Payoff for Terror on the Road

Protest

After an eight-day rampage of terror and intimidation, many independent truck owners lifted their seige of major highways last week and accepted an Administration offer that will allow them to charge--and force consumers to pay -- higher prices for shipping goods. The strike dangerously disrupted road transport, closed factories and mines, threw at least 100,000 people out of work, and created scarcities of food, gasoline and othe critical supplies throughout the East and Midwest. Though truck traffic began to pick up slowly at week's end, bands of angry militants, dissatisfied with the agreement continued their harassment in parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois. Original strike leaders were pushing for ratification of the pact, but it would take days to get a precise reading of truckers' view.

Part of the problem was simply making contact with the 100,000 or so strikers, who are represented by scores of organizations. Self-employed businessmen who often own two or three rigs and haul goods for trucking companies on a contract basis, the independents are united only in their demands and by a general disdain for regulations that inhibit their sense of freedom.

The truckers' key complaint was that rising diesel-oil prices, which since September have jumped 18-c- a gallon to 45-c-, and the general scarcity of fuel were cutting their incomes by more than one-third. The Administration produced this formula: to make up for increased fuel costs, shippers, upon request to the Interstate Commerce Commission, will be allowed to add 6% immediately, along with their regular payment. The boost will ultimately be passed along to the consumer in the form of higher prices for almost everything that is hauled by truck.

Federal Energy chief William Simon promised that enough diesel oil will be allocated to truck stops to provide fuel without limit to drivers. He even issued a toll-free "hot line" telephone number (800-424-8660) on which independents can report directly to the Federal Energy Office any fuel shortages or price gouging. In still more concessions, the Administration also put a freeze on the retail price of diesel oil until March 1, exempted truckers from the ban on Sunday fuel sales, and promised a "full audit of the oil industry."

The pact was worked out in meetings in Washington between trucker representatives and W.J. Usery Jr., director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Milton Shapp had organized the meetings and acted as mediator. Still, the agreement was not good enough for many drivers, who are demanding that the Government roll back fuel prices at the pump-a difficult, if not impossible task, because of rising world oil prices.

Sniper Shots. Though many independents stayed home or picketed peacefully, the week leading up to the settlement exploded in violence as the more mindless owner-drivers tried to sweep the highways clear of trucks by intimidating nonstriking truckers. One driver, Claudie Nix, 50, was fatally shot in his moving truck near Bridgeville, Del.; earlier, another driver was killed when a large rock was thrown at his windshield and his truck crashed. Other truckers have been hospitalized with gunshot wounds; the most recent victim was Lawrence Huff, 48, who was wounded in the stomach by a sniper as he drove his rig near East Liverpool, Ohio. Still other drivers were dragged from their cabs and beaten. Strikers waited guard at truck stops in the Midwest; sometimes, if a driver refused to join the walkout, his tires were slashed, or his radiator was punctured, or his truck was overturned. Part of the underpinning of a Pennsylvania Turnpike bridge near Homewood was dynamited. In Iowa, National Guard helicopters and state police cars had to escort a 71-truck convoy of beef and pork carcasses on their way to packing plants. A total of 1,500 guardsmen were escorting trucks through Ohio. All together, eight states were forced to call out National Guard troops to check the violence.

The impact of the strike was widespread. For want of materials, many factories closed or reduced their work hours, including plants owned by Chrysler in Belvidere, Ill., American Motors in Kenosha, Wis., and General Electric in Louisville. Unable to get carcasses, meat-packing plants from Colorado to Illinois shut down, further reducing supplies and setting the scene for additional retail-price hikes. In West Virginia, five coal mines were closed for lack of fuel. Fearful drivers for oil companies refused to take their trucks out, and service stations in many cities closed.

At the headquarters of some independent organizations, newspaper reports of plant closings and other disruptions were eagerly read aloud. Said George Rynn, vice president of the Council of Independent Truckers in Barberton, Ohio: "It's amazing how easily you can shut down this country."

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