Word: owners
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...strike was touched off by the owner-operators' difficulties in getting fuel at fair prices. But the shutdown quickly brought to the surface deeper and long festering resentments. The drivers, who often operate on very low profit margins, felt they deserved fast financial relief. They argued that cumbersome federal regulations have long favored the big trucking companies, which are not on strike, and discriminated against smaller owners. Under federal rules, to carry anything except agricultural products, the independents must drive under contract to the big companies. When they hire out, they must pay the company between...
Trucking companies need certificates issued by the ICC in order to haul certain goods or to operate along certain routes. The ICC normally does not certify owner-operators. "Because regulation permits such high profits and makes operating certificates so scarce," declared Carter in his report, "ICC certificates are bought and sold for enormous sums." They sell for upwards of $20 million...
...says Roy Woodworth, an operator in Wilton, N. Dak. "He likes to do his own thing, so he is kind of hard to organize. We banded together out of necessity." Across the nation, hard-pressed Governors tried without success last week to find someone who could speak for the owner-drivers in their states. In Minnesota, Governor Al Quie gave up, declared a state of emergency, and called out the National Guard. About 100 representatives of small operators met in Washington to draw up plans with William Hill, chairman of the shaky Independent Truckers Unity Coalition. But many of them...
...also acknowledged that they could cause a backlash that would hurt them in the end. Public sympathy is quickly eroded by violence. Admits Vernon: "It makes us look Mice bandits." At week's end scattered acts of violence were continuing, and no one -not even the stubbornly independent owner-operators-could tell just how long their strike would...
Also tried were David Holmes, 49, formerly deputy treasurer of the Liberal Party, whom Thorpe was charged with inciting to murder Scott; John Le Mesurier, 49, director of a carpet discount firm, charged with recruiting Newton to kill Scott and paying him off; and George Deakin, 39, a nightclub owner, who allegedly introduced Newton to Le Mesurier and Holmes. Deakin was the only one of the four defendants to take the stand. He testified that Le Mesurier and Holmes only wanted Newton to frighten, rather than kill, someone who Deakin believed was blackmailing Holmes' wife...