Today's Teamster News 03.14.15

Teamsters
FedEx Freight Workers In California Vote To Join Teamsters Local 439  teamster.org   ...A group of 50 drivers at FedEx Freight’s Stockton, Calif., terminal have voted to join Teamsters Local 439. The vote took place Thursday, March 12 and today, and the workers voted 33 to 12 to become Teamsters...
Teamsters Testify About UNFI At Supply Chain Commission Hearing  teamster.org   ...Former Workers Tell Commission Members About UNFI’s Abuses...
Drivers For Facebook Contractor Loop Transp. Gain Strong Agreement, Wage Increases  teamster.org   ...Drivers for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation are now covered under a Teamsters Local 853 contract, providing for wage increases, health care benefits and a number of improvements to their working conditions. The contract, which workers overwhelmingly voted to ratify on Feb. 21, went to Facebook for its agreement as Loop’s paying client before implementation...
San Bernardino County Public Employees To Vote In Teamster Election  teamster.org   ... Ballots were mailed out this week to more than 15,000 San Bernardino, Calif., county, city and agency employees to vote in an election for Teamsters representation...
Teamsters Continue Fight To Unionize More Bay Area Drivers KGO ...The Teamsters hit the streets of San Francisco for a rally. They're handing out union cards to the drivers of Bauer Transportation, a company contracted to drive workers to some Bay Area tech companies, including Cisco and Google...
Woodbridge Winery Workers Join Teamsters Local 601 In California  teamster.org   ...Nearly 50 workers at Woodbridge Winery in Acampo, Calif. joined Teamsters Local 601 in Stockton, voting 32-13 in favor of representation. The new bargaining unit of cellar operation employees includes 46 workers who are seeking improved pay, benefits and the protection of a union contract...
Trade
Unhappy Third Birthday for Korea FTA Drags Down Obama Push for Fast Track  Public Citizen Global Trade Watch   ...U.S. Exports Down, Imports from Korea Up and Job-Killing Trade Deficit With Korea Balloons 84 Percent on Third Anniversary of Korea Pact, Which Is TPP Template...
Progressives: We’ve Never Heard Of This “Progressive” Group Backing Obama’s Trade Deal  BuzzFeed News   ...The “Progressive Coalition For American Jobs,” run by former Obama campaign staffers, purports to represent the progressive left on the trade deal that the progressive left hates...
Major Unions Stepping up Battle against Free-Trade Pact  Associated Press   ...the Teamsters union called for U.S. negotiators on the trade pact to press for a crackdown on Mexican cross-border trucking as part of the emerging agreement...
‘Exploitation’: Clothing Labels Accused Of Cambodia Worker Discrimination, Child Labor  RT   ...HRW [Human Rights Watch] says workers in Cambodia’s garment factories, producing name-brand clothing sold in the US, Canada and Europe, often come to grips with "discriminatory and exploitative labor conditions." According to HRW, the combination of short-term contracts which make it easier to get rid of workers at any moment, poor government labor inspection and enforcement, as well as aggressive tactics against independent unions make it extremely difficult for workers to assert their rights...
State Battles
Push to rewrite Kansas collective bargaining laws stalls  Kansas City Star   ...The committee was set to vote Friday on both measures, but Chairwoman and Olathe Republican Julia Lynn canceled the meeting. Lynn said she’s not sure when the votes will occur and said House GOP leaders have signaled that they’re reluctant to tackle such issues...
Chumbley: Right to work all wrong for Missouri  Springfield News-Leader   ...Missouri's General Assembly is preparing to pass the deceptively titled Right to Work and Paycheck Protection bills. These bills are an attack on workers and an offense to the God of justice...
Union members rally against GOP labor bills outside Legislature  Las Vegas Review-Journal   ... Hundreds of union members rallied in front of the Nevada Legislature on Thursday to protest Republican efforts to curb collective bargaining and push public employee retirement reforms...
Union workers to protest Walker in NH  New Hampshire Union Leader   ...Union members and organizers plan to protest outside when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks to a state Republican Party event Saturday at Concord High School...
WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signs prevailing wage change, Coal Jobs and Safety Act  WOWK TV   ...Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed three bills into law March 12, including one that changes West Virginia's prevailing wage law...
Maine Republicans Try Again To Push Through 'Right-to-Work' Legislation  NPR   ...Republicans are once again trying to move a so-called "right-to-work" bill through the Legislature. Their goal is to put an end to a long-standing requirement that public and private sector workers in a unionized shops must either join the union or pay representation fees as a condition of employment...
Senate Kills Bill To Restore State Minimum Wage  New Hampshire Union Leader   ...The Republican-dominated state Senate has rejected a bill to restore a state minimum wage in New Hampshire. The legislation would have set the hourly rate at $8.25 in 2016, $9 in 2017 and $10 in 2018...
War on Workers
The Retirement Savings Gap Between Haves and Have-Nots Is Getting Bigger  Bloomberg   ...The median retirement account balance when you look across all households? $2,500...
Dangerous Trains, Aging Rails (opinion)  New York Times   ...To protect communities and the environment, the Transportation Department needs to act quickly to require more resilient rail cars, improve the safety of rail infrastructure and operations, and reduce the volatility of oil at the wellhead, before it is loaded onto trains...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Fall Amid Rough Weather  Wall Street Journal   ...U.S. retail sales fell for the third consecutive month in February as a mix of bad weather and consumer caution outweighed an improving labor market and cheap gasoline prices...

