Monday, 18 February 2008
Fire U.S. Transportation Chief
By Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa



Last month's explosion on the Pharr-Reynosa bridge linking Mexico and Texas was horrifying and tragic. When two Mexican tractor-trailer trucks collided, one truck burst into flames and triggered a chain-reaction accident resulting in a pickup plunging off the bridge and a minivan bursting into flames, burning the driver beyond recognition. Four people were killed and six, including three children, were injured.

The cause of the crash on that bridge is being investigated, but authorities say the driver headed into the United States made an illegal U-turn. That's a common occurrence at the bridge when Mexican drivers notice that sparsely manned U.S. inspection stations are staffed and they don't have the proper documentation.
This tragic crash is the latest of many, many examples of unsafe driving conditions in Mexico. But the Bush administration and U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters are oblivious.

In fact, after 16 months leading the federal agency charged with making our highways safe, Peters' record is shameful and irresponsible. First, she recklessly flung open our borders to Mexican semi-tractors in a pilot program last year. Then she ignored a law passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed by President Bush to stop the program. Secretary Peters is ignoring the will of the American people and our elected representatives, endangering our highway safety, weakening our national security and breaking the law.

It's time for her to go. It's time we fire Mary Peters. This week, the Teamsters Union launched a campaign and web site, http://www.FireMaryPeters.com , to expose the many reasons why the secretary should be forced to hit the road and to build support to oust her.

The Transportation Department has shown over and over that it can't be trusted to obey the law. The key problem stems from the long-running issue of allowing unsafe Mexican trucks into our country. Even before the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, was enacted in 1994, Congress recognized that Mexican trucking safety standards are far below those in the U.S.

This is no fault of Mexican truck-drivers--for years, the Mexican government and businesses have failed to raise safety standards. As a result, a wide range of problems have persisted: Drivers can be forced to remain on the road for many, many hours even though fatigue is a major cause of highway accidents; the safety-inspection system is rickety and there are loopholes for drug- and alcohol-testing wide enough to drive a truck through.

In addition, there are security lapses and long wait times at the U.S.-Mexico border as a result of staff shortages, poor training of border personnel, outdated facilities, an overwhelming workload and a lack of standard tamperproof documents. There is no way to adequately check the background of drivers entering our country.

Because of these problems, Congress passed laws that require advance proof that highway safety will not be affected before a pilot project opens our border to long-haul trucks from Mexico.

Still, the secretary opened our roads for this reckless pilot program.

Without establishing adequate safety procedures, Peters and the Bush administration allowed the first Mexican trucks to roll into the United States during the first weekend in September. The following Monday, 34 people were killed and 150 injured in a crash in northern Mexico involving a dynamite-laded truck. While this truck was not part of the cross-border program, this awful loss of life illustrates the safety problems that the Mexican government has not reined in. The following day, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to shut down the cross-border trucking pilot program.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND, said that the purpose of the bill he sponsored was "to stop the Bush administration's pilot program that now allows Mexican trucks to haul freight throughout the United States." Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the bill would "prevent the pilot (program) from going forward." Even John Hill, administrator of a sub-agency of the Department of Transportation, called the law "a sad victory for the forces of fear and protectionism."

The intent of the bill was clear. It passed the Senate with bipartisan support in a 74-24 vote. The Supreme Court ruled resoundingly in 1984 that "if the intent of the Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter."

President Bush signed the bill into law in December. Now Congress has made it absolutely clear that it would be lawless for Secretary Peters to continue it. Still, the secretary is willfully ignoring the law of the land.

Peters needs to understand that when our elected representatives pass laws, they apply to her as much as they do to you, me and everyone else. It's time we hit the brakes on Peters' bureaucratic mismanagement.

It's time we fire Secretary Peters.
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