Topic: 2.5 million US truckers say they'll quit over vaccine mandate (Read 386 times)

I completely agree with what you wrote, regarding the vaccine mandate. But the excuse being given is that the other vaccines (i.e the ones against diphtheria, measles.etc) have undergone stringent clinical trials over a period of many decades, while the COVID vaccines are relatively new and many of them are yet to complete the Phase III trials. And a section of the society believes that the side effects that result from the vaccination is more harmful when compared to the actual COVID virus infection itself.

The ground reality is different, there is a serious issue with trucking as goods are not moving to the destination for months and the ships are docked in the port without unloading and the stores are struggling because of this situation as the goods are there in the port but there is serious transportation issue.

When it comes to mandatory vaccine mandate, it is really against the freedom of an individual, it is not just the truckers that are opposing that, government officials including police officers, military personal and many are planning to resign if they are forced to take a vaccine to continue work.

~
I wonder why so many people around the world are surprised about vaccination mandates as they do already exist anyway for various illnesses and infections. Chickenpox, measles, and a variety of other infections are already coped with via a vaccination mandate. Nobody ever really considered protesting against that. Anyway, I hope this is soon getting under control.

I wonder why so many people around the world are surprised about vaccination mandates as they do already exist anyway for various illnesses and infections. Chickenpox, measles, and a variety of other infections are already coped with via a vaccination mandate. Nobody ever really considered protesting against that. Anyway, I hope this is soon getting under control.

The ground reality is different, there is a serious issue with trucking as goods are not moving to the destination for months and the ships are docked in the port without unloading and the stores are struggling because of this situation as the goods are there in the port but there is serious transportation issue.

When it comes to mandatory vaccine mandate, it is really against the freedom of an individual, it is not just the truckers that are opposing that, government officials including police officers, military personal and many are planning to resign if they are forced to take a vaccine to continue work.

~
Do you realize that this is a clickbait article? Out of the 2.5 million truckers, a few tens of thousands are threatening that they will quit over the vaccine mandate. In the end, this number may be as low as 1% or 2%. Even if that causes a shortage, the US businesses can easily hire truckers from across the border (either from the north, i.e Canada, or from the South, i.e Mexico). Unlike the situation in the European Union, there is no shortage as such. If the American truckers go ballistic over the vaccine mandate, then they'll lose their jobs. As simple as that.

I think they are not seeing the big picture, the supply chain is very affected which means that instead of restrictions what you want is to encourage people that left that job to comeback, train new people to take those jobs or bring people from other countries to fill the gap, right now the US cannot afford truck drivers to leave their positions, so even if the US government believes this is what is the right thing to do they should leave them alone until things get normalized, but they do not think like that and now we are seeing the consequences of trying to regulate this too soon.

This news sounds like it is about artificially creating of crisis in the country. If 2.5 million US truckers will be quitted because of limitations for non-vaccinated people that will lead country to collapse: people will not receive products (as a result - hunger) and medicines (more death), prices on scarce commodity will grow, these will lead to widespread lootings etc.  Sorry, possibly I'm overstating a little bit, but do only I consider situation with vaccination strange?

Leave it to the local government because I'm sure they will not stay silent with the issue,
I hope this can be resolved soon just imagine if 2.5 million US truck drivers stopped of course it would cause serious problems,
The most important thing is that we'll see what happens next

I'm not sure but I believe you have a point regardless of whether it was genuine or not, as that would be a break issue. If this were true, we would face a food shortage because these truckers are actually performing their duties of delivering food, and the economy would collapse. However, I believe the government would not allow this to happen because it would be a major problem for which they are actively seeking a solution. Additionally, if this is a hoax, I believe we would be idle, so it is preferable to take it seriously.

This news sounds like it is about artificially creating of crisis in the country. If 2.5 million US truckers will be quitted because of limitations for non-vaccinated people that will lead country to collapse: people will not receive products (as a result - hunger) and medicines (more death), prices on scarce commodity will grow, these will lead to widespread lootings etc.  Sorry, possibly I'm overstating a little bit, but do only I consider situation with vaccination strange?

2.5million workforce quitting would be catastrophic. This vaccine should be voluntary for Christ sake. The enforcement seems like a global end-time prophecy mandate causing some kind of resistance by well informed professions and even less informed folks. People should be allowed to have an option. 

I know two people who had to spend several weeks in an intensive care unit with a ventilator. That was in April this year and one very fit guy, no smoking and no alcohol, in his mid-fifties isn't even close to half of a recovery. He ran a successful business and his son now overtook his role. He aged several years in his face within just weeks. Ever since I saw him not too long ago there was no doubt in my mind I would take the vaccine, especially because I also wanted to help protecting my parents.

What I am asking myself how many of these truckers have really seen what can happen to you if you have a bad symptomatic infection? I am not judging anyone of them for their decision even though I think the data is good enough to justify the vaccination. Also how is it possible that really 2.5 million truckers agree so hard on rejecting a vaccine mandate? Are they all sufficiently well informed? Are they making their very own decision after listening to their doctor? There seems to be a lot of group dynamic at play.

