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Technocrats Go On Censorship Rampage In Desperate Attempt To Prevent Total Narrative Collapse — Sunday Night Live

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2020/10/GettyImages-1220243617.jpg" /></div>
Guest host Harrison Smith breaks down the panicked actions by Big Tech to censor anyone who calls out the COVID narrative – mostly recently Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene or Dr. Robert Malone – which faces total collapse as humanity wakes up to the medical tyranny takeover.
The Big Tech purge is here! Follow <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/the-big-tech-crackdown-is-accelerating-follow-infowars-on-these-growing-alternative-platforms/">Infowars and Alex Jones on other growing platforms</a> now to stay informed as the information blackout accelerates.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/technocrats-go-on-censorship-rampage-in-desperate-attempt-to-prevent-total-narrative-collapse-sunday-night-live">https://www.infowars.com/posts/technocrats-go-on-censorship-rampage-in-desperate-attempt-to-prevent-total-narrative-collapse-sunday-night-live</a>

news Technocrats Go On Censorship Rampage In Desperate Attempt To Prevent Total Narrative Collapse — Sunday Night Live

Guest host Harrison Smith breaks down the panicked actions by Big Tech to censor anyone who calls out the COVID narrative – mostly recently...

Sunday Live: Big Tech Silences Top Scientists As COVID Narrative Collapses In Real Time

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2022/01/covidnarrativecollapse2948789.jpg" /></div>
Guest host Kristi Leigh breaks down how Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA technology, became the latest casualty of Big Tech censorship over the weekend following his bombshell appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast that has since gone mega-viral.
The Big Tech purge is here! Follow <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/the-big-tech-crackdown-is-accelerating-follow-infowars-on-these-growing-alternative-platforms/">Infowars and Alex Jones on other growing platforms</a> now to stay informed as the information blackout accelerates.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/sunday-live-big-tech-silences-top-scientists-as-covid-narrative-collapses-in-real-time">https://www.infowars.com/posts/sunday-live-big-tech-silences-top-scientists-as-covid-narrative-collapses-in-real-time</a>

news Sunday Live: Big Tech Silences Top Scientists As COVID Narrative Collapses In Real Time

Guest host Kristi Leigh breaks down how Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA technology, became the latest casualty of Big Tech censorsh...

Dem Warns of 2022 ‘Bloodbath’: ‘Almost Feels Like Elder Abuse’ With Biden

A New York Democrat politician ousted by a Republican in 2020 is sounding the alarm to Democrats about their 2022 prospects with Joe Biden as their leader.
Former Nassau County Executive Laura Curran joined Fox News’ “Watters World” on Saturday to warn of an impending Democrat “bloodbath” in the 2022 midterm elections.
“Unfortunately, my party, the Democratic Party, just conveys weakness right now. It almost feels like elder abuse with what’s going on with President Biden. He has a hard time putting a sentence together. I think everyone gets nervous listening to him talk, if he’s going to mess up,” Curran said.
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“What we need always, and especially now, is someone who exudes confidence and competence. Someone who sets a reassuring tone. And we’re not getting that at the top right now.”
“And unfortunately, I think your previous guest, Karl Rove, is absolutely right. I think it’s going to be a bloodbath for the Democrats in the midterms,” she added.
Curran went on to lambast Democrat leadership for needlessly giving Republicans political “ammunition” with which to shoot themselves.
“As a Democrat, I think it’s really important to have a strong, two-party system. I think it’s good for democracy. I don’t think it should be one-party rule either way, but unfortunately it seems like we’re giving the Republicans ammunition just to shoot us because we exude this weakness,” Curran said.
“People want to be reassured that government is there for them, not telling them what to do, but making sure the roads are in good shape, making sure the sewage is properly run, making sure that public safety is where it should be. That’s what people are expecting. Unfortunately, my party is not delivering this right now,” she concluded.
<div class="rrFSGj29"><a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/specials-clearance/new-years-super-special?ims=cuzeh&utm_campaign=heronewyear&utm_source=Infowars+Hero&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=heronewyear" target="_blank"><img src="https://api.directus.libertycdn.com/uploads/_/originals/InfowarsNewyearsSpecial-hero-385.jpg" /></a></div>
Curran’s loss in 2020 was a sort of canary in the coal mine for Democrats, as the normally solid blue Nassau County <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/nyregion/nassau-county-republicans-election.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytmetro" target="_blank">flipped red in the 2020 election</a>.
This comes as Biden’s overall approval rating hit an all-time low of 41%, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.newsweek.com/biden-starts-2022-trailing-trump-average-nearly-5-points-2024-election-polls-1664829" target="_blank">according</a> to a Real Clear Politics poll, 5 points lower than former President Donald Trump’s was after his first year in office.
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<a href="https://freeworldnews.tv/watch?id=619318296eb7794b57dd5f44" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Democrats May Try To Replace Biden and Harris Before Midterms</a>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/dem-warns-of-2022-bloodbath-almost-feels-like-elder-abuse-with-biden">https://www.infowars.com/posts/dem-warns-of-2022-bloodbath-almost-feels-like-elder-abuse-with-biden</a>

