ATA Leaders Call on Capitol
This story appears in the March 2 print edition of Transport Topics.
WASHINGTON — American Trucking Associations members gathered here last week to build support within Congress and the Obama administration on issues ranging from highway financing to potential union-organizing legislation.
Also during the federation’s annual winter leadership meeting, ATA decided to stand behind the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to implement new emission standards for heavy-duty diesel engines in 2010.
ATA’s leaders discussed policy with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and key congressional staff members before visiting the offices of individual members of Congress.
“I think this was one of the best winter leadership meetings ATA has ever had. I saw more energy, more excitement, more involvement . . . by every level of member,” Charles “Shorty” Whittington, ATA chairman and president of Grammer Industries Inc., told Transport Topics. “I know the numbers were more than any other winter leadership meeting, and we’re in the worst of economic times.”
“Business is terrible; we all know it’s terrible. We don’t know how long it’s going to be bad, and the political environment is working against us,” said John Smith, president of CRST International Inc. “I think that’s why we’re here. . . . That’s why a lot of people are here, they know we have to work harder.”
Steve Williams, a past ATA chairman and chief executive officer of Maverick USA, said members told their elected officials “how bad things really are out there.”
ATA President Bill Graves called the meeting “a tremendous success,” noting that it was “the highest turnout in five years.
“We had over 200 members visit with their representatives and senators on Capitol Hill to discuss our policy agenda and the challenges we face,” he said. “It was a great advocacy effort.”
“Our industry, and our country, with the change of administration are at . . . a very, very important time in the future of transportation,” said David Congdon, president of Old Dominion Freight Line. “I think as evidenced by . . . the interest level that is here, everyone recognizes this is a crucial time.”
Tommy Hodges, ATA’s first vice chairman and chairman of Titan Transfer Inc., said industry executives told members of Congress and their staffs that ATA supports a fuel tax increase “as long as that money will go directly into helping our infrastructure.”
Williams said ATA members “want to make sure our voice is heard about where we think that money needs to come from: our support of federal fuel tax, federal highway use taxes, federal excise taxes and not privatization and not toll roads, and we want to make sure that’s clear.”
Patrick Quinn, co-chairman of U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc. and also a former ATA chairman, said that “labor, energy and reauthorization” were the main areas of discussion during the meeting.
Congdon told Transport Topics that his No. 1 issue was opposing the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as card check.
The expected legislation, not yet introduced in Congress, would make organizing easier by allowing the designation of unions as the bargaining representative by signing up a majority of employees, rather than by winning a secret-ballot election.
“We staunchly believe that is not a good piece of legislation for business in general [and] for our country [because of] the effect it can have on the global competitiveness as a nation and obviously for our companies as individuals,” Congdon said.
The bill was “taking away the most basic democratic right of individuals to vote privately,” he said.
“I don’t think you can name an industry that has ever flourished or been extremely successful that has had labor unions. Look at the airlines, the steel industry, the automotive industry, and you just look at trucking,” Congdon said, citing the troubles of unionized trucking companies since deregulation.
“In 1980, 24 of the top 25 carriers were unionized; now you have three or four,” he said. “Of the top 60 in 1980, there’s only five or six names left and obviously, that’s because unionized carriers could not be competitive in the marketplace.”
Whittington said the meeting’s activities showed a change in strategy for ATA. “We’re now taking the offensive route instead of the defensive,” he said.
Before affirming its support of EPA’s tightened 2010 emission standards, ATA did “discuss and debate . . . the possibility of running a joint program where you continue to sell ’07 engines for maybe one to two years,” Hodges said, referring to a proposal by truck maker Navistar Inc.
Navistar, the only truck maker not using selective catalytic reduction to meet EPA’s 2010 requirements, has sought to allow sales of trucks meeting current standards beyond that date.
Other truck makers oppose delaying EPA’s 2010 mandate.
“At the end of the day, we thought that we do more harm to our overall message that we’re going to be environmentally responsible,” said Hodges, who has spearheaded ATA’s efforts on sustainability. “We’re going to do what we said we’re going to do.”
