Some truckers oppose letting Mexican trucks on U.S. roads

Q: Sharing the road?

A: Aren't we sharing enough?

Q: Trucking... fun?


A: WAS


Q: Will it be fun or safe after the border opening?


A: DOUBT IT!!

I'm not sure how or where to start. I laugh and cry at the predicament the trucking industry has found itself in all at the same time.

Why? Because, it's only the hardworking American taxpayer who is going to suffer the consequences of NAFTA and this open border policy adopted by the politicians.

I'm not sure I've met one person who agrees with the open border policy or the illegal alien dilemma we Americans have found ourselves to be in, not one I credit with having half a brain cell anyway.

We all knew it was coming, we've seen it coming, yet have done nothing to stop it. We cry, bellyache, mumble, threaten and some of us even walk away with our hands held high and heads low.

Some ask what can be done; others say it's the best thing ever. Cheap labor, cheap drivers, cheap haul rates, cheap product... all this cheap stuff equals cheap commodities and cheap living for the American taxpayer. HOGWASH!

Yet, if we look at it honestly, how many of us really believe that opening borders to Mexican trucks and drivers will equal cheap? Have we not seen enough proof in other labor sectors of America who REALLY benefits?

Let's move off topic for just a minute, let's look at illegal workers in other sectors.

We say that illegal immigrant workers is a source for American companies to take advantage of cheap labor, yet when you get right down to it, there's nothing cheap about them. Cheap for the corporation, but for the honest, hard working taxpaying American, it's costly.

So costly that it's cost the lives of many hardworking Americans who have lived here since birth. In fact, a 2006 statistic shows about 12 American citizens die each day at the hands of illegal aliens.

Below are some figures for the cheap labor we allow to cross our borders on a daily basis. The list goes on and on, but to save space I've listed only three links.

1.) Illegal migrant workers use the emergency rooms as their primary care facility. They rarely if ever pay the medical bills. Taxpayers are left to pay for this. [http] uncooperativeblogger.wordpress.com/2006/12/21/a-visit-to-the-emergency-room%E2%80%A6%E2%80% [A6/]
2.) Uninsured motorists, namely illegal migrants from south of the border. [www] nctimes.com/articles/2004/12/06/news/top_stories/19_56_5812_5_04[.txt]
3.) Cost of crime and life lost due to the so called illegal's who "SEEK" a better life. [www] immigrationshumancost [org]

1992 I started driving trucks in 1993 I found a good job and loved every minute of every day. I enjoyed the long hauls from west to east coast as a single driver. I picked produce or nursery loads in the west and ran to the north east for multiple drops, turned around and did the same thing. There was nothing like the open road and the view from my office.

But, with todays demands of NOW NOW NOW attitudes, most single driver loads rarely traverse coast to coast. I'm sure there are still some, I just can't find a company that does it as regular dispatch.

I can think of several reasons why nice hauls I experienced in the 90s are disappearing. Stricter D.O.T. regulations, cheaper rates, deregulation getting full grips on the industry. But suspect the "NOW" attitudes to be the primary.

Doesn't really matter as I'm looking for employment outside OTR, and to my surprise I've found it to more difficult than I imagined. I'd like to think the real reason is no one needs employees now.

However I see "Help Wanted" posted on their property as I enter. When I walk through the warehouse seeking a supervisor, I hear salsa/Latino music and see 90% of the workforce is of Latino decent. Not long ago I was told I needed to be bilingual to even apply, another time I was advised they only employ Hispanics.

Discrimination, I thought so too, but I've seen advertisements and notices in newspapers where subsidized housing programs are accepting applications, only for migrant workers. Again I ask... discrimination? Apparently not when it comes to lining corporate pockets.

I worked in construction for four years with one company; I kept asking the owner if he might be able to check into some medical benefits. The owner finally replied that the rest of his employees (99% Hispanics who spoke little English.) did not need insurance since they either had Medicare or just used the emergency room for medical services. Again this is just an example of our cheap labor force at work. My letter of resignation was delivered the following day.

What's to be done?

I like the boycott thing since I feel it's actually major corporations who dictate the laws. Politicians are mere puppets who do what their master tells them. You take the power (money) from their masters, give it back to the mass, the Puppet will once again be controlled by the mass.

Who do we boycott?
Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Nissan, Wal-Mart any and everyone who either hires illegal's or endorses the idiotic rationalization that illegal immigrants equal cheap labor or illegal immigrants is what built this country.

Illegal immigrants certainly didn't build this country.

Who built this country?

The people stuck on ships for weeks, months at a time that came here, fought here, learned the English language, set up homesteads, abided by the laws of the land, and died in battle so others may live free.

It's the ones who came here and learned our nation's language and traditions without expectations of us learning theirs.

It's the men and women who came over on slave ships who plowed the fields, raised the fields, the barns, and homes under hideous conditions and fought for their civil rights even if it meant their death.

It's the men and women who dreamt of a better life and left their homeland, came to America, applied for and received citizenship after months, years of waiting. "LEGALLY"

It's the Native Americans who lived side-by-side to the newcomers and helped them to learn how to live free.

Those are the people who made America what it is today, not the ones who sneak in by the dark of the night or through inhospitable desert to gain illegal entry, only to expect free handouts as if they were to be awarded for their criminal act.

These are felons who deserve nothing more than a free trip back across the border. Since illegal entry into the U.S. constitutes a felony, give them the three strikes rule and lock them up for life after the third time. They want to be treated like Americans, so be it. I'll gladly pay taxes for incarceration of a criminal comitting multiple felonies.

We don't need new laws; we simply need to enforce the ones already in place.

