MONAHANS — Low wages and working conditions that truck drivers describe as degrading have sparked an organized labor movement in the Permian Basin, a historic first for the nation’s busiest oil field.
About a dozen truckers and local environmental activists descended Monday on three West Texas cities — Kermit, Mohanans and Odessa — and blocked entrances to sand mines with a row of cars to hand out fliers listing their demands to other truckers.
Workers said the one-day demonstration, which slowed production in the nation’s largest oil supplier, was a sequel to a similar protest last year that was largely ignored and a warning of the steps they’ll take to be heard.
The truckers are demanding to be paid for the long hours they spend waiting to load and unload frac sand — or sand used during fracking to separate