I am not really kind to anti-vaxxers, they could just become unemployed all I care, just get out if you do not want to get paid for doing your job with requirements which includes vaccination. I am not going to suddenly say "oh man, if truckers quit then I am finished, let them be the only type of work that doesn't require vaccination and KILL people", sorry but I rather starve them then accept their blackmail.

Why? Why would you have hard time replacing millions of truckers? Explain to me the exact reason why would it be hard to find people who would be overpaid for a very simple job when there is no qualifications required whereas burger flippers get paid minimum wage which hasn't increased in decades?

The technology is not as good as advertised. Not yet. They can't do this so soon and at such a scale. Not yet.

Well, if they were to quit we will see a big reduction in supply and most of the malls will be on short supply because they're going to be relying on those truck drivers, the only problem is that these people are opposing the mandate even though there's no downside to it besides the fact that they think that vaccines are a bad thing.

If you are not from the US, you certainly don't care what will happen there and whether all the trucks will stop, and you don't understand how much chaos that would cause not only there, but also globally. If you think it’s easy to replace millions of trained truck drivers with others overnight, then you’re grossly mistaken - it’s not a job that has a surplus of workers.

We'll see what will happen because either way there will be some implications. I just can't imagine what would be the reason for the truck drivers for rejecting the vaccines over the cost of their work, surely so much families will be affected. Imagine 2.5 Million truckers? There must be a reason to it why they won't like to get vaccinated.
But if eventually they will quit or just stop the job for even a week, the supply chain will surely be heavily disrupted, along the trucker's families and inflation will follow because of the shortage of products. Forget about Elon Musk for now, as if Elon can provide these much trucks or robots to replace this truckers immediately. He can't even get the Tesla model to perfection.

This sums up US Covid policy really well, in fact.

A trucker, sitting alone in his/her truck for the majority of the day, would need to be vaccinated to protect who from catching Covid, exactly? The truck? The argument for a vaccine mandate was that an unvaxxed person could transmit Covid to someone that is also not vaccinated, but this begs the question as to how a truck driver is going to infect someone when they're sitting by themselves in a truck for most of the day.

Anyways, the implications of this are more supply chain issues and low economic growth. Shipping and logistics are the base of the manufacturing industries of any country, so removing transportation out of the equation ensures everything grinds to a halt.

They say inflation was due to the supply chain issue, and not a high money supply. Well, what happens to inflation when you stop truckers from doing their jobs if the result is scarcity of goods? More inflation.

I would say let them go, I am sure there will be people with vaccination who would LOVE to get paid that much.

....
Not certain what the implications of this would be. If there are implications.

I suppose it hinges upon whether truckers in 2021 are considered skilled or unskilled labor. Would a 2.5 million chunk of the workforce quitting create a vacuum which could easily be filled. The term independent contractors used to describe the trucking industry. Is often used to describe employment conditions that do not fit the label. Mixed martial artists in the UFC and pro wrestlers in WWE are both considered independent contractors. With a great deal of controversy surrounding the terminology and whether it is apt.

The only thing for certain is, Elon Musk is working somewhere to build trucks with no steering wheels that are robot driven.

Perhaps 2.5 million departing truckers will give Elon the vacuum he needs to push his robot truck drivers. That could rank in the top 5 of the most predictable things happening atm. As crazy as it may sound.

My question is why are the truckers refusing to get vaccinated! They will rather quit their job than get the vaccine, is it that there are any noticeable effects after taking the vaccine or what are their reasons! There must be a reason for the not to want it, between quiting their job will not necessarily solve any problem rather they will increase the number of unemployed people in the country,
It is better they state their reason(s) make it clear so that a solution can be made.

I mean, if they do quit now that could seriously impact the economic flow.

It is not just the truckers that are quitting

I doubt, AI trucks will be in the roads in the near future, but in the next few years it will be a reality as Elon and team are working on it.

I suppose it hinges upon whether truckers in 2021 are considered skilled or unskilled labor. Would a 2.5 million chunk of the workforce quitting create a vacuum which could easily be filled. The term independent contractors used to describe the trucking industry. Is often used to describe employment conditions that do not fit the label. Mixed martial artists in the UFC and pro wrestlers in WWE are both considered independent contractors. With a great deal of controversy surrounding the terminology and whether it is apt.

The only thing for certain is, Elon Musk is working somewhere to build trucks with no steering wheels that are robot driven.

Perhaps 2.5 million departing truckers will give Elon the vacuum he needs to push his robot truck drivers. That could rank in the top 5 of the most predictable things happening atm. As crazy as it may sound.

LaMalfa says that the Biden administration is not helping, but you know who else is not helping? It's precisely guys like LaMalfa that keep emphasizing that vaccination is a personal choice, that nobody can make people vaccinate if they don't want to, instead of actually sharing the science of how vaccines drastically change your odds of surviving covid and encouraging people to consider vaccinating. They're talking about trucks, but in my country the anti-vaccination moods are so high that while there are already some jobs with mandatory vaccinations, doctor is not one of them because apparently many small towns will be left without crucial doctors if it's made mandatory. Nothing is more unsettling than doctors who don't want to get vaccinated. As for the US, I'm sure they'll figure out what to do. They might take a risk and see if it becomes a supply chain problem. They can override the mandate if it becomes the case.

