Mexican Truckers Hitting US Highways Taking Union Jobs?

LINK Please read the link first for some context..I've been know to ramble on a bit...

I guess this really was started through NAFTA...my understanding and bear with me is that this was crafted during the Bush Administration (Bush Jr.). My understanding of all this is that Mexican Truck Drivers will have basically a pretty clear lane to move goods from Mexico to the US. May not sound like a big deal but think of all the Chinese merchandise that hits our ports may now move through Mexican ports.

But wait so why would China move their goods through Mexico? Because they own some pretty large shipping companies that operate in Mexico. Mexican dock workers/companies mean cheaper expenses for China and US companies and hiring Mexican truck drivers to move the product freely through the US means lower fees for the companies hiring these people.

I'm not concerned about illegal immigrants as there are plenty of gaps everywhere or even dirty bombs as it would appear pretty easy for anyone to get anything in this country either from Canada or from Mexico or many of the unmonitored ports along the US coasts. So much for the unions kicking all their money to Obama, it appears that he is going to push this through the back door. My understanding that this move does not require a House Vote however members of congress can make this issue known through the media.

NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY This was from a 2007 article

I know this is somewhat of an extreme statement but how is this helping the United States with keeping our workforce strong?

reply to post by chrismarco


This is sad but I guess this is the market. We want cheap goods, cheaper spending, welfare, and so forth. We reap what we sow.

reply to post by Sectumsempra


I don't think the cost for us will stay down my understanding is the cost of goods may actually rise a bit...can't find where I read that but will include it when I find it...

It's all about keeping wages as low as they possibly can, as far as wanting cheap products, what else can we afford?

reply to post by jlv70


I think we can afford to say NO. [color=#FF0000]We want our country back!! [color=#FFFFFF]We want our jobs back!! [color=#3366FF]We want our representation in government back!! I would love to have a job making good money so I could pay for [color=#FF0000]American Made [color=#FFFFFF]Industrial Grade [color=#3366FF]tools vehicles and machinery. Nobody is FORCED to buy cheap Chinese imitations of American products.

Mexican truckers are driving unsafe, uninsured, trucks. They will not be required to read English or keep their log books in English. Law enforcement will be unable to interrogate them or track their log books unless they can speak and read Spanish. Mexican trucks will get a pass through customs and be on their way with God knows what in the trailers and vans they carry.

It's funny, but I'm almost positive I posted almost the same exact article almost 6 years ago. If not here then in MyFace. The discussion was virtually identical too...right down to the unsafe trucks and no insurance and extra burden on DOT and highway patrol. But it's always good to bring awareness to the masses if this indeed is happening on a grand scale. I guess it makes sense that if our factories are there, some of the trucks bringing goods back here would originate there. I mean what did we expect?

Originally posted by Sectumsempra
reply to post by chrismarco

 

This is sad but I guess this is the market. We want cheap goods, cheaper spending, welfare, and so forth. We reap what we sow.

Speak for yourself.
Cheap goods arent cheap in the long run unless you are talking about toilet paper.

Cheap spending doesn't have to be the point. How about a bit of those hundreds of billions going back to the people who provide them? Like the taxpayers.

Welfare? Who really wants welfare besides deadbeats and billionaire bankers? Working people don't get it even though it comes out of their pockets.

We sow hard work and high taxes but we reap crooked government, outsourced jobs and imported labor?
Nope. That doesn't fly.

Just one more step to turning N America into one union and opening the borders. The NAFTA Super Hwy scheme was sold to us yrs ago in the name of allowing goods to easily flow into our consumer based economy. The problem I see with that now is it's changing. Americans don't have the money for all the consumer good that we once had, when this was drafted yrs ago. It will be another nail in our coffin if they allow this to go forward now. I don't think we need to continue losing jobs. I guess it will make it easier getting to the new GM plant they're building in Mexico with our bailout money.

They shouldn't be Union jobs anyway, Union jobs are destroying this countries ability to employ Americans.

The problem with Unions is they limit Americans from getting these jobs. Why should I pay someone so that I can work? That doesn't sound like America, that sounds like communism to me.

Originally posted by whatukno

The problem with Unions is they limit Americans from getting these jobs.

And Mexicans too, apparently.

So would trucking now fall under the long list of "Jobs Americans Wont Do" ?

reply to post by Fractured.Facade


Americans would love these jobs, but thanks to the Union, the companies would rather pay someone far less than the Union demands.

Americans have to understand it's all about marketability. Unions don't understand this, and think that they can extort a huge amount of money from the company, and at the same time rip off the employees.

