Why The Occupy Movement Matters Re Port Stoppage

I didn't go to work yesterday, and I meant to post, but it was seriously very cold here, and I finally had to turn the heater on because my toes were frozen, my legs frozen, and my fingers frozen!

With all the brouha concerning the Occupy The Ports yesterday, I wanted to put up this link and part of this post from America's Port Drivers regarding their opinion about the occupation of the ports.

We are the front-line workers who haul container rigs full of imported and exported goods to and from the docks and warehouses every day.

We have been elected by committees of our co-workers at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, New York and New Jersey to tell our collective story. We have accepted the honor to speak up for our brothers and sisters about our working conditions despite the risk of retaliation we face. One of us is a mother, the rest of us fathers. Between the five of us we have 11children and one more baby on the way. We have a combined 46 years of experience driving cargo from our shores for America’s stores.

We are inspired that a non-violent democratic movement that insists on basic economic fairness is capturing the hearts and minds of so many working people. Thank you “99 Percenters” for hearing our call for justice. We are humbled and overwhelmed by recent attention. Normally we are invisible.

You MUST read the rest of this post. It is positively riveting in the description of the despicable conditions that are part of the "drivers" that haul the goods from the ports. Yes, many of the "drivers" complained that they were losing a days wages from the stoppage, but most of them were not telling the public that their lost wages were not from any corporation or job that employed them, because most of them are considered "independent contractors" and by that definition, get 1099's instead of W-2s, and they, therefore, lack health care, and basic benefits they would have if they were actually "employed" by someone. So, yeah, the truckers lost a day's wages, but those wages emphasized the exact point of the protest ... hitting the corporations where they hurt most, their bottom line. If the truckers don't move the goods, then they are not delivered timely to their destination, and their destinations are the big corporate owners, such as Wal-Mart, Target, etc.

Don't be fooled by reading just the headlines. Get to the bottom of the 99%/Occupy movement, and get engaged and enlightened ... and help.