news Dem Warns of 2022 ‘Bloodbath’: ‘Almost Feels Like Elder Abuse’ With Biden

A New York Democrat politician ousted by a Republican in 2020 is sounding the alarm to Democrats about their 2022 prospects with Joe Biden a...

Video: Pastor Artur Pawlowski Arrested AGAIN For Violating Draconian COVID Rules

Pastor Artur Pawlowski was arrested yet again by Canadian authorities on the side of the highway for not obeying draconian COVID-19 rules.
Video of the Saturday night arrest shows half a dozen Calgary police officers subduing Pawlowski in Alberta after executing a SWAT-style highway takedown of the anti-COVID lockdown pastor.
“You gestapo Nazi!” Pawlowski yelled as he fell to his knees in protest. “You’re a Nazi, do it Nazi-style.”
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One of the masked cops threw his arms up in frustration at Pawlowski exercising civil disobedience by becoming deadweight rather than willingly walk away with them.
Rebel News founder Ezra Levant pointed out the officers referred to Pawlowski as a “criminal” during his arrest despite him not being charged or convicted of a crime.
“One cop thought he’s humiliate Nathaniel, Artur’s son who recorded the arrest. N. says, ‘no criminals to catch today?’ Officer Moore says, ‘just him’. But Artur is not a criminal. He has not been charged or convicted of a crime. That’s defamation. And it shows malicious policing,” Levant noted Sunday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" readability="9.7843665768194">
One cop thought he’s humiliate Nathaniel, Artur’s son who recorded the arrest. N. says, “no criminals to catch today?” Officer Moore says, “just him”. But Artur is not a criminal. He has not been charged or convicted of a crime. That’s defamation. And it shows malicious policing. <a href="https://t.co/QZ9aC21KxF">pic.twitter.com/QZ9aC21KxF</a>
— Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) <a href="https://twitter.com/ezralevant/status/1477478874611081218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
Several cops eventually ended up carrying Pawlowski away to one of their vehicles.
<div class="JXMTKFPq"><a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/specials-clearance/new-years-super-special?ims=cuzeh&utm_campaign=heronewyear&utm_source=Infowars+Hero&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=heronewyear" target="_blank"><img src="https://api.directus.libertycdn.com/uploads/_/originals/InfowarsNewyearsSpecial-hero-385.jpg" /></a></div>
This comes after Pawlowski scored a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.rebelnews.com/pastor_artur_and_his_lawyer_react_to_big_legal_victory" target="_blank">major court victory</a> against the government when Alberta’s Court of Appeal shot down the government’s bizarre sanctions against Pawlowski compelling him to read a positive message about COVID vaccines.
Pawlowski has been <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/shock-video-canadian-church-attacked-by-police-pastor-arrested-under-covid-tyranny/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arrested</a> on the side of the highway before over COVID rules, having become a target of the Canadian government since the COVID takeover began in early 2020.
The Polish-born pastor had gone viral several times for <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/statement-police-defend-decision-to-intimidate-polish-pastor-who-called-them-gestapo-nazis-demanded-they-get-out/" target="_blank">defying lockdown orders to shut down his church</a>, humiliating “Gestapo” police in the process.
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Twitter: <a href="https://www.infowars.com/rss.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@WhiteIsTheFury</a> 
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<a href="https://freeworldnews.tv/watch?id=615f7c52f6d37a367b86a7e3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pastor Facing Prison for Opening His Church Refuses to Bow to Tyrannical Authoritarian Govt.</a>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-pastor-artur-pawlowski-arrested-again-for-violating-draconian-covid-rules">https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-pastor-artur-pawlowski-arrested-again-for-violating-draconian-covid-rules</a>