Want jobs to come back to America, be cheaper than it is overseas.

it is free market economics you have wrecked havoc on the world with it for the last 50 years and lived off the cream...now you are getting some paybak...

kx

Originally posted by whatukno
They shouldn't be Union jobs anyway, Union jobs are destroying this countries ability to employ Americans.

The problem with Unions is they limit Americans from getting these jobs. Why should I pay someone so that I can work? That doesn't sound like America, that sounds like communism to me.

Strike it up to my own naivety, but I never expected to see this opinion coming from you. IMO, this statement just goes to show how little you know about unions. Unions don't limit americans from getting jobs and they don't make you pay someone so you can work.

When a union deducts union dues or service charges from their members, they are not being charged so that they can work but rather, they are being charged so that they can be represented during negotiations intended to improve their wages and working conditions. Do you think that representation comes free? Do corporations have lobbyist that work for free? If so, then it's high time that you demand that 535 members of congress begin volunteering their services as well.

It is never in the best interest of any union to see the company that they work for to go under as that would mean the end of their jobs. Furthermore, you act as if the terms & conditions of a union contract are dictated by the union to the employing company, when in fact they are not. A collective bargaining agreement is just that, it's the result of a mutual agreement between labor and management with respect to wages and working conditions for a defined period of time. So, it's time that companies quit blaming labor for their own inability to live up to their end of a "mutually agreed upon" contractual deal.

In reality, unions are responsible for the creation of most of the worker safety standards and virtually all of the minimum wage increases in place today and we are periodically reminded, (Sago Mine Disaster) just what happens when employees become afraid to report those safety violations for fear of losing their jobs due to the lack of union representation.

If, god forbid, someone that was close to you got injured or killed in an accident with one of these trucks coming up out of Mexico that was not required to meet DOT standards and inspections, I think you may change your position on this subject.

I see a lot of people here on ATS like to bash unions when they really have no experience with them at all, other than maybe having a job or two in the past that was under their jurisdiction. Unless you have personal experience with regard to the inner workings of a union, then your opinions are really nothing more than hearsay.

Not all Muslims are bad, not all Christians are bad and not all unions are bad, even though there are bad people in every group. Just because Glenn Beck says they're bad doesn't make them bad, as a matter of fact, there is a high probability that quite the opposite is true.

Originally posted by whatukno
reply to post by Fractured.Facade

 

Americans would love these jobs, but thanks to the Union, the companies would rather pay someone far less than the Union demands.

Americans have to understand it's all about marketability. Unions don't understand this, and think that they can extort a huge amount of money from the company, and at the same time rip off the employees.

Want jobs to come back to America, be cheaper than it is overseas.

edit on 1/23/2011 by whatukno because: (no reason given)

If you want labor to be "cheaper than it is overseas" then get ready to move out of your modest home and move into a mud or grass hut like labor lives in overseas. Get ready to light your home with oil lamps and cook on a wood burning stove. Get ready to drive your automobile, oops I mean bicycle, on unpaved dirt roads and get used to the smell of raw sewage and garbage in the air.

Please, this is not about who can be cheapest, this is about what standard of living are you willing to accept for yourself and your family. Before you profess working for third world wages, maybe you should go down to Mexico and witness the living conditions in the Maquiladoras because this what the american worker can expect if he attempts to compete with them. I doubt that sustenance living, in a cardboard hut next to open sewage ditches, would be the future you choose to leave to the next generation of americans.

Originally posted by whatukno
They shouldn't be Union jobs anyway, Union jobs are destroying this countries ability to employ Americans.

The problem with Unions is they limit Americans from getting these jobs. Why should I pay someone so that I can work? That doesn't sound like America, that sounds like communism to me.

You're a boldfaced liar and I'm here to tell it like it is.

Yep, I'm a UNION worker, and have been since 1998. As an Electrician - somebody who's TRADE is MORE hazardous than that of a Police Officer's - I've worked both sides of the fence, originally starting my skilled training in the non union sector making $21.00 an hour by the time I topped out as a Journeyman. On that side of the fence I was the one having to 'negotiate' employment terms with no arbitration, legal representation, or CONTRACTUAL guarantees related to keeping an employer honest when it came to keeping work hours worked to pay scale level compensation acurrate, retirement pension acrual and annuity plans available (let alone reported on and monitred by third party trustees), QUALITY OF LIFE health insurance, a SET STANDARD for exactly what my job desciption is as an Inside Journyman Wireman, and exactly what tools I'll need and responsibly provide to perform my duties.

