Thread: Hoffa Blasts Bush Plan Open Border to Unsafe Mexican Trucks

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stori ... 478&EDATE=


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hoffa Blasts Bush Plan to Open Border to Unsafe Mexican Trucks



Calls for Congressional Hearings, Prevent Repeat of Dubai Ports Debacle

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Bush administration
is expected to announce today it intends to open the U.S. border to unsafe
Mexican trucks in the next six to eight weeks for a one-year experimental
pilot program. The border has remained closed, except for transfers within
a 20-mile commercial zone, since the implementation of the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) because of the Mexican government's failure to
meet the truck safety and driver training requirements of NAFTA.
"As with the Dubai Ports debacle, President Bush is willing to risk our
national security by giving unfettered access to America's transportation
infrastructure to foreign companies and their government sponsors." Said
Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President. "They are playing of game of
Russian Roulette on America's highways. Mexico refuses to meet their end of
the bargain yet President Bush rewards them with open access to American
highways. It is the American driving public who will pay the consequences."
The Teamsters Union has led efforts to keep the border closed for the
past twelve years. Just two years ago, the Department of Transportation
Inspector General found that the Mexican government and Mexican motor
carriers did not meet congressionally mandated requirements. An Inspector
General audit report is due in the next couple of months, raising serious
questions as to why President Bush is pushing this experimental program
ahead of that report.
"Where is the Inspector's General report that tells us that Mexico is
meeting U.S. standards?" Hoffa asked. "Why is the President willing to move
forward when his own Inspector General has stated that Mexico cannot meet
its obligations?"
According to DOT sources, the Bush Administration will announce today
that it is initiating a one-year experimental program that will allow 100
Mexican carriers to begin travel beyond the currently permitted commercial
zones. Apparently no hazardous material shipments will be permitted in
order to avoid the required background checks. The DOT is unable to say how
many trucks will be participating in the experiment or whether there will
be a system in place to differentiate between those trucks traveling to the
20-mile commercial zones and those permitted to travel throughout the U.S.
The plan raises several serious concerns, including:
-- The impact on homeland security initiatives. Will the drivers be
checked against the terror watch list or will our borders be open to anyone
with a Mexican driver's license? Will the drivers be required to carry a
Mexican passport as U.S. citizens are required to present their passports
when entering the country from Mexico or Canada?
-- The DOT has been disingenuous about this pilot program, indicating
only a few weeks ago that it was not pursuing this pilot program. What else
are they lying about?
-- Enforcement of hours of service in Mexico, false log books and
fatigued drivers entering the U.S.
-- The application of U.S. standards to Mexican drivers including the
requirement that U.S. drivers have a Commercial Drivers License, undergo
regular physicals and meet minimum age requirements.
-- The integrity of drug and alcohol testing. Though testing will be
done in U.S. labs, it is unclear who will oversee the collection of random
samples creating a system ripe for abuse.
-- Enforcement of U.S. wage and hour laws.
-- DOT's assertion that all trucks will be inspected by U.S. officials
in Mexico and at the U.S. border when less than ten percent of all Mexican
trucks entering the commercial zone are inspected now.
"The DOT has indicated that 'this is as narrow experiment' as they
could initiate. Yet it is an experiment that allows 100 companies and an
unknown number of Mexican trucks onto our highways and forces the U.S.
traveling public to serve as guinea pigs," Hoffa said. "That is
unacceptable. I call on Congress to hold hearings immediately and to put an
end to this nonsense."
Go to http://www.teamster.org to view two independent reports on
Mexican trucks, one from 1999 and one from 2006.



SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related links:

http://www.teamster.org/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Issuers of news releases and not PR Newswire are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Terms and conditions, including restrictions on redistribution, apply.
Copyright © 1996-2007 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved.
A United Business Media company.

Bush has got to be stopped! Everything he is doing, EVERYTHING, is putting our nation as risk. What is behind this compulsion to please the Mexican government, and the rest of the varied special interest groups? This president is the most DESTRUCTIVE PRESIDENT of all time.
Bush IS a WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION!

It will be a horror story trying to settle a claim if your involved in an accident with a Mexican truck.

If its full of dope and the driver is hurt you may land in jail

I hope the U.S. truckers threaten to strike!

This is an object lesson in the untrustworthiness of the Mexicans as partners in a pact. I learned how the Mexican government and Mexican business work when my former company was trying to do business down there. There may be laws on the books, but to call them guidelines at best may be stretching things. Basically, there is no law and there is no value to a contract. Law enforcement is corrupt, the federal government is corrupt and all the major businesses are corrupt.

In short, we can sign all the trade deals we want with those organized criminals masquerading as a country, but the effect will always be the same, which is that we will hold ourselves to the strictures of the agreement while they do everything in their power to avoid them.

We have to Impeach the whole administration!! I have to vent!!!

Originally Posted by CCUSA

We have to Impeach the whole administration!! I have to vent!!!

Vent if you must, but impeachment is a highly unrealistic goal. Your energies would be better focused on something within the realm of possibility.