news Video: Pastor Artur Pawlowski Arrested AGAIN For Violating Draconian COVID Rules

Pastor Artur Pawlowski was arrested yet again by Canadian authorities on the side of the highway for not obeying draconian COVID-19 rules. ...

In praise of the humble tote bag

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_og9YX8mp87m2zGl4UT3gPfkDwY=/0x152:2121x1262/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23104894/GettyImages_1211723299.jpg" /></div>
Saúl Guzman bought a tote bag in 2010 that has not left his side since. Walking around one day through a small London street fair, he spotted a tote with denim blue fabric, sturdy straps, and a simple illustration of the Daunt Books bookstore.
Though he loved the bag, Guzman — who was a student at the time — thought that at around 10£, it was a bit pricey. But he decided to buy it anyway after noticing “a really cool label” that said the tote was made by a not-for-profit organization that helps people in India earn a living while supporting the environment. For him, that tag made the tote bag transform, becoming not just a way to carry things but a way to express his personal style while helping other communities.
“The tote bag was almost like an investment,” said Guzman, saying that he loved how it was cool, but also “that it was supporting a local bookshop, and that it was made with so much care and was helping people.”
For many of us, totes are more than just receptacles for running errands, and have instead become an essential part of our daily lives, bringing us a sense of comfort and connection everywhere from the grocery store to our TikTok feeds. Even the ever-fashion-conscious Carrie Bradshaw will be exchanging her <a href="https://www.wmagazine.com/fashion/carrie-bradshaw-wnyc-tote-bags-satc">Fendi baguette for an NPR tote bag</a> in And Just Like That, the Sex and the City reboot.
The tote bag didn’t become an omnipresent accessory overnight. Over recent decades, however, it has become a go-to bag for so many people, largely because of the easy, functional way it allows for self-expression.
The canvas of a tote bag is, well, a blank canvas. Yours can say a lot about you: what publications you read, where you align politically, what you believe in, what you dream of, or who you love. All of that can live on a single piece of cloth, neutral or brash, simple or complicated. The customizable, mutable nature of this accessory has helped the obsession transcend generations.
There are drawbacks, of course, to a tote’s simplicity, which is its lack of nuance, in that it becomes easy to talk the talk without walking the walk. Someone might carry a tote bag that declares them to be a “feminist,” for example, but not actually care for the issues women face in their communities. A tote bag with a slogan will not bring us liberation. But for some of us whose identities are inherently political, the tote can serve as an expression of our stances and identities.
Even when they’re falling off our shoulders every five seconds when wearing our coats in the winter, we still love them. They give each of us the power to say who we are, and to do so in a practical, affordable way. Is it any wonder we’re obsessed?
“The tote bag fits a larger trend of the democratization of fashion,” said professor Dicky Yangzom, a cultural and economic sociologist at New York University. “Originally, these textiles [like canvas] were meant for labor. Similarly to utility wear in fashion with the rise of the jumpsuit, this wasn’t designed for mass fashion. It was more geared toward people who do more manual work, right? So all of these categories are shifting.”
Now, tote bags are everywhere: as marketing tools, as merch for artists, and for designers to have a more accessible accessory to sell. A $6 Forever 21 “avocado” tote, a $15 hand-painted bag from an Etsy seller, the free Vogue or New Yorker canvas carry-all that comes with a subscription to the magazine, and a $3,250 Dior tote bag all fall under the same (fairly lucrative) category: According to market research by Technavio, the tote bag market is worth $334.5 million.
“Luxury brands have taken up the idea of the tote itself, which is how capitalism works,” Yangzom said. From Dior to Marc Jacobs, high-fashion brands have designed their own version of totes, complete with their branding and elevated price range. “A tote bag is one of those things that has so successfully — as this mundane, humble object — broken through,” she explained. “Tote bags are here to stay.”
