Posted on 09/08/2007 7:26:32 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Telling a women's conference in Houston that the effort is dangerous, leader vows Teamsters will fight funding
Calling a new pilot program opening the border to Mexican trucks dangerous, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said today in Houston the union will lobby to cut its funding.
Hoffa said money for the new program came from somewhere and the union will press Congress to stop it.
"We can do that," he said.
In prepared remarks, the union president said the Bush administration has "sucker-punched" American workers by opening highways to Mexican trucks.
Under the year-long pilot program, up to 100 Mexican carriers can get permission to go beyond a 25-mile buffer zone in the U.S. There are also provisions for U.S. carriers to go into Mexico.
The program comes under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Hoffa told the annual Teamsters Women's Conference at the Hilton Americas hotel that drugs could come in the U.S. across the border in the trucks. He said that although the Bush administration says it is concerned about national security, the program will threaten safety.
The union, along with groups including the Sierra Club and Public Citizen, argues it endangers highways because safety issues aren't resolved. A new report by the Department of Transportation's inspector general strengthens that argument, Hoffa said.
That report concluded the Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration hasn't developed and implemented complete, coordinated plans for checking trucks and drivers in the demonstration project as they cross the border.
"It's a disaster waiting to happen," the Teamsters president said.
But the safety administration says the inspector general affirmed its plans to go beyond statutory requirements and to check every truck crossing the border.
John H. Hill, administrator of the Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said today every audit the inspector general has done since 2002 found the department made substantial compliance in meeting requirements laid out by Congress.
"Any time a government program is put in place, there are always ways to improve it," he said.
Hill added that the pilot program's safety protocols are more rigorous for Mexican carriers than they are for U.S. carriers. And he questioned why Hoffa is concerned that U.S. trucking companies can't compete with Mexican trucking companies.
"We believe they can," Hill said. "I think this is about issues unrelated to the safety agenda."
The administrator also said some of the comments being made are unduly alarming to the public. He stressed last week that the program meets all public safety requirements.
Thursday night, transportation officials said one Mexican carrier and two U.S. carriers had been certified under the program. Friday evening, the Mexican carrier sent a truck loaded with steel bound for Wilson Hills, N.C.
A lawsuit by the Teamsters and other groups aimed at blocking the program is pending in court.
bill.hensel@chron.com
Whose checking the trucks and drivers, Hill, protocols?
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
They need to keep watch for the first fatality, and then bring that first tragic story straight to congress.
It’s too bad someone has to die on the highway first.... Think they’ll get the message then?
They are used to greasing palms in Mexico. No doubt they will grease a few north of the border as well. This is insanity!
No Hablas Ingles, Amigo. Pero habla bien el español.
I’m hoping this will get my cousin’s Teamster husband to finally vote something other than straight Democratic in New Jersey. I really gave it to him in the ribs when he was over my house a few weeks ago.
A disgraced, gay Gov didn’t keep him from voting the party line so I’m not optimistic.
My, my, politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.
As someone else here pointed out... Jorge Bush must be getting paid in pesos. This trucking program is yet another example of how he wants to simply erase the border between us and Mexico.
“Calling a new pilot program opening the border to Mexican trucks dangerous, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said today in Houston the union will lobby to cut its funding. “
Can’t have it both ways Jimmy. You cannot say this is bad then jump int obed with the RATS. You don’t hear the RATS bitching and moaning about this, do you Jimmy?
Tell Hoffa he should have had the Democrats deal with this issue instead of holding all the stupid “hearings” they have been holding, on Cheney, etc.
Hoffa has only one interest, keeping himself on the union gravy train.
That requires maintaining the grossly distorted Teamsters’ union wage scale.
And THAT requires not allowing any Mexicans to work in the U.S.
Now THERE's the understatement of the week!
If the Teamster membership believes this clown, they deserve to lose their jobs. The Democrats control both houses, and they could have stopped this anytime. The Teamster bosses could have leaned heavily on the Democrats and stopped this, but they didn’t. The Teamsters need to hold a unionwide revolt and toss out all their leaders who didn’t fight for them.
This is the deal of Jorge, our Republican President, not the liberal left.
Did you think at all before posting such a distorted message? Every trucker, not just Teamsters are going to take a huge hit from Mexican truckers. They will carry a load in and carry one out, or stay in the states and run from state to state at pay far below that of American truckers.
U.S. businesses will use Mexican truckers like lettuce pickers, the cheaper the better and so what if a few hundred American die on the highways because of this pilot program, illegal immigrants are murdering Americans without any concern being expressed by the current administration.The death of innocent people is collateral damage from Jorge’s MexAmeriCana pipe dream.
If you would rather see an American lose his job to a Mexican simply because the American is a Teamster, you have some real issues with what it means to be an American.
What, Hoffa just learn of this today?
Hoffa wants it to happen. He can represent Mexicans for much less trouble than Americans. It's fine with him.
Good point. This was a provision of NAFTA — dating back almost 15 years!
Ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In 1970, an entry level long-haul truck driver (non-union) earned about ten cents a mile. According to the Federal Reserve, allowing for inflation only, in 2007 the same job should pay $0.53, fifty three cents per mile. Actual current pay for the job is in the twenty five cent range. Real wages have been halved in the last 37 years. With Mexican drivers, anyone want to estimate how much wages will be cut in the next 5-10 years?
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