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Debbie
Hoffman is a champion — a fighter for women's rights and a successful
independent trucker. You
shouldn’t be in here asking for an application to drive truck for
this company, you should be home making babies," remarked
Dick LaFone, vice president of Great Lakes Express, to Debbie Hoffman
who sat shocked and embarrassed. Earlier, she had walked into LaFone's
office hopeful of getting a job with the same outfit as her trucker
husband. Instead, she found herself close to tears as the man continued
to wail on herwith his persona! prejudices. "We
have enough cry babies around here in some of the men, let alone hiring
a bunch of women. I won't even give you an application and if you
don't like it, go see some one in authority with the civil rights
department. If they come to see me, I'll tell them just what
I've told you," he said belligerently. Hoffman
left the office of Great Lakes that day in 1974, determined on two
counts. First, she would follow LaFone's sarcastic advice and file
a lawsuit against the company for discrimination, a suit that would
be a long time in settling, then—because she felt so alone in her
struggle to break into trucking —someday she would organize women
drivers to support one another in time of need. It
wasn't until last year that Hoffman cou!d finally take time from her
trucking profession to work on the goal she set for herself
10 years ago. In 1983 she started the Women's National Truck Drivers
Organization, Inc. (WNTDO), which is structured to promote women drivers
on a national scale. Designed to bring about cohesiveness, the group
is committed to: act as a representative body within the trucking
industry on political and economic issues by keeping its members informed
on current topics: dispell hard core prejudice still found in a predominatly
male profession; act as an aidi and advisory group to individual women
who may have professional or personal problems, and offer support
any way necessary to give its I members confidence and competence
in their profession. "It
isn't only major difficulties that produce a need for an association,
Often, it is the day to day problems that make tough on a woman in
this business. It is amazing how many women drivers are wives and
mothers. Problems that exist in every working woman's life
are greatly exaggerated in trucking. After all, female truck drivers
are not sitting six blocks from home in an airconditioned office with
a telephone at their elbows. Often you are thousands of miles away,
cooped up in a cab and away from communication for hours on end. Finding
solutions to some of the logistics is one of my goals —
solutions that allow a woman driver to do her job without worrying
about what's going on at home, like babysitting problems, household
help and things of that nature." From
the response of other women drivers, the need for such an association
is obvious. Incorporated in April of this year, WNTDO already boasts
a membership of about 250 women and is looking forward to having 500
by the end of 1984. The broad-based membership is open to any woman
trucker—independent, company driver or part of a husband and wife
team — who wants to join the group to work towards improving
conditions for the female driver. Yet Hoffman admits conditions aren't
as difficult today as they were when she applied for her first job
and had such a nasty introduction into a man's domain. But even then,
there were some companies who were willing to take a chance on women
drivers. After
Hoffman filed her lawsuit against Great Lakes Express, she turned
to Wernco, Inc., in Dearborn, Mich.,who encouraged her by giving her
a job. "They were very helpful and I hauled bulk cement in a
set of doubles for them for over three years. Then my suit against
Great Lakes came up and I won my case.” During
that period of time, Great Lakes Express had sold out to Branch Motor
Express and the new management was not burdened by the same anti woman-driver
philosophy exhibited so blatantly by its predecessor. Branch paid
Hoffman $20,000, gave her a job and awarded her three years' seniority
with the company as part of the court settlement. She stayed with
the company until a year ago, working as an independent owner-operator
hauling flatbed steel and also container loads for Branch's import/export
division. For
a starter, Hoffman believes in buying what she considers to be the
best in equipment and she keeps it in mint condition. Knowing that
maintenance is often the secret behind a money-making trucking business,
when it comes to mechanical details she is a real stickler. So much
so, in fact, she became an expert mechanic herself, partly because
she was afraid she would get short-changed by some mechanics who would
take advantage of her "because I'm a woman and not expected to
know good mechanical work from bad." Hoffman now does all her
own service, repairs and even a major in-frame to one of her trucks,
which "ran great when I finished with it." This ability
alone makes her stand out from the crowd.
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