Part of the reason for the tote bag’s longevity is how the item makes us feel. “It’s like ‘oh, I’m an intellectual!’” Nicki Camberg, a junior at Barnard College, said, referring to the traditional New Yorker tote bag and others used as marketing for literary and journalistic publications.
Camberg calls her own totes her <a href="https://twitter.com/nickicamberg/status/1412802627738517509?s=20">“emotional support tote bags.</a>” A tote bag’s utility can be sentimental, as it brings you the comfort of feeling prepared, but it can also be very literal since it can hold everything you could possibly need. “I just need a way to have every possession I have on me accessible at all times,” she explained, whether she’s running errands or just walking around. “What if I need 20 hairbands and a pack of gum?”
When she was a freshman in college, Camberg found herself drawn to tote bags for their practicality as well as for how they made others see her.
“I was like, ‘Well, my back hurts,’” after using a backpack for a while, she explained. “And everyone’s really judgmental of backpacks, but no one judges a tote bag. Plus I felt like I looked less like a child.”
For Julles Hernandez, a fashion writer and stylist from Puerto Rico also known as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theboldbudget/">“The Bold Budget,”</a> the tote bags she owns are statement pieces that complement her outfits and hold dear memories. “I have $1 and designer totes, probably over 25 in total. They’re my favorite thing in the world,” Hernandez said. (She even has an Off-White tote named after her best friend.)
The tote bag has symbolic depths. Yangzom explained that the vital aspect of the tote bag carries a lot of value because of humans’ history of rituals. In the pre-modern age, she said, people had very strong beliefs about religion and what symbols were aligned with their respective religious practices. These institutions haven’t entirely collapsed, of course, but the relationship many have with them, and certainly our collective values, has changed and evolved. However, the human need to hold some object dearly is innate.
“What doesn’t change is our need to believe in something and to have our beliefs solidified by an object or a symbol. So before, maybe you worshiped statues or a photograph or something, right, but how is that any different from the tote bag?” she explained. The ritual of packing our lives into these bags, taking them with us daily, feeling their weight on our shoulders, having their messages visible to all perhaps has become essential to our every day and to our identities.
As a proud owner of too many tote bags, I have stories and memories for each of them. They represent parts of me and have brought comfort to my college and post-college life, weaving in my experiences through the years.
My favorite tote bag looks simple, but the words written on it represent everything I dream of for my country of Puerto Rico: República del Caribe: Libre, Mágica, Independiente, which translates to “Republic of the Caribbean: Free, Magical, Independent” in large red letters, designed by an art collective called Macondo Herald. One day at my godfather’s apartment, I showed up with the tote bag and his wife said to me, “You’re always with that tote bag!” I smiled. It has become an extension of me, a reflection of my identity.
The truth is this piece of fabric, a simple sack with two straps, can always hug you as you walk around or as you explore a new place, with all its memories, with the strength to carry anything you put inside it, and the ability to share a little bit of yourself with the world anywhere you go.
Nicole Collazo Santana is a New York City-based journalist and a part of the first cohort of the Vox Media Writers Workshop. Her work has appeared in Refinery29, NPR, 9 Millones, and more.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22841869/tote-bag-popularity-history">https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22841869/tote-bag-popularity-history</a>

vox In praise of the humble tote bag

Saúl Guzman bought a tote bag in 2010 that has not left his side since. Walking around one day through a small London street fair, he spott...

Where have all the truck drivers gone?

