http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/372988/teamsters_set_themselves_against_mexican.htmlThe International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Saturday released a statement saying that the Bush Administration must care very little about homeland security when it permits the opening of the United States' southern border to uninspected Mexican trucks.
"The Bush administration has sucker punched American workers by opening our highways to dangerous trucks. We don't know who these drivers are and we don't know what they're bringing in," Hoffa said. "The weapons of mass destruction George Bush is looking for could be in the backs of these trucks," Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said to about 1,000 Teamster women and guests as they were attending the union's annual Teamster Women's Conference at the Hilton- Americas Houston Hotel.
On Thursday, American truckers publicly railed against the aforementioned pilot program, which would allow up to 100 Mexican trucking companies to haul their cargo anywhere in the United States. At a demonstration, Americans truckers carried signs saying things such as "NAFTA Kills" and "Unsafe Mexican Trucks".
That same day, the U.S. Transportation Department issued the first trucking permit under the pilot program to Transportes Olympic, a transportation company based in a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico. It won the permit after the Mexican government had granted authority to Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution Inc. of El Paso, Texas, to travel anywhere in Mexico.
The United States government plans to give the free roaming permission to up to 25 Mexican transportation firms by the end of September, and then add on an additional 25 Mexican companies every month, reaching 100 by the end of the year under the one-year program.
In addition to the Teamsters union, the Sierra Club and Public Citizen have sued to halt the program, arguing there wouldn't be enough scrutiny of the Mexican drivers. However, a federal appeals court, after hearing federal government lawyers argue that the program is a necessary part of the North American Free Trade Agreement and that the Mexican trucks would meet U.S. regulations, ruled that the Bush Administration could move forward with implementing the experimental program, which is in fact being implemented so that the federal and state governments can study first-hand whether or not Mexican trucks can safely be given free reign to drive in American. Canadian truckers already have such permission; under NAFTA, all three North American nations' truckers are supposed to be able to come and go across each nations' borders freely.
FULL 2 page story at link.
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