1,000 signatures reached
To: BlackRock
BlackRock: 12 hours waiting with no pay and no bathrooms is not OK.
Truckers like me are spending two to four to 12 to 36 hours waiting to pick up or deliver loads in the oil fields of West Texas - and we’re not getting paid for it.
On top of that there’s no bathrooms. We have to use a bucket or go in the open fields. You know how dehumanizing that is for either a man or a woman to have to use a bucket? This is insanity.
We’re not allowed to abandon our place in line, no matter how long the wait is, and we have no control over when the load will be ready. If we leave the line, we could be fined, suspended or fired.
A key investor in the mines is BlackRock. They’re one of the world's most powerful investment companies who use workers’ retirement savings to rip off other workers. No one’s ever taken on BlackRock face to face…and we’re going to. We aren’t stepping on the snake's tail anymore. We’re stepping on the head.
We’ve been protesting outside the entrances of the sand mines, and organized a cross-border trucker-led convoy in West Texas, to win respect and justice for truckers – and have a big protest coming up in Charlotte, NC, in days.
There's just 18 people that control BlackRock. They look like regular people, and yet they have the power to do anything they want and destroy our lives and our planet. We’re taking our message directly to them, and you can help.
Sign our petition to stand in solidarity with us and tell BlackRock that 12 hours waiting with no pay and no bathrooms is not OK!
Why is this important?
One driver I know can’t afford tires or oil changes, and says his family’s suffering because the money’s not enough. It’s ridiculous because the price of oil is still high, but inflation takes more of our pay and our wages are going lower and lower.
These mines are just hurting people, they’re hurting the land. The fracking by these mines is poisoning the groundwater. There’s 2.2 million people who live here, and our home could become a wasteland if the degradation by these mines isn’t addressed. We aren’t tree-huggers: we’re truck drivers. But we also need clean water, safe air to breathe, and livable land.
Even though they’re investors in the mine, BlackRock’s voting rights and power is unimaginable. They’re complicit in the economic slavery that workers face and all of the environmental degradation of our homes and communities.
After we protested last year, and refused to fulfill deliveries for a day, 18 truckers were fired. It’s against the law to punish people for organizing at work like we did, and we’ve filed a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that investigates labor practices.
A lot of drivers are recruited from Mexico, but it doesn’t matter which side of the border truckers are from. So we’ve formed a cross-border alliance of Truckers Movement for Justice in Texas, TAMEXUN, STB, and TMJ in Mexico. Stand with us and sign the petition demanding justice for truckers.
