Do workers have the right to work in sweatshop conditions if they so choose? Does the state have the right to protect workers by locking out those who would work longer hours for less pay?

In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, deciding the case Lochner v. New York, struck down a statute that limited the workweek of bakers to 60 hours.

The court explained that the statute in question wrongly limited the bakers’ freedom of contract – although such a right is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution. By affirming the workers’ right to choose sweatshop conditions, this decision pleased the sweatshop owners who, in turn, convinced their workers that they had won a major victory: Their jobs were secure so long as they were willing to work longer hours for less pay than any other worker.

Today’s working people are thankful that the labor principles encapsulated in the Lochner decision did not stand.

The subsequent passing of the Minimum Wage Law and the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets the normal work week at 40 hours and grants premium pay for all hours worked in excess of that amount, sounded the death knoll for the sweatshop.

Or did it?

While the great majority of American workers now enjoy the protection of the laws mentioned, several million hardworking men and women are still forced to sweat their labor; working ever-increasing hours for ever-decreasing wages.

I am speaking of American truck drivers, all of whom are excluded from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Since deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980, competition among truckload carriers has become a destructive force. Trucking companies, in a frantic attempt to attract shippers, are cutting their rates to almost sub-profit margins.

Drivers are now used as cushions. This is accomplished by paying drivers by the mile. Most of the driver’s time spent on the job, but not driving, is uncompensated time. This has led to a situation where drivers must cheat on their Hours of Service records (logbooks) in a losing attempt to slow a fast downward spiral in their earnings.

It is now common for a non-union driver to spend 16 to 18 hours per day in quest of a full 10 hours of paid driving. Sadly, many of these drivers have been conditioned by the industry to accept this. Indeed, a majority will, like the sweatshop workers of the last century, violently defend their right to work under such conditions.

However, not everyone accepts these sweatshop conditions. Many drivers with valuable over-the-road experience are leaving the industry rather than accept the steadily worsening status quo. The continuing exodus of experienced drivers is resulting in a critical driver shortage.

New drivers, after being introduced to the harsh realities of the job, do not usually stay long. With the current driver turnover rate in excess of 100 percent, the trucking industry has sought permission from the government to place 18-year-old drivers in the cabs of 80,000-pound semis, has sought drivers in the prison population and is considering importing minimally qualified drivers from Mexico.

These untapped labor resources will, of course, be paid far less than the experienced drivers they are intended to replace.

The trucking companies, their collective associations and drivers win nothing by fanatically defending the status quo. Indeed, they do not see the fact that they are being set up for a much larger loss. The extremely high bankruptcy rate and the general hard times trucking has been suffering since it was deregulated in 1980 will be nothing measured against what is to come.

The current truckload carrier industry will, if the current direction remains constant, self-destruct. Then, forming from a few, very large, very powerful companies, a phoenix will arise from the ashes with the strength to dictate rates and conditions not only to drivers, but to shippers, receivers, the public and the limited number of smaller companies they will allow to exist to do their less pleasant, less profitable work.

There is still time for the trucking industry to move back from the brink. To level the playing field and begin treating its current disease, the trucking industry must:

• Do away with pay by the mile and supplant it with a fair hourly wage.

• Bring all its workers under the protective umbrella of the FLSA by repealing trucking’s outdated exemption.

• Mandate that onboard recording devices be installed in all commercial vehicles. This is the only way that compliance with the Hours of Service rule can be effectively monitored. Without OBRs, compliance with such rules will remain a joke.

• Stop employing the scare tactic of threatening dire injury to the American economy if the above are implemented.

Economic justice has never hurt America. It did not when the minimum wage laws were passed. It did not when the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed. It will not now. The real threat to our economy lies not in granting justice to a group of working people, but in the future emergence of a few overly powerful trucking companies.

If the trucking industry continues their refusal to address these issues they will lose, their employees and contractors will lose and the American people will lose.

Guy Bourrie has been hauling on the highways for 20 years. He lives in Washington, Maine, and can be reached at [email protected].