New drug tunnel found near US-Mexican border

As if we don't have enough reasons to close the border to unsafe Mexican trucks, Agence France-Press brings us yet another:

Mexican authorities said they have discovered a “sophisticated” tunnel likely intended for smuggling drugs and migrants across the US-Mexico border. 

The entrance to the tunnel, which was still under construction, is located in a warehouse about 300 meters (328 yards) from the border between the Mexican city of Mexicali and Calexico, California, Mexicali police chief Marco Antonio Carrillo told AFP on Saturday. 

The tunnel — which is about 10 meters deep and 30 meters long — has a ventilation system and lighting and is considered the most “sophisticated” of such structures found in recent years, Carrillo said... 

Discoveries of such underground passageways along the US-Mexico border are not uncommon and authorities say they are used by organized crime groups to traffick drugs and people into the United States.

The death toll from Mexico's drug wars now stands at 70,000 since 2006. On Saturday, Mexican officials said 25 people were killed within 24 hours, and six bodies bore marks of torture.

And we want to open our borders to this?

Fortunately, only a handful of Mexican trucks are participating in the dismal little cross-border trucking pilot program. Still, the Teamsters are fighting it in the U.S. Court of Appeals. Oral arguments were heard in December, and we expect a decision sometime in the next few months.

Stay tuned.

Today's Teamster News 12.27.11

Program to Give Access to NAFTA Trucks Violates the Law  Eyes on Trade   ...Public Citizen, the Teamsters, and the Sierra Club filed an opening brief earlier this week on our lawsuit to stop the Obama administration's illegal program to allow unsafe Mexico-domiciled trucks to travel throughout the United States...
The Big Lie (opinion)  The Daily Beast   ...the convulsion to come won’t really be about Wall Street’s derivatives malefactions, or its subprime fun and games, or rogue trading, or the folly of banks. It will be about this society’s final opportunity to rip away the paralyzing shackles of corruption or else dwell forever in a neofeudal social order...
Growing wealth widens distance between lawmakers and constituents  Washington Post   ...Between 1984 and 2009, the median net worth of a member of the House more than doubled ... from $280,000 to $725,000...Over the same period, the wealth of an American family has declined slightly...
Falling home values mean budget crunches for cities  Washington Post   ...Because of the time it often takes for property assessments to reflect falling home values, the bust that began in 2007 has just begun to ravage tax revenues in communities from coast to coast. The problem is unlikely to subside soon....
93-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Who Cleaned State Capitol For 30 Years Denied Voter ID  Think Progress   ...A 93-year-old Tennessee woman ... says she won’t be able to vote for the first time in decades after being told this week that her old state ID failed to meet new voter ID regulations...
Pimps for Private Prisons and Profit  Blogfor Arizona   ...the long-awaited cost-benefit analysis that the Department of Corrections is required to do by law, but has never done until now, has been released. According to the DOC, private prisons are comparable in cost and quality to state run prisons...The DOC has decided to cancel bids to build 5,000 private prison beds in Arizona...

