Violence against Women in the Trucking Industry
The twitter tag I created for the website “REAL Women in Trucking” and companion Facebook fan page called “Real Women Truckers” is @WomenTruckers and this is the bio:
“Violence against Women in the trucking industry is being covered up. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Demand the ATA MAN UP, show leadership”
It has close to 3000 followers and I have been using it for about 2 years to talk about this issue and other violence against women issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, human trafficking and other human rights/social justice issues. My personal account has more than double that number and my Dog @TruckinDogKarma has about 3600 followers.
It takes me an enormous amount of my personal time to maintain these three accounts and build up the relevance of the mission. I also manage a couple other twitter accounts and coach people on how to build their followers with true relevance.
That is really the key is being REAL.
Violence against Women is a serious topic worldwide and it is a statement on society. It is not unique to trucking culture but it does occur and raising awareness of the many aspects of how violence is acted upon Women is the first hurdle in holding people accountable. The people who commit this injustice upon women are not only those who commit the offense but also those who try to cover it up and those who would try to benefit from programs and grants to pay their salaries when they have a history of trying to interfere with exposing such crimes and injustices.
The point I have been trying to make with the @WomenTruckers twitter tag is to ask people in the trucking industry to look further than their nightly news at the horrific images of women and children being beat, raped and repressed in other countries and start looking at it in our own country and our own industry. Women most certainly are being used to push political and corporate agendas so I feel it’s time to make a few demands for using our image and the favorable tax incentives given for hiring women. Not special treatment, fair and just treatment.
In my PowerPoint presentation from last fall of 2010 , specifially in Part Two ( Social Media and Women Truckers ) I discussed the Violence against Women division of the Department of Justice. I made references to the NFL Players association campaign to raise awareness of violence against women , links to “The List” campaign of celebrities and other research tools for the topic to encourage action. I mentioned “Truckers against Trafficking” a newly formed organization who has emerged in the past two years with an outstanding awareness campaign to educate truck drivers on the $32 billion dollar industry of modern day slavery. Human trafficking has been reported in all 50 of the United States.
I mentioned in that presentation that the U.S. Women Veterans Administration was studying unique PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) for Women Veterans ( Article: Suicide Rate among Young Women Veterans ) I specifically mentioned this because I feel it is my patriotic duty and this is why.
In the very popular thread beginning in 2008 that has since been removed from the “Women in Trucking” forum. I stated that I felt raising awareness of the violence and harassment toward women entering the trucking industry was our duty because returning female veterans would have difficulty fitting back into normal society after being in combat situations.
It was my instinct that these women could find a great deal of freedom if they found trucking but not in the current low standard of training and unsafe sexual climate that currently existed. As many of you know I was stalked online for months by other women from the WIT site and referred to as a “loose cannon” and a “radical feminist” for talking about such topics of harassment and sexual misconduct in truck driver training carriers.
My membership was later revoked by President Ellen Voie following my appearance on the Dan Rather “Queen of the Road” episode where her sponsor CRST Van Expedited was featured regarding a massive sexual harassment case that was underway.
Ellen Voie and I exchanged numerous emails about the topic of what was occurring in the training carriers, including her sponsor’s carriers and while she was always very good at making me think she understood the problem well, she did nothing to assert herself on behalf of the women who were being affected.
My intention to rejoin WIT was to force her to choose between me and her sponsor and she famously chose CRST Van Expedited who continues to be engaged in a rather large appeal with the EEOC that has been written about in a number of legal blogs which are easy to google on the internet. Then there is the recent Karen Shank V. CRST case which was won by jury trial for a staggering $1.7 million judgment.
I have been aware of the Karen Shank case for at least 2 years but not of the specific details. What I do know is that Tracy Hamm was to be called as a witness for the Karen Shank case and although she did not have to attend the trial she remains a key component. Ellen Voie had communicated to Tracy Hamm at my persistence around the time of the first Salute to Women behind the Wheel at the Mid- America Truck Show in 2010 after her repeated claims she had never had access to the female drivers in the case to ask them about their stories. In this workplace bullying documentary from 2009 Ellen Voie appeared to discredit the female drivers claims even though she had not spoken to any of them. ( Raw Sound Bytes from a Trucking Convention ) , off camera she tried to discredit my story to the filmaker even though I had never worked for her and she had never interviewed me about the incidents that had occured during my training.
When I was finally able to pressure Ellen Voie to speak to Tracy Hamm, Ellen excused herself from the conversation before Tracy could tell her everything about CRST management conduct. Ellen did not call her back but she did ask Tracy for solutions to problems at CRST. Later I persuaded WIT Director Marge Bailey to hear Tracy out who was not a disgruntled former employee but someone who just wanted to make a difference and drive a truck.
