Hundreds of dump trucks are massed in a Mississauga parking lot, readying for a slow-moving protest this morning along some of Toronto’s busiest highways.
Their drivers, members of the Ontario Dump Truck Association, are calling attention to what a leader calls “inhumane working conditions” that include 12-hour days, overloaded rigs and low wages that haven’t been increased in five years.
“It’s a safety issue,” said the association’s Harsimran Gill. “Our trucks are supposed to carry 21 tonnes. But every time we are pulled on a scale, it’s around 28, 29, sometimes 30 tonnes in there.
“That’s dangerous, not only for the driver, but for everyone else on the road.”
The drivers, who truck dirt from new subdivisions and other excavation sites in rigs that can cost more than $200,000, also complain they haven’t had a rate increase since it was set at $75 an hour in 2003.