Today's Teamster News 12.03.11

YRC Worldwide Executes 1-for-300 reverse stock split  IBT   ...today’s actions will not affect the value of your shares, but they will lower the total number of shares in your account...
Bloomberg's Girlfriend Diana Taylor Threatens to Resign From Sotheby’s Board If Teamsters’ Demands Are Met (Video)  New York Observer   ...this is perhaps the most inflammatory response the Teamsters could have hoped for...
Toll rejects Hoffa's claims on LA truckers  The Sydney Morning Herald   ...James Hoffa, son of the legendary American union boss Jimmy Hoffa, has led a rally outside Australian transport company Toll Holdings' Los Angeles facility to protest what he says was the sacking of 26 US truck drivers...
Banks May Have Illegally Foreclosed On 5,000 Members Of The Military  ThinkProgress   ... the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has found that banks — including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup — may have improperly foreclosed on up to 5,000 active members of the military...
Alabama red-faced as second foreign car boss held under immigration law  The Guardian   ...To arrest one foreign car-making executive under Alabama's new tough immigration laws may be regarded as a misfortune; to arrest a second looks like carelessness...
Bloomberg: If I Had It My Way I’d Dump Half Of NYC’s Teachers  CBS News   ...And I would, if I had the abilitym... cut the number of teachers in half, but you would double the compensation of them and you would weed out all the bad ones and just have good teachers. And double the class size with a better teacher is a good deal for the students...”

Today's Teamster News 11.24.11

As Work Goes Global, Will Holidays Disappear?  Bloomberg   ...With more and more business conducted across borders, workers find it increasingly difficult to rest on national or religious holidays...
Teamsters sue to keep Mexican trucks out  Detroit News   ..."Opening the border to these dangerous, dirty trucks is an attack on highway safety, an attack on American truckers and warehouse workers, an attack on border security and an attack on our environment," said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
Wisconsin led nation in Oct job losses  The Cap Times   ...No press release from the Governor's office on this one...
Fatalism and the American Dream  New York TImes   ...(A) report, which examined economic and social mobility in 10 Western countries, found that Americans actually appear to have less control over their success in life than their counterparts do...
The Average Bush Tax Cut For The 1 Percent This Year Will Be Greater Than The Average Income Of The Other 99 Percent  Think Progress   ... congress’ fiscal super committee failed to craft a deficit reduction package due to Republican refusal to consider tax increases on the super wealthy...
Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Protests, Events Planned for Black Friday & Thanksgiving  firedoglake   ...With many encampments still setup around the country, it is to be expected that there will be stories of occupations having Thanksgiving at their camps...

Today's Teamster News 10.22.11

Mexican long-haul trucks take to U.S. highways today, angers Teamsters  Examiner   ...Despite a protest rally from Teamsters, a speech from Jim Hoffa Jr. and bi-partisan Congressional members, Mexican long-haul trucks will take to U.S. highways today... Investors Ask Sotheby’s to Rethink James Murdoch’s Board Position  artinfo   ...A union-affiliated investor group, CtW Investors, publicly called upon Sotheby’s corporate board and its chairman, Michael I. Sovern, to rethink the implications of keeping James Murdoch (son of Rupert) on as a director...
Cantor Cancels Wharton School Speech Amid Plans for Protest  Bloomberg   ...House Majority Leader Eric Cantor canceled a speech today at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where anti-Wall Street protesters had planned to gather outside...
McCormick Place labor deal touted as boost for convention business  Chicago Sun-Times   ...Labor agreements with the Teamsters and carpenters unions will give large conventions the certainty about costs that they need to book shows at McCormick Place, officials said Friday in announcing the agreements...
What Rick Scott doesn't want you to see  Orlando Sentinel   ...Information is power in the framing of politics and policy, and Gov. Rick Scott's administration is working hard to tightly control what comes out...
Forecast predicts Walker won't meet jobs goal  Associated Press   ...An economic forecast by Gov. Scott Walker's own administration predicts that Wisconsin will fall far short of adding the 250,000 new private-sector jobs by 2015 that the governor promised as a key part of his successful election campaign...

