Mexico Sends 1st Long-Haul Trucks to US

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

3 hours ago

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two Mexican tractor-trailers have delivered payloads in New York and South Carolina, becoming the first trucks to operate deep in the United States under a long-delayed, NAFTA-mandated program criticized on both sides of the border.

The trucks, operated by Transportes Olympic, a company based outside the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, crossed into the United States carrying steel construction materials and will haul similar products from Arkansas and Alabama back across the border, Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez said Sunday.

Since 1982, Mexican trucks have been allowed to operate in the United States only within a 25-mile zone along the border, where they transfer loads to U.S. vehicles for transport elsewhere in the country.

Unrestricted access was supposed to begin in 1995, but the Clinton administration refused to open the border to Mexican trucks out of concern that they might be unsafe. A NAFTA arbitration panel overruled the U.S. in 2001, but lawsuits and lengthy negotiations with the Mexican government led to even more delays.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iqRQHbH0k1jx92SHm9s2HrRo2S7g

[Systematic Chaos]

1. I don't see any way any good can come of this.

Too many people here have offered testimony about the poor safety, disgusting emissions and other hazards of these trucks. Besides, I would much rather see American workers who need jobs moving freight on our highways.

:kick:

[UTUSN]

11. In all of these threads I will say, "Canadian truckers have been here for some time.

Why no complaints about them? If not about their safety, what about THEIR takiing American jobs and all the other complaints raised about Mexicans?"

[pampango]

12. Middle class drivers (though some of them speak French)

with nice trucks. (We know that the Third World poor are out there, but we try to keep them as far away as possible.)

Are you suggesting that we treat poor Hispanic truck drivers the same way we treat Canadians? Surely you jest! ;) Your next suggestion is likely to be that poor minority children should have the same access to a quality education as do middle class children even though the former are not as "prepared" for school as the latter.

Incidentally, I just found out that Mexican truckers had full access to our roads until 1982, when Reagan restricted them to the 25-mile zone around the border. Those opposed to Mexican truckers being allowed into the country should be aware that the godfather of the original restriction was that great egalitarian Repub president.

[brentspeak]

13. Ah, so it's you again

Trying to play the "race card" in regards to NAFTA and the other "free"trade agreements. You just don't stop, do you?

[pampango]

14. Thanks. Nice to be noticed. Guess none of us ever stop.

Actually, I was trying to play the "class", and perhaps the "linguistic", card. My reference was to middle class truck drivers, some of whom speak French, contrasted to poor, Spanish-speaking drivers.

But thanks for noticing.

As I have said many times, "free trade" is a misnomer, kind of like "free lunch". I do support international trade, just not the "free" kind.

[ChromeFoundry]

29. As I told someone

in the past, the ignore function works great. :)

[LisaM]

24. Actually, Canadian truckers really have messed up WA state roads

They come blasting down from BC driving too fast. Our roads are a mess (I would guess the same thing is happening in Michigan), clearly they don't pay anything to use them, and there are no restrictions as far as I can tell. They go right through Seattle during rush hour and slow the commute tremendously. Their trucks are probably safer than Mexican ones, but I think they are a problem.

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. Why doesn't the WA State police just enforce the spped limit?

:shrug:

[LisaM]

26. Ha! Ha! Ha!

That's a good one. I don't know. But it still doesn't excuse speeding.

[fasttense]

32. On the safety of Mexican trucks

from the mouths of Mexican truck drivers themselves:

"The longest distance I drive," said a driver about 30 in a black T-shirt, "is from Ensenada to Cancun, 4,500 kilometers. Five days and six nights alone. Tomatoes. The company won't pay for a second driver."

Ah, but how can a man stay awake and drive for five straight days?

The table erupts in laughter. The man facing the empty liter of beer smiles and says, "Professional secret." The younger man in the black T-shirt offers one phrase, "Magic dust." There are more smiles and mention of "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. 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 that the biggest danger on their endless runs comes from addicted Mexican truck drivers, which means all truck drivers."

http://www.teamster.org/resources/members/TeamsterMagazine/06August/nafta.htm

I doubt Canadians would allow this.

[UTUSN]

33. I'm sure the Mexicans would open right up & tell all to THE TEAMSTERS!!1 n/t

[QC]

2. But they're just driving the trucks Americans won't drive!!! n/t

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

3. I don't understand this...NAFTA and open/closed border

:shrug:

[reggie the dog]

4. this is not good

this is not at all good for the good ol boys who do long haul trucking in the USA.
The mexican truck drivers earn a mexican wage while in US territory. This is about undercutting wages.

[Earth_First]

6. This is what concerns me most... n/t

[Earth_First]

7. This is what concerns me most... n/t

[Orsino]

8. Yet another way in which Dems could have won the good ol' boy vote...

...and another way in which we failed.

[reggie the dog]

20. tell me about it

Bill Clinton's signing of NAFTA helped convince many workers that the government, whether left or right, does not care about their economic well being. They vote on single issues instead, such as helmet laws, or gun control because to them the left and the right have nothing to do with economics.

[pokercat999]

30. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA surely you jest. The "good old boys"

are the major Koolaiders and will never vote for a dem. You could be pushing a 40 hour week with a $2.00 per mile pay rate and they would say it was going to be inflationary; as if they even knew what that meant.

For the MOST part:
Trucker = Macho = Rethug = stupid sum-bitch

[Orsino]

31. A promise was never going to win them.

But a generation or two of Dem-sponsored legislation supporting working Americans? That would win hearts and minds.

[pampango]

5. What happened in 1982 that restricted Mexican trucks to the 25-mile zone?

Did they have more access before that or no access at all?

