Posted on 08/28/2006 11:59:04 AM PDT by radar101
Union warns of drug-taking truckers, unsafe rigs on planned trade routes.
The NAFTA superhighway, a north-south interstate trade corridor linking Mexico, Canada and the U.S., would mean U.S. truckers replaced by Mexicans, more unsafe rigs on American roads and more drivers relying on drugs for their long hauls, charges the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – the latest group to weigh in against the Bush administration plan.
The August issue of Teamster magazine features a cover story on the plan for an enlarged I-35 that will reach north from the drug capital border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 1,600 miles to Canada through San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis and Duluth, while I-69 originating at the same crossing will shoot north to Michigan and across the Canadian border.
Public proposals for the superhighway calls for each corridor to be 1,200 feet wide with six lanes devoted to cars, four to trucks, with a rail line and utilities in the middle. Most of the goods will come from new Mexican ports being built on the Pacific Coast – ports being run by Chinese state-controlled shipping companies.
"Tens of thousands of unregulated, unsafe Mexican trucks will flow unchecked through out border – a very real threat to the safety of our highways, homeland security and good-paying American jobs," writes Teamster President Jim Hoffa. "The Bush administration hasn't given up on its ridiculous quest to open our border to unsafe Mexican trucking companies. In fact, Bush is quietly moving forward with plans to build the massive network of highways from the Mexican border north through Detroit into Canada that would make cross-border trucking effortless."
So incensed was the union over the plan for the NAFTA superhighway that it sent investigative reporter Charles Bowden to Mexico for its August magazine report on the problems affecting Mexican drivers – problems that could soon come home to Americans with the plans for the new intercontinental highways.
Drivers interviewed for the magazine report say they are exploited by companies that force them to drive 4,500 kilometers alone over the course of five or six nights without sleep. How do they stay awake on such long hauls?
One driver says, "professional secret." Another laughs, "magic dust." Others mention "special chemicals."
"And then they are off, a torrent of words and quips and smiles, and a knowing discussion of that jolt when a line of cocaine locks in," writes Bowden. "They are all family men who run the highways at least 25 days a month and they are adamant about two things – that nobody can run these long hauls without cocaine and crystal meth, and now and then some marijuana to level out the rush. And the biggest danger on their endless runs comes from addicted Mexican truck drivers, which means all truck drivers."
Mexican drivers, of course, earn considerably less than their U.S. counterparts – about $1,100 a month. Hoffa says the NAFTA superhighway plan would "allow global conglomerates to capitalize by exploiting cheap labor and non-existent work rules and avoiding potential security enhancements at U.S. ports."
The drivers interviewed for Teamster magazine say they are completely at the mercy of their employers, the Mexican government and police – who are the first to rob them. All of those interviewed said they have killed people with their trucks on the highways and fled the accident sites.
Hoffa calls NAFTA an "unqualified disaster" up to now – and wonders why the nation continues to pursue the "free trade" agenda. Instead of creating new jobs, he said, it has cost 3 million in manufacturing alone. Instead of creating trade surpluses, America's trade deficit is the worst ever, he says.
"If there's a positive side to the disastrous legacy of NAFTA, it's that it has made it a little harder for the free trade cabal to wrap their lies around subsequent job-killing deals," says Hoffa. "While the White House and Senate still have a majority who continue to support the free trade agenda, their ranks have shrunk over the years – sometimes due to members of Congress changing their minds and sometimes due to voters changing their member of Congress."
He adds: "If the Bush administration succeeds (with the NAFTA superhighway), American drivers and their families will be forced to share the roads with unsafe, uninsured trucks and millions of good-paying American jobs will be lost. And just one weapon of mass destruction in an unchecked container will be too many."
"The Teamsters aren't the only ones saying it. The vast majority of truckers (non union) have been saying the same thing for several years now."
I'm not a driver, but it's obvious that the cos. want to depress wages anyway they can. That's "profit." If they get resistance from conservatives the companies will hire more "opinion makers" playing up to class warfare.
Right on, DD!
This is too funny as the unions support illegal aliens.
So they want illegal aliens, presumably to join unions, but they don't want "legal" aliens.
MMmmK!
The dem party is for amnesty, all for more illegals, all for all types of government programs for illegals, against building any kind of fence, etc. Who do you think all these illegals are taking jobs from? Mostly blue collar dem workers...
The EU already has this issue.
Unless you have uniform rules then you have lowest common denominator rules.
Basically Mexico and Canada should submit to the jurisdiction of the United States DOT rules across the board.
No Nafta new gov. Just pure United States.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration NAFTA Rules.
You should get Mom to do some "rolling reports" for us FReepers whilst on her travels
Where is this huge market they are supplying? Canada?
I-69 extension is NOT Mitch's baby. It'd already be built before he took office if it hadn't been for the weak-kneed predecessor
Who would have thought that expanding I-35 would destroy the U.S. economy and our way of life?
You could check out the forums at http://www.pumpkindriver.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
It's a forum for Schneider national drivers.
And the republican party is NOT? Or do you consider that "earned path to citizenship" and other plays on words as not being amnesty?
If it walks like a duck....etc.
Cocaine use by Mexican truck drivers because of NAFTA? Is this what Ross Perot meant when he said NAFTA would cause "a giant sucking sound"?
Not all drivers are teamsters.
So now we get a new terrain highway when we can't afford to keep up the roads we have now. They go on about how that damn highway is going to be the states saviour. Sheesh... it's not like there are NO roads running north from any number of points south.
The project is going to save maybe 20 minutes over an upgraded route, and divide towns, farms, and be a boon to all sorts of RE speculators and developers who love nothing more than turning under land in favor of concrete and asphalt.
I'm sure Mitch sold out to his big money men with some of the crap he pulled in his first 30 days in office. Never mind what the people of the state actually wanted.
The Mexican trucks and drivers have been crossing the US to reach Canada since 1996.
Get 'R Done
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