Today's Teamster News 10.15.11

Mexico To Lift Tariffs On US Goods As Border Opens To Trucks  Wall Street Journal   ...We will continue our fight to keep our borders closed to unsafe Mexican trucks," union leader Jim Hoffa said in a statement. "After years of litigation, intense congressional oversight, overwhelming public opposition and an intense drug war raging in Mexico, it is a reckless move to allow Mexico unfettered access to our highways..."
Lech Walesa and Al Gore support Wall Street protests; Tea Party leader endorses bailed-out bank abuses  The Hill   ...One of history's great leaders for jobs, workers and freedom is now supporting the Occupy Wall Street protest...
Health Law to Be Revised by Ending a Program  New York Times   ...The Obama administration announced Friday that it was scrapping a long-term care insurance program created by the new health care law because it was too costly and would not work...
Northside woman in SB 5 ad spurs bill  Cincinnati Enquirer   ...Democrats, upset with what they think is a misappropriation of Cincinnati great-grandmother Marlene Quinn’s image, plan to introduce legislation to prevent the misuse of campaign material...
New South Battles Old Poverty as Right-to-Work Promises Fade  Bloomberg   ...South Carolina and other southern U.S. states topped the nation’s poverty rankings, a sign of trouble in the so-called New South known for its growth and ability to lure employers with laws restricting union organizing...
Breaking His Promise To Create 700K Jobs, Gov. Rick Scott Now Says ‘I Don’t Have To Create Any Jobs’  ThinkProgress   ...Scott recently bragged about laying off 15,000 government workers, while deep education cuts will cost many teachers and school employees their jobs...

Today's Teamster News 10.14.11

Teamsters file wage-and-hour complaint for prison guards  Tallahassee.com  ...Three prison officers and a leader of the Teamsters Union on Thursday accused Florida's prison system of cheating employees out of up to 200 hours of wages per year and asked the U.S. Department of Labor to make the Department of Corrections let the officers clock them in before going through long daily security checks...
First Mexican Trucking Permit Delayed on Safety Concerns  Transport Topics   ...The Department of Transportation is delaying the first permit for a Mexican trucking company to start cross-border operations, citing safety questions raised in public comments...
Teamsters and UK Unions Protest Sotheby's in London  IBT   ...More than 100 Teamster members and representatives from several global labor unions, including Unite the Union, the Trades Union Congress, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, the Public and Commercial Services Union and the International Transport Workers' Federation, protested outside Sotheby's Contemporary Art Day Auction this evening...
Occupy Wall Street Stays in Park  Wall Street Journal   ...The real-estate company that owns the small park at the center of the Occupy Wall Street movement has postponed a planned cleaning of the site, a New York City deputy mayor announced early Friday morning...
Teamsters Union Sues Erie County over Holding Center  WGRZ   ...The suit alleges that the county has not hired enough staff for the correctional facilities to "provide care, custody, and control for all prisoners and to perform all other necessary facility functions..."
SB5 opponents, proponents argue over TV ad  Wooster Daily Record   ...opponents of Senate Bill 5 lashed out at proponents of the issue over a television advertisement released by the latter in recent days...

This Mexican truck op-ed will make you sick

Check out this Bloomberg News opinion piece on Mexican trucks. It starts out with,

Last week’s resolution of a long-simmering dispute between the U.S. and Mexico over long-haul, cross-border trucking represents a milestone in the economic integration of North America.