Definitely. Austria has introduced new lockdowns for the unvaccinated, which essentially states they are removed from society if they do not take the jab.
~snip~
But when people are emotional, they're prepared to sacrifice their liberties in the name of safety.

Correct, and we do not really need for 2.5 million truck drivers to quit to create huge issues, the US is having problems with a shortage of 80k drivers, that is only 3.2% of the drivers that are threatening to stop working if Biden forced them to be vaccinated, so while it is unrealistic to expect that 2.5 million truck drivers stop working at the same time, I think it is realistic for 3.2% to stop doing it, doubling the current problems of the supply chain.

I suppose it hinges upon whether truckers in 2021 are considered skilled or unskilled labor. Would a 2.5 million chunk of the workforce quitting create a vacuum which could easily be filled. The term independent contractors used to describe the trucking industry. Is often used to describe employment conditions that do not fit the label. Mixed martial artists in the UFC and pro wrestlers in WWE are both considered independent contractors. With a great deal of controversy surrounding the terminology and whether it is apt.

I don’t really get how some people likes to reason things at times; someone commenting that a truck driver can’t give any other person Covid-19 because they spend most of their day alone in their truck? You’re forgetting that sometimes that they will have to eat, which means at some point they will visit a restaurant or so, and they will also get home to their family and all that.

So, it’s very much possible that they can come in contact with a victim and also transfer it to others. But, anyways, I think the government should also try to do things in a way that it would be easy and not favor them, but the people as well, making sure that things are on the balance.

...

An interesting fact:
Them quitting their jobs would not only impact them as a whole but it would impact everyone else as well since most US based trucking loading/offloading companies do work overseas as well and they have their centers around all the parts of the world which does mean that if these truckers decided to quit their jobs then it would impact a huge diverse group of people as well.

There would be sudden shortage of truckers and that would put many things at halt which can cause many problems for individual enterprises as well working with those truckers. I do think that the government should try and somehow enlist the rule for vaccination more gently to the public. It's important for sure!! But making people comfortable as well should be their priority so as to avoid sudden probelms like this.

This sums up US Covid policy really well, in fact.

A trucker, sitting alone in his/her truck for the majority of the day, would need to be vaccinated to protect who from catching Covid, exactly? The truck? The argument for a vaccine mandate was that an unvaxxed person could transmit Covid to someone that is also not vaccinated, but this begs the question as to how a truck driver is going to infect someone when they're sitting by themselves in a truck for most of the day.

Not certain what the implications of this would be. If there are implications.

Would a 2.5 million chunk of the workforce quitting create a vacuum which could easily be filled.

Millions of truckers are balking at President Joe Biden’s workplace vaccine mandate, which would be catastrophic for the nation’s supply chain problem if it is enforced, an American Trucking Associations executive told House members this week.

“We’ve tried to be very clear to the administration — I understand the logic behind it — but if you do this, these are the consequences,” said ATA President Chris Spear. “So if you’re trying to solve the supply chain problem, you’re actually compounding it and actually hurting the very problem you’re trying to fix.”

ATA is the nation’s largest trucking trade group. Spear testified in front of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on supply chain problems.

America is currently short approximately 80,000 truckers compared to pre-pandemic levels. If Biden’s Jan. 4 vaccine deadline is enforced, the industry will lose 37% of its truckers, or 2.5 million people, according to an ATA survey.

The survey “came back as 37% of drivers not only said 'no,' but 'hell no,'” Spear testified. “It’s not about being anti-vax — we’ve been moving the vaccine test kits.”

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a California Republican, told the Washington Examiner that the supply chain is a disaster because both Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom are more focused on climate change and vaccinating children. The Los Angeles ports, the busiest in the Western Hemisphere, are backed up with 106 supply ships waiting to unload off the coast, according to the latest figures.

“Newsom has been pretty inattentive on all this … and the Biden administration is not really helping either,” LaMalfa said. “Truckers are independent individuals. They are like the cowboys of the highways and don’t want to be pushed around.”

Spear also testified that fining shippers for full containers that linger too long at ports is a bad idea because the cost just gets passed down to consumers. Los Angeles and Long Beach ports implemented such fines last month as a way to clear the backlog.

“It’s just another layer we’re going to have to bear. I don’t think it’s a good solution,” Spear said. “It’s just one choke point of many.” He added that the problem is simply too many containers stacked up at the ports and not enough time to clear them.

Republican Rep. Rick Crawford asked, “So assessing fines and fees associated with that is probably just going to be exacerbating the problem with inflation?”

“I don’t think it does anything, congressman. I really don’t,” Spear responded.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/2-5-million-truckers-say-theyll-quit-over-vaccine-mandate-industry-warns-biden