UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Let 'em roll

Union wrong in trying to ban Mexican trucks

September 1, 2007

The Teamsters union is in the protection racket. It protects its members from competition.

And in fighting to keep Mexican truck drivers off U.S. roadways, the Teamsters union has a simple and transparent goal: to artificially inflate the wages of unionized truck drivers in this country who complain that they can't compete with Mexican truckers who work for less.

That's all the controversy over Mexican trucks is about. It's a labor dispute and a power play by a powerful labor union.

Oh, you'll hear about outsourcing, or highway safety, or the worry that Mexican drivers don't speak English, or the possibility that Mexican trucks could bring drugs or illegal immigrants into the United States.

But those claims are nonsense. Those are just cultural hot buttons that union officials have been willing to push to get the public on their side. At their lowest moments, many of these officials have stoked nativist fears and stirred anti-Mexican sentiment.

Luckily, up to now, the union has failed. It struck out in trying to keep Mexican trucks off the table in trade negotiations. It failed again when it lobbied Congress to ban Mexican trucks outright; it had to settle for Congress merely setting restrictions.

And within the next few days, under a long-delayed provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement and a Bush administration plan to live up to it, Mexican trucks will start rolling across the U.S.-Mexico border.

But wait. In a last-ditch attempt to protect its members under the guise of protecting the American public, the Teamsters are asking a federal appeals court to issue an emergency injunction to block the Bush administration and keep the Mexican trucks off U.S. roadways.

The court should throw out this case. The Teamsters union is not known for giving up a fight. But here, it should. It is on the wrong side and doing itself no good.

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