.
U.S. truckers should keep an eye on how Russia’s and the U.S. states how this issue works out. The mileage toll is being considered for personal vehicles, but trucks will be included since trucks travel a lot further than the average car. If it goes into effect it will hurt the little trucking owners the most and probably put most out of business while the large corporate trucking companies will pass the costs along to customers, thereby making their companies larger, and again hurting the little people.
This just goes to show that workers worldwide have a lot in common and should learn from each other and support each other when we can, such as demanding a living wage and forming a union if they want. If workers do not come together, the workers of the world could end up holding up their underwear in protest telling the government that they have robbed them of everything, like the Russian truck drivers are doing now.
The Russians’ frustration is not new. In the Arizona copper mines strike of 1983, the Phelps Dodge Corporation quashed striking workers by using the National Guard. One protestor was so frustrated that he began stripping off his clothes and throwing them at the Guard until he was naked. It was all he had to fight with to try to stop the National Guard from breaking the strike and his union.
Today, workers are starting to feel the same pressures. This could be the tipping point for our capitalist system. The oligarchies had better be paying attention.
I hope that I am wrong, but what I see at this time is our unions are going to be in the fight of their existence. This is the most perilous time of our life. The life we had is threatened like never before. Unions are the largest organized group of people who can save our country if things keep going the way they are heading at this time. We need to all stand together for power, but we each must prepare and plan to take care of ourselves and our families. We can fight the big fight and not be distracted by worry about things that can and should already be taken care of. For instance, stashing at least one month’s pay and at least a month or even a year’s worth of food, whether the food is staples (pasta, rice, canned goods) and meat or chicken in the freezer. Keep your vehicles' tanks full and if possible a gas can full. It’s in your best interest to also save money for house or rent payments plus extra. This is not new thinking for us old trade workers who had to prepare when...
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