The thing Mickey Weaver hears most from prospective truck drivers is that they want to be home every night. The second thing they want is money, but, he says, it’s funny — a lot of people are willing to sacrifice the money to be home daily. But that’s also a big ask. “I can get you money, any way you want it,” Weaver said. “If money’s all you care about and you don’t care where you’re driving or when you’re going out, I got 40 ways from Sunday to hook you up on that.”
Weaver, who’s based in Arkansas, runs We Hire Truckers and Truck Jobs 4 U, which, if you couldn’t guess from the names, recruit truck drivers to open positions. He started this work a little before the pandemic; in March 2020, hiring slowed down a bit, but last fall it began to skyrocket again. Now, there is no shortage of open jobs. “I’ve got more jobs than I’ve got drivers,” he said.
The United States is experiencing a shortage of more than 80,000 truck drivers, <a href="https://www.trucking.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/ATA%20Driver%20Shortage%20Report%202021%20Executive%20Summary.FINAL_.pdf">according to an estimate from the American Trucking Associations</a>. The ATA also estimates that about 72 percent of America’s freight transport moves by trucks, which shows just how dependent consumers are on the drivers <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22770592/2021-thanksgiving-turkey-shortage-prices">who deliver turkeys to stores</a> or <a href="https://www.vox.com/22700343/uk-fuel-crisis-brexit-covid-19-european-union">gas to pumps</a> or the Christmas presents to you order to your doorsteps.
This is not just an American problem. Trucks haul comparable amounts of freight in places like the <a href="https://www.acea.auto/fact/fact-sheet-trucks/">European Union</a> and <a href="https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/news_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/news+and+events/news/impact-stories/truckers-in-china-meet-their-freight-match">China</a>, and countries and regions around the world are experiencing driver shortages. The <a href="https://www.iru.org/news-resources/newsroom/new-iru-survey-shows-driver-shortages-soar-2021">International Road Transport Union</a> documented shortages in a survey of 800 transport companies in more than 20 countries; according to the survey, about 20 percent of positions went unfilled in Eurasia last year.
This is also not a new problem. Analysts and industry groups have <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2012/07/24/news/economy/trucking-jobs/index.htm">warned</a> of <a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-driver-shortage-spreads-to-southern-europe">truck driver shortages</a> for years, around the globe. But <a href="https://www.vox.com/22757240/global-supply-chain-management-shortage-covid">supply chain disruptions</a> during the pandemic and surges in demand in places like the US have made this slow-rolling crisis much more acute.
The pandemic “opened up Pandora’s box on so many issues,” said Jean-Paul Rodrigue, an expert in transportation, logistics, and freight distribution at Hofstra University.
“Because of this intense pressure, the capacity has been stretched thin and then you start having delays and you have a slowdown,” he added. “All of this creates a domino effect, which makes the shortage of drivers even more salient than before.”
Why everyone seems to need more truck drivers is a bit more complicated, and it varies from country to country, where regulations and pay and labor conditions and infrastructure all influence the job. The shortage also reflects broader economic trends as, particularly in the United States, <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/11/12/there-are-more-jobs-than-jobless-people-in-42-states">labor demand is outstripping supply</a>.
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<figcaption>A Summit Trucking poster asking for truck driver referrals hangs inside a school for students who are earning their commercial driver’s license at Truck America Training in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, in October.</figcaption>
<cite>Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite></figure>
There are always people who want to go out on the road, Weaver said. But they are pickier these days, because they can be. “There are so many jobs out there that [potential drivers] pretty much call you and say, ‘I want ABCDEFG, and if you can’t hit all of those, then I don’t want that one,’” Weaver said.
All of this comes together so that, around the world, fewer and fewer people want to be truck drivers, or stay at it long enough to replace <a href="https://www.atbs.com/post/where-did-all-the-truck-drivers-go">an aging workforce</a>. Long-haul driving, in particular, can be grueling, with lengthy wait times that aren’t compensated and other costs to being out on a route for stretches at a time. “Why do people not want to become truck drivers? That’s the situation, or the root of the issue. And the reason for that is it’s a shitty job,” said Hanno Friedrich, associate professor of freight transportation at Kühne Logistics University.
