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."
Left unsaid is that Mexico is building facilities at their Pacific coast ports. Stand by for a decline in imports through west coast US ports and an onslaught of imports through Mexican ports. They will need to be trucked north and teamsters won't be doing it. The union thugs are worried as well they should be.
We will finally be able to single finger the longshoreman's union, the corrupto stato californiacate and stinkin teamsters. Unions and their rat allies are forcing shippers out of west coast ports and into Mexico.
The teamsters only make up about 15% of American truck drivers.
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I guess I'm at a loss for words here. I can't go 10 miles in every direction and not see State Highways being reconstructed or re surfaced. Most of which is being done with the money from the sale of the Toll Road.
I recently had a discussion with an old union man who said Mitch sold out the unions with that sale. Well, guess who is doing all of the work on the rest of the highways? These are all union jobs.
This battle over the new route of I-69 has gone on long enough. Not everyone is going to be happy....ever.
I can't wait til they turn 31 into limited access and bypass Kokomo altogether. I've dealt with some of those landowners in the proposed paths of the bypass. Absolute Union fed assholes. I'll not shed one tear for them when a highway runs across their front yard
They have told those of us in Kansas City that over 1,000 trucks per day will be coming up the highway, and that does not include the trains.
General and Trans-Texas Corridor Mega-PING!
I thought they could only drive something like twenty miles into the US.
BTTT
bump.
...She said she called the DOT about a Mexican truck that was going down the highway with one of the axles locked up on the trailer...
This sounds like a Texas shortcoming, and is part of the reason that I can't figure out why everyone is so hysterical over dangerous trucks, et al.
Does every state not have a motor carrier enforcement division of their state police? We do in IN, and those guys are all over trucks that even remotely appear to have violations.
I find it hard to believe that TX doesn't have a similar division/process in place. Sounds like those boys are fixing to get some overtime.
If they spend a little proactive time enforcing current DOT regs (even if only Texas', NM's, AZ's individual state DOT regs) and levying the fines that come with them (and they WIL impound/disable a truck that has dangerous safety violations), then companies that wish to use their trucks to ship within the US will figure out that they need new trucks or extensive repairs.
They look just like US trucks except the writing on the trailer and the tractor is in spanish.
At that time, soon after they were allowed to cross, there was some cheating which amounted to Mexican trucks wandering around the northern US looking for truckloads to backhaul. Because of the backhaul problem, there are probably fewer mex trucks today than there were in the initial years.
This backhaul problem has also influenced how US and Mexican trucking companies have planned to approach shipping between US and Mexico.
While there will be profit in truckloads, if they don't have terminals, there will far less profit. Consequently, there has been many US companies buying into Mexican companies and vice versa.
I am not certain, but seem to recall President Bush several years ago signing or allowing an agreement to go forward that authorized Mexican truckers to travel farther inland. How far, I have no idea.
After NAFTA, Mexican trucks were allowed to travel in a 20-mile buffer zone near the border. Various Administrations pledged to remove the restriction, but the issue became a political football. The U.S. Supreme Court removed the last legal challenge to the issue in 2004. I don't know if Mexican trucks are on the roads right now, but the regulations have been written and promulagated, and the Bush Administration appears to be moving forward.
oops . . . promulgated
Mexico was awarded 2 billion per year on this. They have not retaliated tho it is a hot topic in the Mexican legislature.
Just imagine the jobs that will be available for Mexicans at those ports. Improving the Mexican way of life just might deter many of them from trying to escape up here all the time. Improving the Mexican way of life at the expense of the Teamsters and Longshoremen who have priced themselves right out of their jobs, is OK by me.
Are you serious? Duluth is a major deepwater seaport.
Yes its a port but not exactly deepwater.
27 ft. Certainly not the deepest port, but still considered "deepwater."
They've been shipping mega loads out of there for more than a century. We were there earlier this month, and it's an interesting place, both industrially and historically.
I can see how Duluth would be an attractive destination for cross-continent trucking, including return loads to Mexico/China.
It's actually a pleasant little town, gateway to the lovely North Shore. I hate to see it ruined.
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