That meant that if the employer felt like short changing my compensation they could do so with nothing to stop them. If they felt like I didn't mater enough to go ahead and lower any insurance standards - even without leting me know in advance - they could do so with nothing to stop them. If they felt like hiring substandard, skilless 'workers' at a lower rate of pay (and no health insurance) and lay me off while representing to thier client thier workforce is top of the line, trained professionls they could do so with nothing to stop them. If they demanded me to work weekends and/ or holidays without justifiable terms for compesational increases given to provide the worker a fair labor standard they could do so unchecked, with nothing for the worker to use to demand fair compensation for an increased work load. If the employer demanded I provide additional, more expensive tools and equipment (items already pre negotiated in cost within the contract beween them ad thier clients) to do my job, I'd be forced to do so to keep my job. If the employer bids a job 50+ miles away from my home, I'd be forced to use my own vehicle (yet again ANOTHER dollar put into the employer's pocket that came out of mine) to get to thier jobsite and transport thier tools and materials with, without any just comensation.

This list of employer EXPLOITATION against an UNREPRESENTED worker will fill 3 pages of this thread. But as the OP clearly states, because they're not using Americans, these SAME ANTI AMERICAN, ANTI UNION SLAVE MASTERS have found a redimade whipping boy down in Mexico. But it doesn't stop with trucking...

They've INCREASED the number of H1-A and H1-B work visa's available to migrant workers BY ONE MILLION MORE. That's ONE MILLION MORE UNREPRESENTED WHIPPING BOYS ALLOWED TO ENTER INTO AND WORK IN AMERICA...!!

I've been unemployed for almost a year. I usually make $80,000 a year. Last year I made $12,000. A Mexican is now doing the yob I used to do! (no mispelled wording here!)

EVERYWHERE I LOOK I see a Mexican working - I'm not being racist, IT'S A HARD COLD FACT.

America has been caught, gutted, fillayed, and marketed by our own 'repesentatives'. That's why I'm not employed. If I didn't have another avenue to make money to feed my family (mining), then you would be, by staring into the muzzle of my gun while doing so...

Remember this... I'm just one smart American with skills, intelligence, and options. There exists ten thousand Americans other than me who dont have any of those things, but they do have a gun... I PROMISE you that you're more likely now than ever before to face off with the business end of a American's gun because of what the monkeys in office have done to destroy this country.

UNIONS are all American, guarantee a higher standard of living, job security, and make for healthier, wealthier families.

UNIONS ARE OPEN TO EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN AND THEY STRONGLY ADVOCATE SOLIDARITY OF THE AMERICAN WORKER ~AGAINST~ EMPLOYER EXPLOITATION AND ~FOR~ A STRONGER, WORKING AMERICA

Anyone who says differently are LYING...

Originally posted by whatukno
reply to post by Fractured.Facade

 

Americans would love these jobs, but thanks to the Union, the companies would rather pay someone far less than the Union demands.

Americans have to understand it's all about marketability. Unions don't understand this, and think that they can extort a huge amount of money from the company, and at the same time rip off the employees.

Want jobs to come back to America, be cheaper than it is overseas.

Of course I want to see jobs come back to America, but that isn't going to happen any time soon, manufacturing is now for the most part outsourced by US corporations, and that has in effect taken good jobs from Americans and given them to foreign nations, a majority has gone to China, and many seem to fail to make the connection between these issues and the bad economy and worsening employment situation in the USA. Which in my opinion, can and will only get worse. Cheap labor, few restrictions and vast resources are why American manufacturers and corporations are doing this.

If exporting and outsourcing jobs isn't bad enough, now Americans are being replaced in the workforce inside of the USA itself, by both legal and illegal immigrants from all over the world. Take trucking for example, other than the Mexican trucking companies crossing the border (which is a minor problem IMO) there are now people hauling loads all over US highways from other countries, many can barely communicate in English. An astounding number of Hindu drivers, immigrants from Russia, and former soviet block nations, middle easterners and others driving 80,000 pound rigs and some are very unsafe, get lost frequently, fail to understand basic laws and are unable to understand road signs.. And many of them are working for FAR less than would be considered industry minimum pay for American drivers. This isn't only happening in trucking, it is happening in all sectors of the US job market.

Americans need to be cheaper?

America is already cheaper, corporate America is making it happen, at the expense of the American people.

Americans haven't lost and are losing jobs because of a bad economy, they are being replaced so that corporate elite can increase profits.

If the USA fails, and the American people suffer in the process, well that is just too bad, isn't it?

Round 2

Here's the whole deal: Under NAFTA, the US has to allow Mexican trucks and drivers to cross into the US, and Mexico has to do the same for US trucks and drivers. The caveat is that, also under NAFTA, foreign trucks/drivers entering must adhere to regulations equivalent (not equal) to those of the country they are entering.

