Thread: Teamsters to Try to Block Mexican Trucks

Teamsters to Try to Block Mexican Trucks

Wednesday August 29, 2007 5:16 PM


By JESSE J. HOLLAND

AP Labor Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Teamsters Union said Wednesday it will ask a federal appeals courts to block the Bush administration's plan to begin allowing Mexican trucks to carry cargo anywhere in the United States.

The union said it has been told by officials in the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that the first Mexican trucks will be coming across the border on Saturday.

Teamsters leaders said they planned to seek an emergency injunction Wednesday from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

``What a slap in the face to American workers, opening the highways to dangerous trucks on Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest driving weekends of the year,'' said Teamsters President Jim Hoffa.

Joining the Teamsters in seeking the emergency stay were the Sierra Club and Public Citizen. ``Before providing unconditional access throughout the country to tens of thousands of big rigs we know little to nothing about, we must insure they meet safety and environmental standards,'' Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in a statement, said it was working closely with the department's inspector general ``as his office completes an additional assessment of the program and we prepare a detailed response to that report.''

The Bush administration said last week it would start the cross-border program once the Transportation Department's inspector general certifies safety and inspection plans.

Leslie Miller, a Teamsters spokeswoman, said attorneys for the federal truck safety agency advised the union's lawyers that they expect to get that certification on Friday. She said the Teamsters also were told by the agency attorneys that limited authority for trucks to begin crossing the border will be approved Saturday.

Supporters of the plan say letting more Mexican trucks on U.S. highways will save American consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Labor and driver-owner groups have been fighting the measure - part of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement - since it was first proposed, saying the program will erode highway safety and eliminate U.S. jobs.

A one-year demonstration project would allow 100 Mexican motor carriers full access to U.S. roads. It can begin as soon as the inspector general certifies that safety and inspection plans and facilities are sufficient to ensure the Mexican trucks are as safe as U.S. trucks.

Since 1982, Mexican trucks have had to stop within a buffer border zone and transfer their loads to U.S. trucks.

--- http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/s ... 30,00.html

This is an out rage, it just made my blood boil, where the hell is our congress!!


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Like Bush said.....Doing jobs Americans won't do! This is just another example of his continuing effort to destroy America for Americans; that, are working within their means to support their families and themselves. And this, I believe, is another push towards the Nafta Super Highway. Bush and the current news media are the worst enemies the USA has had in a long time.

I truly hope the American truckers protest by blocking the interstates and highways. I'm more than willing to drive the back roads on my 1 hour commute to work in support of them.

This is an out rage, it just made my blood boil, where the hell is our congress!! Evil or Very Mad

congress is lined up behind obama who is waiting to get an audiance with elvira.

It's as though Bush, et al, are determined to do whatever it takes to destroy the livelihood of as many Americans as possible. It's absolutely insane as well as traitorous.

Supporters of the plan say letting more Mexican trucks on U.S. highways will save American consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yeah right all it's going to do is undercut thousands and thousands of independant owner operators wages! The only people that are going to reap the benefits are the corporations, and big trucking companies who want bigger profits! Capitalism is one thing, and makes America great, but the UNBRIDLED GREED that is running our nation now is going to ruin our nation!

Originally Posted by fedupDeb

It's as though Bush, et al, are determined to do whatever it takes to destroy the livelihood of as many Americans as possible. It's absolutely insane as well as traitorous.

Bush is in his last year of politics. As such he doesn't care about Republicans or the American people. He's working for those who will hire him after he leaves office.

As one who travels back and forth across the country frequently and one who has two Mexican-American truck drivers as neighbors, I can tell you that it is sort of like cowboys and Indians out there. Apparently, there are a lot of trucking schools along the border and most of the graduates are of Mexican descent. Those people, even though they are Americans, seem to be siding with the Mexican drivers from Mexico for the most part. So now, not only do you have Mexican American drivers in a tinkling contest with unhyphenated American drivers, we will soon be adding to the mix drivers who probably don't even have a valid drivers license carrying truckloads of illegal aliens and contraband. Oh joy!

And keep in mind that many of the Chinese imports we are finding on our store shelves come through ports in Mexico where there are fewer restrictions on the ships and their crews. So they are helping to bring us more crap that we don't need and is probably going to poison us all.

Originally Posted by blkkat99

Supporters of the plan say letting more Mexican trucks on U.S. highways will save American consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yeah right all it's going to do is undercut thousands and thousands of independant owner operators wages! The only people that are going to reap the benefits are the corporations, and big trucking companies who want bigger profits! Capitalism is one thing, and makes America great, but the UNBRIDLED GREED that is running our nation now is going to ruin our nation!

At the cost of American jobs from the truck drivers to the warehousing and other middleman jobs that makes the US trucking industry go round! Just think how much money will be sucked out of the American workers pockets to get cheap, crappy products! They want a NAFTA highway to connect the states too Mexican ports to the south and bypass American ports from imports from China!!! And we all know what China's up too right?!?! Read "The Late Great, USA" By, Jerome Corsi to find out more of these shady acts by our government!