If you browse online forums for owner operators and independent truck drivers, you’ll see the idea of a nationwide work stoppage or strike bandied about as a scorched-earth solution for everything from shippers’ detention practices and low trucking rates to the ELD mandate itself. Despite rumors, threats, and a laundry list of grievances, a general strike has never materialized among American owner-ops.
Things are different in Brazil. That country is now 11 days into a nationwide strike by its self-employed drivers over out-of-control diesel fuel prices. The controversy over diesel prices has its roots in the 2016 political crisis that saw President Dilma Rousseff impeached and removed from office. President Rousseff went down over her involvement in a wide-ranging corruption scandal at Petrobras, the semi-public Brazilian state oil company. Rousseff was on the Petrobras board of directors when it came out that Petrobras executives colluded to overpay for construction and other services in return for bribes; in her capacity as President, Rousseff changed policy to allow for plea deals for the executives caught up in Operation Car Wash, the law enforcement initiative that uncovered the scheme.