By itself, the trucking deal, a three-year pilot program, is a modest gain for free trade. But it brings the North American Free Trade Agreement to a satisfying, if tardy, conclusion at a time when ratification of other trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea is delayed in Congress.

AAAAARGH!!!

They admit it will cost jobs. They admit it will be dangerous. THEY DON'T CARE.

What do you expect from a "news" company that caters to Wall Street -- one that was founded by Bloomzilla, the billionaire mayor now in the process of destroying New York City??

Here's a much better op-ed about Mexican trucks. It's written by Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa for the Detroit News.

The last thing American workers need right now is a trade deal that puts more of them out of work and lowers their wages. And yet that is exactly what our government is doing to its own people – not once, but four times.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood went to Mexico last week to sign a deal that opens our borders to unsafe trucks from that country. In reporting the agreement, the mainstream press was strangely silent about the 40,000 people killed in Mexican drug wars since 2007. The media made no mention of our widening trade deficit with Mexico since NAFTA was signed in 1992, nor did reporters say anything about the 700,000 jobs lost since then.

Three more job-killing trade deals are in the hopper, and you can bet the news media will swallow whole the phony claims made about them by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other multinational front groups...

Lately it seems our trade policy is of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation.

Much, much better, don't you think?

Watch out for these Mexican monster trucks

Not all Mexican trucks are junkheaps on wheels. The Mexican drug cartels are now using "monster trucks," armored assault vehicles designed to mount counterattacks against the army.

The Washington Post today reports the trucks

...look like a cross between a handmade assault vehicle used by a Somali warlord and something out of a post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” movie. Complete with battering rams.

The assault vehicles have appeared in several confrontations with Mexican authorities. In the western state of Jalisco, soldiers confronted one of the beasts in May and disabled it by shooting out its tires. The trucks have not been seen in the cities and remain mostly a chilling curiosity.

Borderland Beat reports the army unearthed a monster truck on Tuesday in Coahuila. Reports the blog,

The vehicle is built on a Ford Super Duty 4 x 4 frame and is powered by a V-10 Triton gasoline engine with a reinforced transmission and drivetrain. The armour consists of 1 cm thick steel plate and all windows are 5 layer ballistic glass.

The vehicle has driver and passenger front doors and a rear access door, is double turreted, and has 6 windows with a total of 9 weapon portholes on both sides. In addition to the driver and passenger there is space for 12 gunmen.

It is theorized that the vehicle was hidden due to the heavy presence of Army and Marine units currently in Coahuila.

The Post reports the trucks aren't the only sophisticated transportation used by the drug cartels. They also use:

• an elaborate tunnel stretching more than 2,200 feet with train tracks and ventilation to move marijuana between Tijuana and Otay Mesa, Calif.
• semi-submersible “narco-submarines” haul cocaine north.
• ultralight aircraft barnstorm over the border fences to drop 200-pound loads of pot in fields for waiting pickup trucks.
• a catapult used to lob drugs over the border fence between Mexico and Arizona.

And we're thinking of making it easier for Mexican trucks to travel our highways freely?

Truck driving champ says 'NO' to Mexican trucks

Brother Scott Archer is very serious about his job as a truck driver for YRCW in Morton, Ill. He was one of the many Teamsters who spoke out against opening the border to Mexican trucks. From his comments in the Federal Register, we know he's a member of Teamster Local 627 in Peoria.

We also know he has entered the Truck Driving Championship in Illinois for several years. Twice he's won first place in his state. Last year he was the grand champion from Illinois and came in 13th in the national competition in Columbus. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spoke at the banquet.

We'll let Scott take it from there:

As we speak I'm studying my 2011 :Facts for Drivers -- American Trucking Associations' handbook to compete once more for YRCW in Illinois. I have been Driver of the Year for YRCW, and have a million-mile award. We study and learn about first aid, health, wellness, fire safety, personal safety, security, defensive driving and hazardous materials regulation, and the whole trucking industry.