That was in the spring of 2010 and after Donna Smith and myself had offered Ellen Voie an enormous amount of content to “Flex some Muscle” on behalf of women truck drivers stretching from 2008 until we cut off communication after years of her chain yanking with no results in 2010.
It became clear to us that Ellen Voie saw no value in advocating for women truckers or women entering trucking on the issues of violence or harassment. Though she had the access to XM/Sirius radio programs to speak and gather information on the topics on The Evan Lockridge Program and the “Freewheelin” Program. The drivers listening to these radio broadcasts only heard Ellen Voie promote a Tattoo Party for WIT in which very few people participated and WIT Director Marge Bailey promote her recruiting /date-a-trucker website.
To the driving population in the trucking industry, and especially women truckers on our fanpage this was a slap in the face to ignore important issues by an organization who claims to aspire to represent them. Some drivers began to express that WIT was using them as a vehicle to promote their own agenda which seems to be primarily motivated by greed and the ability to become a lobby power in Washington D.C..
If you ever wondered how corruption is born this would be a good one to examine. The motivation here is not making things better for drivers.
Here are a few facts:
Ellen Voie’s name appears in a Pedophile crime website on how NOT TO handle a situation in a trauma. This is in regards to the insensitive manner the Trucker Buddy pedophile issue was handled with the Mother. (Link: Crimeshots~ How Pedophiles Operate )
One would think she had learned her lesson but in my first phone conversation with WIT Director Marge Bailey February 2010 she went straight on the attack of the Mother who she said had a child that was “not even in the trucker buddy program” As if that mattered!
This is not the first time I have heard this line of reasoning from these Women. “Well she wasn’t even a member”, but you see I WAS a member and I was stalked online by other WIT members and to this day there is interference to prevent my posts to be published on the topics of violence against women in the trucking industry in trade publications. Even carriers who have contacted me to ask for a banner exchange have later been contacted by WIT to discourage them. In one case telling the family owned carrier that they must go through WIT to get Women to apply for their trucking jobs. The carrier refused the strongarm tactics and rude manner of the calls but how does that help Women exactly?
Hope Rivenburg GATS 2009
When asked to support “Jason’s Law” an industry unifying safe trucker parking bill they went further than just ignoring the topic, by taking informational brochures and hiding them under their convention table at GATS in Dallas Texas. No one told Ellen she needed to hit the campaign trail for Hope, it was only to ask for a gesture of kindness for the young widow Hope Rivenburg who traveled with 3 babies to the convention to collect signatures personally. Being a former Wife of a trucker it would seem that Ellen Voie would embrace Hope Rivenburg but this has not been the case for any important driver topic since WIT has been in existence. So why now is she suggesting that she is going to Washington D.C. to ask the Department of Justice for Violence against Women and the Department of Labor for grants or funds to set up a 24 hour crisis line for drivers?
In a nutshell what she is saying is she wants the federal government to give her funding to set up a driver abuse reporting line when in fact the carriers who commit the most driver abuse are her sponsors! Can you say “Conflict of Interest”?
The claim was made in a recent ‘Extreme Truckers” radio program with Eric Stuart in which I was also a guest. (Link: “Ladies Night” REPLAY on Extreme Truckers ) This is not the first time she has said she was seeking funds for a drivers crisis line, in fact the idea came for me and Donna Smith but it was not intended to be managed by someone with a history of covering up abuse from carriers to drivers or downplaying it and shifting blame.
This “shifting of blame” is an HR method in trucking and if there is one thing Ellen Voie did clarify in the interview it is that she formerly worked in the Human Resources department of Schneider National.
I have written also about HR methods in trucking and I have provided the same tools, research and information to the HR Department at Covenant Transport over these past few years to see if they would respond with ethical conscience to the harassment and sexual misconduct concerns in truck driver training.
Poking at the conscience of trucking insiders and leading them to the solutions is only one part of this task. Making them take action, even if that means spending money to enforce policies to insure they are working is the hardest part. Slapping a logo on a website for an organization that has provided ZERO concrete achievements since its inception only serves to further intimidate drivers.
Is this on purpose? Is that why the WIT wants to be the steward for driver crisis line it previously stated was not what they were set up for? That they were not an advocacy group? Why the sudden interest in Violence against women grants from the Department of Justice?
