Buckle Up. Supply Chains at Major Risk.

It's not just California's AB5's "gig-worker bill" going into effect today; it's BlackRock owning the railroads and hellbent on railroading the nation.... so what to do?

California's new law known as AB5, the  “gig-worker bill,” goes into effect today, removing 70,000 independent truckers from the roads. Hundreds of California companies and manufacturers dependent upon independent, mom-and-pop trucking companies will be out of luck. They now have to scramble to find somebody to move their freight.

Hundreds of independent truck drivers took to the streets last Wednesday to protest the California law that makes it more difficult for them to be considered independent contractors.

About 100 truck drivers stopped working in protest at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, as other drivers blocked highways in the area. However, I expect these protests to grow exponentially over the next few weeks.

Because of AB5 going into effect, many truck owners will be forced to immediately downsize their contracted owner-operator fleets or hire former owner-operators as company drivers, putting them on the payroll and having to fork out a lot of employee tax, workman’s comp, and the list goes on.

This is expected to cause a ripple effect in the industry, pushing many drivers to work out of state, likely in Arizona or Nevada, and even force some into retirement due to increased market pressures. The impact on the supply chain is expected to be staggering.

One would think, however, that if push comes to shove, we could rely more heavily on rail shipments.

But guess who owns Union Pacific Corporation — the entity that could help alleviate some of the trucking pressure in California? None other than BlackRock. Unfortunately, they, too, are playing hardball, just like California’s politicians.

BlackRock is demanding Union Pacific stop transporting diesel and Diesel Exhaust Fluid tanks (DEF, which I wrote about in an earlier post).  BlackRock wants to reduce the number of cars transported on their rails.

Their reasoning? Supposedly their bottom line. But for some reason, the words, “You will own nothing and be happy,” keep ringing in my ears.

BlackRock has been pressuring BLET, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, to reduce their shipments by 26-50% or face embargos.

For some reason, BlackRock seems hell-bent on choking off our food, fuel, and supplies and skyrocketing our prices: They are literally trying to railroad the nation…