Modes: You deserve more than a golden key
Hi everyone!
Another thrilling week comes to an end. I had to report a lot on politics, which sucks. I am constantly doing everything I can to not cover politics. I mean, I moved to South Korea to report on romance culture (and actually mostly other things) three weeks before Trump was inaugurated. This week, though, I had no choice.
I wrote about why the stimulus bill did not address the trucking industry's "freight cliff," and why Trump gave four truck drivers a golden key on the White House Lawn yesterday. Both stories got positive responses, and plenty of naysayers, too.
To summarize the naysayers: Journalists are always looking for a bad story (especially about Trump), and they'll do whatever it takes to create one — even if it's from a positive event. The key ceremony from yesterday was a good thing and many drivers were proud to be recognized.
Many of my LinkedIn connections shared gleeful screenshots and videos of Trump saying, "Thank god for truck drivers." It was a rare moment of visibility for an often-ignored industry and group of workers.
How Transportation Nation dot com covered it...
... versus how I covered the same event. (You can watch it here.)
I'm still wrestling with the point about journalists just looking for a bad spin — because, let's face it, it's at least a little bit true. It's not for nefarious reasons; my objective as a journalist is to question powerful institutions so people's lives can improve. In business reporting, that usually involves trying to critique a company that's doing something bad. But, some of my favorite stories (like this piece about UPS) involve praising companies that are doing right by their workers. Any good article involves disruption or something out of the ordinary, but it doesn't always have to be negative. We could all do better at finding more of those stories.
Onto the "truck drivers got respected, thus it was really a good event" point...
This made me wonder about how I would feel if a US president, say, honored some journalists on the White House lawn. I do not have the mental capacity to explore the current president's treatment of the media in this newsletter, but I think I would feel happy to see reporters getting some sort of honor.
But the real problem comes down to money.
For me, and for many of my coworkers, the key ceremony was reminiscent of our country's glee in calling essential workers "heroes" but not paying them more. These heroes include: nurses; fast food workers; grocery cashiers; delivery folks; warehouse workers; and, of course, truck drivers. My colleague on the retail team Kate Taylor has reported on this phenomenon; workers would rather their companies pay a living wage and give decent healthcare instead of calling them heroes.
Note: This trend reached what I believe to be a zenith when Pepsi and Kroger collaborated to give employees a $1 discount on 20-ounce bottles of pop. (Limit two per customer. Dr. Pepper not included. Offers ends on May 12.)
A happy ending to the dumb $1 Pepsi/Kroger essential workers deal – Kroger announced it is extending its hero bonus until May 2 after @hcpeterson reached out for comment! https://t.co/zG8wcP9yp0 pic.twitter.com/Z6Aj6rzZRI
— Kate Taylor (@Kate_H_Taylor) April 17, 2020
Truck drivers complain about pay. But, perhaps even beyond that, they email me almost every day saying the one thing their job is missing is respect.
Retailers often leave drivers waiting for hours (unpaid!) because they don't bother to ensure that drivers can get in and out of their facilities in a speedy fashion. Warehouse managers often don't allow truck drivers to use the bathroom during drop-offs or pick-ups. And more than a few folks who I tell about the trucking beat will make a joke about them being fat, lazy, prone to visiting sex workers, drugged, stupid, politically misguided, and so on.
In that case, the key ceremony is great. The literal President of the United States of America saying "thank god for truck drivers" is exactly what drivers would want.
Still, I'm not sure. Does money beget respect, or the other way around? Too much money results in scorn (see: surgeons, hedge fund managers), though perhaps not a dearth of respect. It is a plain fact, too, that when songs, TV shows, and movies centered on truck drivers' lives as the American anti-hero in the 1970s, their 2020-equivalent median salary was approaching six-figures or higher.
Respect should be a given for truck drivers. And that should translate to a median pay that's more than their current $43,000 per year for ~80 hours per week of work, and with it access to restrooms while on the job. This is not a political statement. This is just a fact.
The second-to-top rung on Maslow's hierarchy of needs is "esteem," which comes, I imagine, from feeling like you and your job matters. But you can't get to that rung unless you've met all the ones below it — namely, having access to food and a bathroom, a place to sleep, safety, and water. For millions of Americans, including many truck drivers, those things aren't always guaranteed. (Another side note on Maslow.)
Thanks for reading and talk to you next week. Please let me know your thoughts on this topic; I'd love to hear from you, even if you think I'm a total ass-hat.
– Rachel