Food for thought: A driver with OSHA concerns (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) related to the trucking industry contacted me about a “tell-all” undercover documentary he intended to produce. In his industry networking for interested parties to collaborate he contacted WIT and told me he spoke the Ellen Voie at length on the project. He said he felt there was something just not right about the website and her responses given that she portrays herself to be “For Drivers”. Shortly following his conversation with her he was contacted by a eager funding source for his project but in the contract stages the fine print stated the financiers had final editing rights to the project. He took it upon himself to investigate who was truly behind this funding source and GUESS WHO… according to him it was the ATA and it was his impression that they were “tipped off” to the project intentionally.
Sexual Misconduct, Harassment, Violence against women in the trucking industry is related to OSHA these are labor issues and anyone who knows about human resources and workman’s compensation insurance claims should be able to see the correlation of how costly it could be for carriers to experience an increase of such claims. Mental distress, retaliation these are among some of the contributing factors that could affect judgments which in turn could affect workman’s compensation insurance premiums.
Is this why the FREE to corporate sponsors 30 page document WIT is peddling is not available to individuals? I don’t know this for certain but I will venture a guess that it should be seen as a valuable incentive to understand and this is why I published information publically.
Human Resource department and other personnel that handle claims against carriers are supposed to save the carrier money. Unfortunately, this sometimes means intimidate valid claims of abuse which is the short route to a solution. The road less traveled is eliminate abusers, Like unprofessional trainers, co-drivers and dispatchers and poor recruiting. Create a company policy that works and train more staff on how to deal with victims of trauma rather than attacking the person reporting abuse without doing a full and through investigation of the events.
The American Trucking Association has it’s stamp of approval on program called “Troops 2 Truckers” and we should all realize it is our patriotic duty to welcome returning veterans into the trucking industry, this includes returning female veterans. Rape, and retaliation for reporting abuse in the military that occurred for other members in the military is the focus of a lawsuit against the Pentagon. ( Link: 17 Veterans Sue Pentagon Over Rape Cases )
There is also another suit brought from Peace Corps volunteers against the organization for similar issues of mishandling rape and retaliation for reporting abuse. ( Link: Peace Corps Volunteers Speak Out on Rape )
Like truck driver training we are talking about intense unsupervised training situations where people of unknown origins are expected to conduct themselves to a very high standard but very little training for this is provided.
This is a tough issue and it is completely irresponsible to allow a proven corporate apologist with definite conflicts of interest do intake for trauma victims that will be funded by grants by the Department of Justice or by the Department of Labor when in reality many driver abuse cases reported on internet trucking forums originate from WIT sponsors.
Here’s a suggestion, cut ties with those sponsors until they can prove they are worthy to join a driver advocacy organization. Rather than actively seeking a sponsorship dollars from a carrier following the public announcement of mistreating drivers.
This was the case when a female student was abandoned by her carrier and made public by a veteran male driver of Facebook. The carrier only reached out to get the woman a bus ticket home after they became aware that other drivers were sharing the topic on the social media site.
I spent several hours on the phone with this lady who was left living in her car at a Wal-Mart parking lot and was devastated after the way this carrier treated her. I sent her money to eat and tried to get her off to another training carrier so she could take another shot at trucking.
This story was very public like some others I have been involved in and was yet another opportunity for Ellen Voie. I am very aware she reads every word I write and watches every video I make. Her own Director informed me she has a google alert on my name and the husband of one of her staff told revealed they looked at the pictures from my twitterfeed. So, did WIT reach out to this woman? No, but she did take action by selling the offending carrier a sponsorship. A carrier well known to drivers for it’s unethical lease program now has the WIT seal of approval. How exactly does that help the woman sleeping in her car in a parking lot? Are we to believe all the internal carrier issues are now solved upon purchase of a sponsorship to WIT?
If this female student truck driver had access to a driver crisis line that was directed to Ellen Voie, Marge Bailey or others from the Drivers advisory board what guarantees would this Woman have that the sensitive details and names of those who committed the abuse towards her would not be shared to the carrier sponsor?
Getting REAL means stop trying to cover up abuse and start addressing it with long term cost effective solutions not short term Band-Aids. After all we are talking about women being beat up raped, thrown off trucks during training and sometimes abandoned in a strange town when they have no money to go home and sometimes no home to go to.
If you want to be part of the solution show leadership and stop giving accolades to a bigger farce that is occurring by soliciting the Department of Justice- Violence against Women for money.
One last footnote, Today Injury Lawyers USA announced a helpline for Truck Drivers and Taxi Cab Drivers who have been hurt on the job. ( Link Helpline for Truck Drivers ) make sure you understand that retaliation, workplace bullying and mental distress leading to PTSD could be considered under workmans compensation.
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