The first thing to know about the truck driver shortage, experts said, is that it’s not exactly a shortage. “It’s a recruitment and retention problem,” said Michael Belzer, a trucking industry expert at Wayne State University.
In the US, “there are in fact millions of truck drivers — people who have commercial driver’s licenses — who are not driving trucks and are not using those commercial driving licenses, more than we would even need,” Belzer said. “That’s because people have gotten recruited into this job, maybe paid to get trained in this job, and realize, ‘This is not for me. This is not adequate for what I’m doing.’”
When it comes to recruitment, it’s hard to get people into the business, especially young people. There’s often a gap between when people leave school (say, age 18) and when they can legally drive a truck across state lines (typically age 21), which means those folks may have already found jobs and aren’t going to be wooed away to become truckers.
There are other barriers to entry, like schooling (the costs of which can vary) and the ability to obtain a special class of driver’s license. Around the world, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58487347">training and testing for truck drivers stalled because of Covid-19 lockdowns</a>. The industry also struggles to attract women into the workforce because of safety concerns and inadequate accommodations along routes and at rest stops.
But truck driving also isn’t the job it used to be. In the United States, for example, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/truck-driver-pay-motor-carrier-act-retail-2020-7">deregulation of the industry</a>, which accelerated in the 1980s, alongside the decline of unions, means trucker wages have been shrinking for years. But the work itself hasn’t really changed. It involves long hours, and a lot of that can be time spent uncompensated. “You could spend all day or a day and a night waiting around to get a load at a port site offloaded and loaded up, and you’re not getting paid for any of that time,” said Matthew Hockenberry, a professor at Fordham University who studies the media of global production.
This feeds not just into the recruitment problem, but also the retention problem. Truck drivers are burned out. Long-haul drivers, especially — that is, those who are moving cargo long distances or across states — typically get paid for the trips they take, and they have to go where the cargo needs to go, with little control over when and where. “The route is the route,” as Weaver put it.
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<figcaption>A truck drives along Highway 5 in Los Banos, California, in May.</figcaption>
<cite>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</cite></figure>
Anything that comes up along the way — a flat tire, an accident, a traffic jam — could derail that process, and it’s usually up to the truck driver to figure it out. In places like the US, this also adds pressure for owner-operators (truckers who also own their vehicles) or who undertake lease-purchase agreements (paying toward eventually owning a truck). Those hiccups could limit the number of trips drivers make, and with it, their ability to pay off their truck, let alone make a living wage.
The pandemic also accelerated some of these trends. The average truck driver previously waited about 2.5 hours at warehouses, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/longest-detention-times-truckers-by-city-2019-2">according to a 2018 figure</a>, but closures during Covid-19 and supply chain bottlenecks have made that even more unpredictable.
Around the world, the trucking workforce is aging. In the US, <a href="https://www.trucking.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/ATAs%20Driver%20Shortage%20Report%202019%20with%20cover.pdf">the average age of a truck driver is 46</a>, according to a 2019 report from the American Trucking Associations. Across Europe, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-looming-truck-driver-shortage-trucker-haulier-brexit-hgv/">it’s 44</a>. In the United Kingdom, <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/fuel-crisis-brexit-covid-hgv-driver-shortage-ageing-workforce-1224133">the average age of heavy-goods vehicle drivers is 53</a>. Some of these folks are <a href="https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/business/2021/05/16/ruckers-needed-driver-shortage-aggravated-by-pandemic/116453634/">nearing retirement</a>, and the risk of getting sick and the uncertainty and early slowdowns of the pandemic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/us/politics/trucker-shortage-supply-chain.html">helped accelerate truck drivers’ departures from the industry</a>.
“Think back [to] the beginning of Covid, when everything was shut down. An over-the-road truck driver couldn’t even find a place to take a bath, eat a meal, or a lot of other things, because those places were shut down,” Martin Garsee, executive director of the National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools, said. “So if you are on the bubble of trying to think about how am I going to retire, at that point, what would be your answer, if you could retire? Or if you could find another job?”