[OOIDA Media Affairs]

9. Mexican Trucks

If you wish to take action click the following link.


http://www.ooidacalltoaction.com/mexico_border/

[Doremus]

10. That so bites.

I had hoped that if the lawsuit failed there would be some effort to organize a blockade. I'm old enough to remember the convoys of the 1970s that focused so much attention on the plight of the independent long haul truckers.

Was there any attempt to organize anything? :shrug:

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. This is so counter-productive.

One accident on the street and there's going to be a riot.

Needless to say, I have little trust that Bush's cronies won't find a way to use those trucks to transport contraband. They're still probably miffed over those ports.

[1776Forever]

17. This is not about Mexicans looking for work! This is about the downfall of the middle class

Come on people - you should be REALLY upset if you are from Mexico and here to try to become a middle class citizen. This is just a way to lower the wages in the trucking and longshoreman's workers market. The Chinese are deep into this and helped build the Mexican port. Do your homework! This is not a good thing no matter how you look at it. Drug control, wages, insurance, safety wise - this just stinks to high heaven! More money for the BIG BOYS! GREED GREED GREED - this is our new American motto!!!!!!!!!!!!

News Conference coming today on this issue - heard it on Ed Schultz - not sure of time.

[Zookeeper]

22. Bingo. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. I think they want to make the United States into a latin American country.

With 10% of the population owning 90% of the resources. Whether they realize it or not, it will create an environment where anybody can get bought.

[seafan]

16. We also have Bush's Supreme Court to thank for this.

CNN

June 8, 2004

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that the Bush administration can skip a lengthy environmental study and open U.S. roadways to Mexican trucks as soon as it wishes.

The high court ruled against labor and environmental organizations that have long fought expansion of Mexican trucking within the borders of the United States despite a guarantee this country made when it signed the North American Free Trade Agreement more than a decade ago.

Ruling on narrow procedural issues, the Supreme Court said the president has authority to open the border, and a federal agency responsible for truck safety has no say in the matter. Thus, the agency was under no obligation to study environmental effects from opening the border, as a lower federal court had ordered.

.....

President Bush ordered the opening of all U.S. roads to Mexican trucks in 2002, but the dispute has been tied up in courts.

The long fight, begun during the Clinton administration, had ground down to a last quarrel over an environmental assessment, or study, called an EA. Opponents of the truck expansion argued that a particular kind of study was required by law and that the Bush administration was ducking that requirement.

The justices said no, and also rejected what they called the opponents' attempts to make the case about safety and environmental concerns instead of about precise legal requirements.

"Because the president, not the (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) could authorize or not authorize cross-border operations from Mexican motor carriers, and because FMCSA has no discretion to prevent the entry of Mexican trucks, its EA did not need to consider the environmental effects arising from the entry," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court.

.....

[davekriss]

18. Note how power shifts

"A NAFTA arbitration panel overruled the U.S. in 2001"

The United States overruled? A NAFTA arbitration panel has more power than the United States people as expressed through our political institutions? Just who gets to elect this "NAFTA arbitration panel". Do you or I get to vote? I didn't think so.

Our Congresspeople get to hide behind that darn NAFTA panel, shrug their shoulders and say there's nothing that can do about it their hands are tied. Meanwhile the giggling board rooms around the country get to route their Asia-Pacific-made goods, which when America was a better place were made here, through ports in Mexico instead of U.S. mainland without those pesky unions hiking up labor costs, and they get to pay Mexican trucking companies a fraction of what they'd pay American companies. The bottom line is their profit margins swell at the cost of some of the last bastions of blue collar middle class jobs.

[pampango]

19. My understanding is that when one country signs a treaty with another,

they are agreeing to do or to not do something in exchange for something that they consider to be of equal or greater value. By agreeing to do or not do something, they are relinquishing some of their sovereignty.

If France and England want to agree to a trade treaty and they agree that disputes that cannot be resolved are decided by a mutually agreeable panel or body, are they not to be allowed to do this? If the French or British people want the members of this panel or body to be directly elected they should make sure that the enabling legislation provides for this.

Are you against all treaties between countries as infringements on sovereignty or just those treaties that have dispute resolution bodies that are not popularly elected?

[davekriss]

28. No taxation without representation!

You know, I am fully for compliance to the Fourth Geneva Convention, but our leadership apparantly thinks they can dance around that quaint international agreement at will.

I am dead against treaties such as NAFTA that essentially free the flows of capital while the worker remains stuck behind national boundaries, forced to compete on costs alone and follow that negative spiral into the trash can, all the while the owning class watching its share of the value produced grow enormously.

I am dead against treaties such as NAFTA that cede our rights to protect industries that, here in the states, protect the laborers health and safety, that protect our environment, and that more equitably distributes value. I am dead against forcing the U.S. to compete on extra-territorial terms with nations who exploit their workers, eat them up and spit them out of unsafe working conditions, and spills their toxins freely into the land around them.

I am dead against treaties such as NAFTA that would grant an unelected board the power to dictate what we can and cannot do in the United States, however small and marginal that ceded power is, as it plays right into the hands of the owning class who favor exploitation of non-union labor, unprotected labor, poorly compensated labor. Our politicians and you get to say, well, our hands are tied, there is nothing we can do about it, it's that pesky NAFTA thing you know.

I say George Bush should drop out of NAFTA without blinking an eye, but that would enhance the quality of life of the working man in the U.S. -- George only looks after the country club set.

[superkia]

21. If that truck that crashed in Northern Mexico would have crashed here

Bush wouldn't be looking so good. Has anybody heard what company the truck was from and where it was heading? I would hate to know that a truck with over 25 tons of dynamite could be just waved passed the border.

[Zorra]

27. Teamsters should organize a boycott of all companies that use these trucks.

Identify the companies and publish a list nationwide. A lot of folks in all areas of the political spectrum are vehemently opposed to this trucking program.