Mexico has implemented no regulations that come near to those endured by US drivers.

Under USDOT regulations, drug use is not only discouraged, it is practically impossible. All drivers are required to take a drug test upon employment/lease with a company, any time there is a DOT-reportable accident,whenever there is 'reasonable suspicion',and also at random times equaling a minimum 10% of the drivers at a company per year. In addition, the alcohol level that qualifies one as DUI is dropped from 0.8% to 0.4% for anyone possessing a CDL (even if in their personal vehicle). And also in addition, a trucker with any drug-related offense has an extremely difficult time even getting a job.

American drivers are tightly regulated as to how long they can drive. A driver must stop driving after driving for more than 11 hours, or after being awake for more than 14 hours, since their last rest period which must be ten hours or more. They may not drive more than 70 hours in any consecutive 8-day period. One exception is that this 70-hour rule is reset if the driver takes a total of 34 consecutive hours off-duty.

Trucks must be kept in optimum operating condition at all times. Tickets are written for things like a clearance light not working, a low tire, an air leak, or even an air hose routed too close to certain items. These tickets are now handled through a national database, and drivers with too many tickets are targeted for inspection frequently.

US drivers must undergo a complete DOT physical every two years and keep the medical records in their truck for review by any DOT-certified LEO at any time. If any problems are detected, this time may be reduced to as low as 3-months or the driver can be disqualified form driving completely.

HAZMAT regulations carry such stiff fines and penalties that many drivers will not even haul HAZMAT any more. In addition, HAZMAT certification requires a specialized test that is given during every license renewal, more often than not given to all new drivers at the company level, and also requires a background check (paid for by the driver).

Mexican drivers still use stimulants to maintain alertness more often than not; their trucks are often in disrepair; they tend to drive for extended periods without stopping, and there are no medical requirements or log books required in Mexico. This is from personal chats with Mexican drivers (I drove OTR for 8 years until recently).

The NAFTA Super Highway project was abandoned while Bush was in office, over a public outcry against it. Obama has expressed many times that he wants to see it restarted. When complete,the original plans had the Mexican Customs facility in Oklahoma City, OK!

In general, this is the worst plan that has come out of DC in my lifetime. It compromises national security, encourages crime, compromises the safety of anyone traveling US roads, has no reciprocity (US drivers simply do not want to drive into Mexico due to the corruption and dangers there), will lower US wages (Mexican drivers make a fraction of what US drivers do), and reduce US jobs (since Mexican drivers do not obey the US regulations like US drivers are forced to do).

So far as the Teamsters, that is one Union that actually does do some good. I would gladly pay dues to drive for a Teamsters company, because my wages would be much much higher, and my job would be much more secure (a non-Union driver can be fired for failing to make a delivery which is illegal, and can also be fired for breaking the law by making that delivery on time - damned if you do, damned if you don't).

TheRedneck

Originally posted by whatukno
They shouldn't be Union jobs anyway, Union jobs are destroying this countries ability to employ Americans.

The problem with Unions is they limit Americans from getting these jobs. Why should I pay someone so that I can work? That doesn't sound like America, that sounds like communism to me.

Now wukky I am not sure if you are speaking tongue-in-cheek here but if not, this is something that you and I could agree upon.

Unions themselves are not the problem. Its the Unions that extort the employer and the workers that are.

Originally posted by Heyyo_yoyo

UNIONS ARE OPEN TO EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN

Anyone who says differently are LYING...

Really?

Every American?

I lived in Pa. for 4 years with my wife and child who were both born there. I applied for a job with the local electrical union and the guys in the shop were stoked because I'd just graduated valedictorian of my class with a degree in Electrical Technology. I had great references from local electricians, an inspector, members of the local community AND members of the local union I was trying to join.

The shop foreman was planning on sending me to transformer school and was happy that he had someone who was willing to do the academic work.

Turns out that his boss higher up the ladder had a problem with me. My DD-214 listed my home of record as Texas.

Sorry man. No job for a Texan in a Pennsylvania Union, even if he had been a state resident for 4 years, married a girl from Pa. and had a child there too.

All Americans...? Try again.

reply to post by whatukno


There's another way to look at it. With unions fighting to keep jobs, we stood a better chance. Without them the American worker is SOL. Ever wonder why they had to bust/stop some unions first before they could start shipping our work offshore? And that trend continues. I don't think it's a coincidence that as the number of unions dimishes so do the number of jobs. There are a few remaining unions left to be busted. Keep your eyes on them.