And for all the reasons outlined above, it can be a struggle to find new recruits to replace them. In the US and Europe, employers have relied on immigrant labor, but, as experts said, that doesn’t fix any of the structural issues, and creates what Belzer called “this constant race to the bottom.”
Parts of Western Europe, for example, often relied on labor from poorer European countries to fill truck driving jobs, but as those economies improved, those sources of labor became scarcer. The United Kingdom’s truck driver shortages <a href="https://www.vox.com/22700343/uk-fuel-crisis-brexit-covid-19-european-union">have been exacerbated by Brexit</a>, and the changes to immigration rules that came with it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/28/business/uk-trucking-shortage-poland.html">5,000 short-term, temporary visas to some European truck drivers</a> to ease backlogs around the holidays, but few actually took the offer. As one Polish driver told a British outlet, why come back for a few months just to “<a href="https://metro.co.uk/2021/09/29/polish-hgv-driver-says-why-return-to-england-to-pee-in-bottle-on-m25-15333985/">pee in a bottle on the M25</a>?”
Other parts of the world face different challenges. Stefan Pertz, who’s based in Malaysia and runs Asian Trucker, a media company for the commercial trucking industry in Southeast Asia, told me that in Malaysia truckers make about $800 to $900 a month, a salary that can go quite far there. But, again, at what cost? Drivers are highly surveilled, sometimes only able to stop at certain rest areas. Sometimes poor infrastructure and roadways present additional hurdles. These challenges exist in other lower-income countries, compounded by another issue: You have people willing to drive trucks, but companies or businesses may not have enough vehicles. “It’s not the labor issue, it’s the asset, it’s the truck itself,” Rodrigue said.
These are longstanding challenges, and the pandemic created a kind of breaking point for the industry, even as the vital link truckers play in the economy became clearer. But the way the supply chain functions may make it harder to fix the global driver shortage.
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<figcaption>Trucks enter the Port of Los Angeles in California in November.</figcaption>
<cite>Allison Zaucha/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite></figure>
The toughness of being a truck driver — the long hours, the treks, the waiting at ports or warehouses to get the goods — isn’t an accident. It’s mostly a consequence of being caught up in the demands of the modern supply chain, the one that is under so much pressure now.
Experts told me that even as wages for truckers have declined, shipping and logistics companies are increasing their rates. But that hasn’t really trickled down to the truck drivers’ pockets. “The trucking companies fight over the scraps. And the drivers fight over the scraps left over after the trucking companies fight over it. All of this cascades down, and the most powerful party here is always the one to win,” Belzer said.
And, he added, when it came to truckers: “Because of where they stand in the power relations throughout the supply chain, they’re the least powerful people.”
Experts and those involved in the trucking industry said wages for truckers have ticked up because of the labor demand in this stage of the pandemic, just as they have in other parts of the labor market in the US. There may be good signing bonuses to be had, too. But truckers don’t have a say in the routes they drive, or how long it takes for their cargo to be offloaded at a port. The job remains difficult, and it might not be enough.
“It’s pretty simple,” Joe Michel, executive director for the Alaska Trucking Association, said. “Pay them more, treat them better, they’ll stick around.” In the US, the Biden administration <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/16/fact-sheet-the-biden-%E2%81%A0harris-administration-trucking-action-plan-to-strengthen-americas-trucking-workforce/">announced a trucker retention plan</a>, which includes recruiting more veterans and studying working conditions to improve the industry. But those won’t transform the industry overnight, or be a quick fix to supply chain problems.
And these questions are arising as the omicron variant of the coronavirus surges, bringing an added uncertainty to the economy. But it’s also a reminder that we rely on truckers to deliver the surgical masks and the Lysol and the food to cook when we’re quarantining. They are the essential workers, and the question really is whether they are being treated as such.
During the lockdown, Pertz said, campaigns popped up everywhere describing truckers as heroes. “The minute the lockdowns were erased, all that disappeared again,” he said. “And my challenge is, well, these truck drivers are still stocking my supermarket, nothing has changed for them. Why aren’t they continuously promoted as heroes, and only in the situation of absolute dire needs?”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22841783/truck-drivers-shortage-supply-chain-pandemic">https://www.vox.com/22841783/truck-drivers-shortage-supply-chain-pandemic</a>

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