> Trucking salaries have decreased by as much as 50% since deregulation, according to economist Michael Belzer. Unionization rates are far lower, too, falling from about 50% of all truckers to under 20%. And by doing away with regular routes and hours, employers can take far more advantage of drivers.
just because they only control (employ) 15% of the trucking industry (per some other source, not the article you cite) doesn't mean they don't have the power to block this kind of thing. That 15% might be enough concentration and funding to pay for the needed lobbyists.
That article even says
>“Even truck drivers who weren’t members of the union benefited from the relatively high wages and decent conditions expected in the industry,” Hamilton said. “All of them generally benefited from the relatively strong position that was spearheaded by the Teamsters.”
This is in reference to 1964 and Jimmy Hoffa, when the teamsters were (I believe) still up and coming and AIUI were strong enough to lead "by influence" but not yet strong enough to lead "by authority".
That aside, I'm not saying that unions are definitely the reason, I just suppose they might be part of it. You haven't convinced me otherwise yet. I do see lots of articles on unions opposing these efforts (of course) and unions do have lobbyists. I'm not a student of this stuff so I won't belabor it further.
I guess Uber actually got out of the autonomous trucking biz awhile ago. It was Waymo that got out more recently. Maybe it's nothing to do with unions, rather exactly as they say: to focus their business.
Which unions are you thinking of?