Truckers strike at Port of Vancouver: You are misinformed if you get all your news in one place.

From one site (CBC)you learn that container truckers' average pay is only $15.59/hour because of long waits and rates that have been pegged for eight years at the Port of Vancouver.  That seems ridiculous for a guy with a hundred thousand invested in his truck.

From a second site (CTV) you learn that great harm is being done to the Canadian economy and that the PM says it's not acceptable to have small numbers of people blocking important trade.

From a third:  The Seattle Times expects ships to be diverted to Puget Sound  and permanent market share loss for Vancouver, quoting a Port of Vancouver spokesman:

"What they're (truckers) doing is putting at risk their market share," he said. "If they thought it was competitive before, it's only going to get worse." Negotiations collapsed Thursday as Bob Simpson of Team Transport Services, which represents about 40 employers, asserted that demands by the truckers amount to an average 30 percent rate increase, plus 30 percent more in other monetary demands.

From a fourth, myself:  These truckers are mostly Sikhs and that has a bearing.  We paid an extra $1200 to get a Super B truckload of lumber delivered to our truss plant two weeks ago, double the going rate.  The lumber was two weeks overdue because no trucks could be found in the interior of BC.  One mill even refused new orders until trucks would come to clear out the mill yard.  No change is expected for 4 to 6 weeks.  Just like the drivers you see in the Port of Vancouver pictures,  most of the lumber truck drivers are Sikhs and, quite reasonably, they don't like to drive on poor winter roads.  The last delivery problem we had was because of the Diwali festival long weekend in November when Sikhs headed home to celebrate.  Can you find a single story highlighting the Sikh angle on this strike?

Good men but not into St. Patrick's day.

Thanks to Mark Twain for help with the headline.
“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.”