CRST Sexual Harassment Case

I am disturbed but glad at the same time that some women are coming forward to speak about what is happening in the trucking industry to female students.

The 35 cases of sexual harrassment at CRST is just the tip of the iceberg but the tenacity to keep the story under wraps is precisely why I wrote my student trucker story on “Ask the Trucker” .

People outside the trucking community who have read my story “A Day in the Life of a Lady Trucker” have been shocked, while people inside the trucking community can ussually add 10-15 chapters of horror story material of their own.

When I see organizations trying to constantly demonize truckers it aggravates me because it’s the INDUSTRY of Trucking they should be focused on. The professional drivers they have under the microscope are the WRONG target!

It is the Industry who has permmitted and cultivated the unsafe conditions that the drivers are required to work in. The manner it is done is to leave drivers “holding the bag” when tragedy occurs. Now what is happening is that that Women are entering Trucking in greater numbers because some people are benifiting from recruiting them. I’ve recently been written to by Women who were encouraged by “Workforce Investment Act” Vouchers and Unemployment Workers who seem to work in conjunction with Trucking recruitment entities and organizations.

What is happening to many Women which before went mostly unreported has spurned The CRST Sexual Harrassment Case which began with a staggering 265 females who reported abuse at this single company. It is an extrodinary number that was later discredited down to 35 cases.

I am certain many more women and men would come forward from the CDL Mill training facilities if this story got a little more press. Seems like someone wants it hushed up. In fact, many terminals of these big truck training schools seem to have a very unusual way to keep certain websites blocked so that drivers cannot get information from the internet while on their property. I’m hearing this from drivers at many companies

It takes very little research on the internet to locate politcal affiliations these days. As it turns out the VP of Human Resources or as I like to call it since I came to Trucking, INHUMANE RESOURCES, is running for Mayor of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Now I’m sure he is a wonderful man because everyone I have met in HR since I came to Trucking so far is just about the nicest bunch of folks you ever wanna shake hands with BUT are they doing anything? I found they do not. In fact, my conclusions are that HR Trucking Personnel are about as close to a Criminal Defense Team as I ever wanna get. A perfect preliminary job for Politics in my opinion.

I hope I never get to a point in my life that my career is so important that I would actively try to cover harm that has been done to another human being!

This is an Industry Wide Failure that came about from GREED! It is not isolated to CRST by any means. It is not only Women who have been raped, beaten and left abandoned. But honestly do you have any idea how hard it is to come forward and talk about this publically? That is exactly why these women took so long. They were lied to like I was.

They were told by a smiling , handshaking liar that “Something is being done” when NOTHING was being done! EXCEPT, that the Statute of Limitations to file a Complaint was whittling away.

As a student you are in a catch 22, no one will hire you without experience and because of the DAC reporting system which is another scandal left to be uncovered you have your future hanging in the balance should you decide to make a complaint.

I believe that Lily Ledbetter was also told she waitied to long to file a complaint.

I’m sure glad she didn’t take no for an answer, she inspired me to start writing my story along with other “Loose Cannon’s” who were called whiner’s, troublemakers and radical feminists because they demanded to be treated like human beings.

The other side of the coin is: W hy are so many inappropriate students put behind the wheel of big rigs without proper guidance which is what the article by a former trainer discusses in “Hostile Training Environment “?

Umm! Guess .. go on, take a wild guess ….

Government Incentives to train Women and also to bring former Felons into to Workforce is part of the problem but a sheer lack of guidance is the biggest component of this problem.

These companies are so hungry for Government Incentives & Subsidies that they throw people on the road In TEAMS no less with little driving skill and less skill in conducting themselves in public.

A Gentleman I recently spoke to from my own company came up to talk to me a few weeks ago while we were at a shipping facility awaiting to have our trailers loded with bottled water. The topic of “teaming” during a Student’s Training came about.

This is what he said to me: “I am a Gentleman, I know how to conduct myself and treat a Woman with the respect she deserves but if you force me to live on a truck with her in this situation, even I say and do things that I am embarrssed of later!, It’s just unnatural, It’s Nature!”

Companies like these who are trying to EEK out every penny by manipulating people with lies, tricking them with their endless “Nickle & Dime Schemes” to make money off drivers who recieve such little income have succumbed to the lowest form of bottom feeders with the way they have let the NEW demographic of WOMEN be Sexually Harrassed and Violated.

The Harrassment is done to all the drivers, it’s just being a Woman we get labeled.

Do your Research, this Company is legendary. Here is a link to the “Ripoff-Report” from other CRST Drivers who are simply harrassed. “Rip Off Report on CRST”

The original CRST Story was written by the Cedar Rapids Gazette by David DeWitte I believe he has done followups but oddly these reports have not traveled mainstream as they should.

Maybe Twitter can Help? My Reach is about 133,000 and counting ….

The Trucking Industry I believe is now positioning itself to utilize another new demographic, not just work visa student truckers but returning veterans from our armend forces. This bothers me because many of these young people will return with PTSD . They do not deserve to be further tormented by a system built in trucking to provoke less fortunate people who move America’s freight.