Membership Matters
The following email was sent by American Trucking Associations (AmTA) President and CEO, Chris Spear. As you are aware, the AmTA was at the tip of the spear fighting against the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate. The American Trucking Associations federation was able to successfully challenge the mandate at the Supreme Court and secured a huge victory for our industry.
While the Arizona Trucking Association is part of the federation, AmTA needs members to help fight on industies behalf at the federal level. If you are not already a member, please consider joining their ranks or donating directly to their law and litigation center.
The Return of YOUR Investment in ATA
January 28, 2022
American Trucking Association Members:
As we conclude the first month of what has been a rapid start to a New Year, it seems a good moment to touch base over what has been a remarkable few weeks for our Association. Not only did ATA lead one of the most significant policy debates that our industry has faced in decades, we stopped it in its tracks and made it change directions. We leveraged the full power of your membership to shape the outcome of decisions in Washington that are writing the future history of this country.
The defeat of OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccine-or-test Emergency Temporary Standard has now realized savings of enormous value for ATA members and our industry: $1.6 billion in direct costs over six months – that’s testing, masking, and overhead to comply with the mandate, or roughly $982 per employee. That DOES NOT include the massive productivity losses that would have occurred through driver attrition HAD IT gone into effect.
These savings are real, they are measurable, and they are the end product of the collective power of this membership. Because of our advocacy efforts — political and legal — a new federal regulation of unprecedented size, scope, and intrusion was defeated. OSHA has formally withdrawn its ETS after the Supreme Court issued a stay by a 6-3 ruling.
Back in October when this Association met in Nashville for our annual Management Conference & Exhibition, we were warning the White House that the Administration’s proposed COVID-19 vaccine mandate was both unnecessary for America’s trucking industry and illegal. They didn’t listen; so we took them to court — all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court — and won. We told them this would happen, and it did.
These weren’t the efforts of some catch-all, alphabet soup of beltway trade groups. This was ATA and state trucking associations, working hand in glove with a small band of forward leaning supply-chain stakeholders, that brought a lawsuit. Out of more than a dozen emergency applications to the high court, our nimble coalition was but one of only two cases the justices chose to hear on the issue of employer COVID-19 mandates.
Our work is not done. Inside the beltway and in capitals across this nation, bad policies are being debated in legislatures and argued before courts. Our advocacy is what stands between those terrible ideas and our ability to move this economy forward. Your membership and invaluable contributions are what makes this possible, and delivering a return on your investment in this association is what drives us.
Best,
Chris
