Thread: Hoffa: Open borders, trade deals are ruinous for America

Open borders, trade deals are ruinous for America

Last Updated: July 13. 2011 1:00AM.

James P. Hoffa

For most Americans, the recession has not ended.

Wages are falling and millions can't find jobs.

The grim June jobs report showed things aren't getting better. The unemployment rate actually went up, with 14.1 million Americans officially out of work.

The last thing American workers need are trade deals that put more of them out of work and lower their wages. And yet that is what our government is doing — not once, but four times.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood went to Mexico last week to sign a deal that opens our borders to Mexican trucks. In reporting the agreement, the press was strangely silent about the 40,000 people killed in Mexican drug wars since 2007. The media made no mention of our widening trade deficit with Mexico since NAFTA was signed in 1992, nor did reporters say anything about the 700,000 jobs lost since then.

Three more job-killing trade deals are in the hopper, and you can bet the news media will swallow whole the phony claims made about them by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups. Congress is now considering trade agreements with Colombia, where trade unionists are routinely murdered; Panama, a well-known tax haven; and South Korea, in the biggest trade deal since NAFTA.

It seems our trade policy is of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation.

Upon signing the Mexican truck agreement, LaHood issued a statement: "By opening the door to long-haul trucking between the U.S. and Mexico, America's third-largest trading partner, we will create jobs and opportunity for our people and support economic development in both nations."

I don't think anyone on the planet believes that. Polls show most are skeptical that globalization is helping the economy. The deal with Mexico will flood the U.S. with cheap labor, further eroding our living standards and workers rights. It will undermine border security and endanger motorists. It ignores corruption among Mexican law enforcement, when that law enforcement is exactly what the safety of the program depends on.

Opening the border is simply a surrender to the trucking industry and to multinational corporations — it certainly isn't to the United States or to its people. Companies don't care that Mexico can't hold up its end of the bargain. There's no way that Mexico can offer U.S. carriers the same access to its roads that Mexico gets from the U.S. No American trucking company or trucker wants to haul freight to Mexico and risk kidnapping or death.

The Teamsters have fought repeatedly against the unpatriotic, anti-American attempt to undermine our road safety, our security and our economy by opening the border to dangerous trucks. We have fought against trade deals that lower our standard of living, erode our national security and contribute to economic inequality. We will continue to fight because we love our country, even if the corporations don't.

James P. Hoffa is president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

www.detnews.com

Teamster President James Hoffa is running for re-election against reform challenger Sandy Pope whose mother is a Panamanian. The family is well connected but Sandy is considered a rebel by both her parents and Hoffa.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121904&page=3

What about the issue of amnesty for illegal immigrant workers?

James Hoffa at 5:20pm ET

I think that's something we have to look at. The AFL-CIO took a position with regard to this issue, and we are a part of the AFL-CIO. I think that we should encourage legal immigration. We should bring people to this country who have skills this country needs, and especially with regard to the Hispanic workers of the Southwest.

The Teamsters union is in the process of developing new initiatives with regard to the area of amnesty and will be putting those positions forward at a special press conference in San Jose, California.

Originally Posted by Shapka

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121904&page=3

What about the issue of amnesty for illegal immigrant workers?

James Hoffa at 5:20pm ET

I think that's something we have to look at. The AFL-CIO took a position with regard to this issue, and we are a part of the AFL-CIO. I think that we should encourage legal immigration. We should bring people to this country who have skills this country needs, and especially with regard to the Hispanic workers of the Southwest.

The Teamsters union is in the process of developing new initiatives with regard to the area of amnesty and will be putting those positions forward at a special press conference in San Jose, California.

In other words, Hoffa is all for allowing those in who are most likely join unions and stuff his coffers

The last thing American workers need are trade deals that put more of them out of work and lower their wages. And yet that is what our government is doing — not once, but four times.

Hey Jimmy, the last thing American workers need is unions demanding "rights" for illegal aliens who take American jobs. What? What?

Originally Posted by miguelina

The last thing American workers need are trade deals that put more of them out of work and lower their wages. And yet that is what our government is doing — not once, but four times.

Hey Jimmy, the last thing American workers need is unions demanding "rights" for illegal aliens who take American jobs. What? What?

The rank and file members of almost, if not all, national construction unions were hoodwinked into accepting this BS! At first we had no clue that we were recruiting IAs believing we were just organizing American nonunion workers who were already doing our trade. Then when we realized the truth members who complained found themselves black listed.

The political hierarchy of unions has been as corrupt as the American government system from about the year of my birth, 1955. During the first 30 years of the cancer it advanced slowly but by about 1990 their takeover reached the point where they would just lie knowing we knew they were lying but we could no longer do anything to stop them.

I believe the original intent of unionization to be akin to the formation of these United States. Both have been infiltrated by usurpers of ideals desirous of nothing more than power and money.