Speaking of enforcing the laws, either support NAFTA and let them bring their trucks and drivers into the US, but by GOD enforce the laws. MAKE them adhere to the laws as we adhere to them or use our own equipment to block the highways in and out of Mexico until our government officials do what the hell they were put in place to do.

Blocking highways and commodities from entering the US only hurts the corporations, yet keeps the American taxpayer alive and safe from drivers and trucks that already have a proven track record AND a history.

History you say?
Record you say?
Think about the already *11 million illegals in the states. Isn't that enough proof that America and it's laws aren't respected by a LARGE number of persons living north and south of the border? What more proof do we need?

*Extremely conservative figure!

 

did you say state cops can't pull them over?

 

Only MC DOT inspectors can pull a mexican truck over for inspection.

traffic violations would of course be dealt with by cops.

 

Why do people just parrot inaccurate, erronius information that they really don't have any first hand knowledge of? If you take a scientific survey of the results of NAFTA virtually 100 persent of professional economists agree that the results have been overwhelming positive for the economies of the USA,Canada,and Mexico. All three economies have realized unpresented growth since NAFTA was signed. The United States actually got a fantastic deal in regards to oil imports from Canada. Canada is obligated to export a percentage of it's oil production to the USA. Given that the main foreign policy problem in the USA over the past few years has been energy security and given that Canada has the second largest pool of oil in the world I would say that any American official that wants to redo NAFTA is nuts. Things have changed in Canada since NAFTA and there is no way that the Canadians would get themselves into such an energy deal again. Most Americans do not realize that the Alberta oil sands alone has enough oil to supply the entire present American consumption for over 100 years. The Canadians are not ones who break agreements even if they are not the best deal but if they are given a way out they will take. All this oil could go to India or China or whoever wants to pay the most for it.
The entire issue of Mexican trucks on the USA roads has very little to do with NAFTA really. Even though the agreement gives Mexico access it does so under regulations that insure that all the fearmongering that you hear about Mexican trucks is just plain garbage. Does the DOT not have the ability to police these trucks and their opperators? I say that it does and that trucks that will cross the border better be 100 percent or they will be OOS. The comment about the Canadian trucks is just so wrong that I can't believe the writer is out there on the road. There are thousands of Canadian trucks all over the entire USA. In fact Maine, Vermont and the northeast in general is a run that most Canadian truckers don't want and companies have to pay their drivers a few cents more per mile to get them to take these loads. American trucking firms have total access to Canada and you do see quite a few American rigs on the road but how many times do you see in ads no NY city, no Canada. The buisness is there it's just that USA drivers don't want it for some reason. I wish that politicians would stop using NAFTA as a handy excuse for their failed economic policy and realize that integrated economys are the only way to go. If they don't we will see the European union become the worlds largest and most successful economy. And why is that? The answer is easy, free trade in the union

 

So which is it, Canuck? Failed economic policies, or unprecedented economic growth? Your argument has turned upon itself and is eating its own tail.

 

I wonder where canuck got all this scientificalicious info from....Every study I've seen on NAFTA has shown it to benefit the big biz and the elite few just as it was designed to do.

 

It is an irrefutable fact that NAFTA has directly resulted in the loss of some 3,000,000 manufacturing jobs in U.S., while it has compromised American sovereignty. It's supposedly about "free trade", but its regulations comprise 26,000 pages of vague, open-ended, ambigouus "bureaucratese". American trade policies are now being determined by unelected and completely unaccountable NAFTA tribunals mostly composed of foreigners, which have been overruling American courts. Maybe it has been good for Canada (I can't say one way of the other because I don't live there), but no good whatsoever for the American economy or American workers has come from it; it must be repealed.

 

More pesky facts for the un-informed.

If nothing else had happened after NAFTA came into force in 1994, we could just look at the overall change in jobs since then. In 1993, U.S. civilian employment was 120 million. Last year it was 146 million. So does that mean NAFTA created 26 million jobs?


.....But what about the factory workers in Ohio? Are they just imagining those lost jobs? Of course not. Manufacturing employment in the United States did hit a peak and then begin a steady decline. The problem is that the peak was in 1979, 15 years before NAFTA came into force. The long-term decline of American manufacturing jobs has much more to do with technological change than with trade. We’re producing more stuff with fewer workers.

.....So why couldn’t trade push the unemployment rate up or down? Among other reasons, the Federal Reserve is watching and would offset any trade-driven economic swings. In the decade before 1994, unemployment averaged 6.6 percent in the United States. In the decade after, it averaged 5.1 percent, which is near the level at which central bankers begin to worry about inflation.

http://www.american.com/archive/2008/march-02-08/doing-a-job-on-nafta

 

There has been many posts on this matter of open the borders to Mexico; some for, some against; The problem of this started when Nafta came to be companies that
are after higher profits moved out of the United States.
They did not give a hoot about the workers (some who have worked for generations)
This all started before 9-11, ( may they rest in peace), The borders to the south must be closed; to trucks from Mexico and illegal workers crossing into the UnitedStates.

HERE SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE TO THINK ABOUT

IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MANY COMPANIES WHO HAVE MOVED OUT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE OIL COMPANIES WHO ARE MAKING RECORD PROFITS ????

SENATOR OBAMA AND SENATOR CLINTON BOTH VOTED POSITIVE FOR NAFTA; BUT YET IN BOTH OF ELECTION CAMPAIGN HAVE SAID THERE AGAINST NAFTA...

If we don't stand as one voice; company driver and owner operators our industry, our country will never be the same...

 

Umm, NAFTA was voted on long before Clinton or Obama were Senators.