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One Reporter's Opinion – Teamsters Plan April Boycott George Putnam It is this reporter's opinion whether you have a pickup truck or an 18-wheeler, we won a victory on Capitol Hill when a Senate committee voted to block President Bush's "reckless plan" to open the U.S. border to Mexican trucks.
The 1.4 million members of the Teamsters Union led by President James Hoffa were loud and clear in the demand to keep America's highways safe and secure (not to mention union job security).
February 23rd, the U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced a one-year pilot project to allow Mexican trucking companies to operate beyond the 20-25 mile commercial zone currently in place along the southwest border.
Hoffa, testifying before the Senate Committee, charged the Bush administration with playing "Russian roulette" with our highway safety and national security.
Recently our good friend Frosty Wooldridge, who at one point in his career trucked three years for United Van Lines, Consolidated and others, knows from where he speaks. Says Frosty, we deliver everything America needs on a daily basis – food, gasoline, lumber, cars, water – EVERYTHING!
Frosty says Bush and Teddy Kennedy have already set in motion a process to displace American truckers with their insidious Mexican trucker pilot program.
Mexican drivers who cannot read, speak or understand English would receive full access to America's highways.
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What are we thinking?
Bush, Kennedy and friends would place all American motorists at risk by allowing Mexican drivers with average sixth grade educations with Third World incompetence, habitually drunk drivers driving uninspected, unsafe trucks and trailers into our country.
As for the training of truck drivers in Mexico, they put a rank amateur behind the wheel and away he goes.
Insurance rates are bound to skyrocket as incompetence takes the wheel.
These big rigs, driven by incompetent Mexican drivers, would be permitted to cross the border with no weight regulations, no load restrictions, no liability or collision insurance.
Some of the truckers would have no driver's licenses, some with criminal driving records – no background checks, bald tires, and trucks that are not regulated to adhere to our strict safety regulations.
We are talking about a nightmare!
This is unbelievable that we would consider allowing these incompetents on our highways without meeting U.S. standards, the regulation of hours of service, driver training, and licensing.
And we haven't even mentioned Hoffa's warning that there will be a "strong temptation by unscrupulous employers to capitalize on lower-wage Mexican drivers and entice them into carrying undefined domestic cargo in the United States."
As example, environmentalists will be furious when they read a report from California's Air Resources Board stating that 50 tons of new smog (the equivalent of that produced by 2.2 million cars) will be pouring into California's skies daily as a result of 17,500 Mexican trucks crossing into California each day!
Today the number of trucks is only 3,500. Of the additional 14,000 trucks (a quarter of which were on the road before 1980) as many as nine of every 10 of them were built before 1993.
How could California possibly meet federal air quality standards? This move could also jeopardize billions of dollars in federal transportation funding.
The truckers are mad as hell and they plan to fight back!
A teamsters' boycott is scheduled to take place April 23, 24, 25, truckers from four border states – Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and beyond.
The truckers say we plan to put Bush, Kennedy, and company on the spot. "We plan to put their feet to the fire. The teamsters also believe the American people are firmly behind them.
The truckers are hoping the boycott will paralyze the nation – sending a strong message to Washington.
You, too, may participate in this trucker boycott. More details to follow on the truckers' boycott and your participation in it.
In the meantime, convey your feelings on the issue by writing and e-mailing your outrage to President Bush and your elected officials. © NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.
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