So as you can see, he is very, very serious about truck safety. Ray LaHood, we're not so sure about. LaHood wants to open the border to dangerous Mexican trucks. Scott asks,

Will these men and women be trained as U.S. drivers? Look at the ATA 2011 Facts for Drivers book G6011. Will the Mexican truckers understand or be trained on this important material?...Will they have the following:

• CDL license?
• Fingerprint check?
• Background check?
• Medical physical card?
• Proper insurance?
• Commercial Cehicle Safety Alliance?
• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration?
• Hours of service log?
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration?
• TWIC cards?
• National Transportation Safety Board?...

I say "NO" to the Mexican truck plans.

So do we. 

Mexico prez trying to crush labor unions legally

Mexico's oligarchs, led by President Felipe Calderon, are trying to take away workers' collective bargaining rights.

They're calling it "labor law reform," of course. Critics say it's just a political gift to the powerful industrialists who back the political campaigns of elected officials.

Gee, where have we heard that before?

People's World reports that a labor reform bill before the Legislature

...would make it much easier for companies to use small enterprises as fronts for massive "outsourcing" scams. It would permit management to do end runs around unions and negotiate different wages and working conditions from those in the collective bargaining contract with individual workers. It would legalize the existing practice of temporary and short-term labor contracts. It would control of hours and shifts away from the collective bargaining process and make it a prerogative of management only. It would virtually abolish minimum wage.

Another clause would severely restrict the rights of unions based in a single enterprise to affiliate with national labor organizations beyond their industry. The bill will make it harder to get legal strikes recognized as such.

...the right of the government to more or less arbitrarily deny recognition of elected union officials, will remain.

Mexico, sadly, has a long and proud history of respecting workers' rights, at least technically. According to In These Times,

On paper at least, the rights of Mexican workers are extensive, deriving from the Revolution that ended in 1920. At a time when workers in the United States still had no law that even recognized the legality of unions, Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution spelled them out. Workers have the right to jobs and permanent status once they’re hired. If they’re laid off, they have the right to severance pay. They have rights to housing, healthcare and training. In a legal strike, they can string flags across the doors of a factory or workplace, and even the owner can’t enter until the dispute is settled. Strikebreaking is prohibited.

In reality, the growing power of corporations (enabled by Nafta) has undermined those rights, especially in the maquiladora district in northern Mexico. Half of all Mexicans live in poverty, and even those with a formal job don't make much money. Says In These Times,

95 percent of the 800,000 jobs created last year paid only $10 per day. Yet when a maquiladora worker buys a gallon of milk in a Tijuana or Juarez supermarket, she pays more than she would on the U.S. side. Prices are a little lower further south, but not much. The price of that gallon of milk used to be fixed and subsidized, along with tortillas, bus fare and other basic necessities. Previous waves of economic reforms decontrolled prices and ended consumer subsidies, as Mexico was pressured to create more favorable conditions for private investment.

Sixteen years of Nafta have done nothing but screw workers in Mexico and the U.S. Now Mexico and the U.S. DOT want to implement the final part of the Nafta deal, cross-border trucking, so even more workers can get screwed.

If this makes you see red, you can do something about it. Click here. Click on the orange "Submit a comment" button, fill in the blanks, and type in a reason for the U.S. government to keep the border closed to Mexican trucks.

How to stop Mexican trucks

Tomorrow, you must get out your ink pen and write to the government to say, "DO NOT open the border to Mexican trucks."

Do it tomorrow. Do it the next day, and the next. Do it every day for 30 days.

Here's why: The federal government must post an official notice in the Federal Register in order to open the border to Mexican trucks. The public has 30 days to submit comments. The government must read every single comment and respond to it before the border can be opened.

Let's send them so many letters they'll be retired by the time they can respond. The letters don't have to be long. They just have to give a reason for keeping the border closed. Click here if you need a reason.

Got your ink pen ready? Write this down: FMCSA-2011-0097.

That's the docket number. You have to include it in your letter to the Federal Register.
 
Now, choose one of four ways to send your letter:

1. On-line. (You don't need your ink pen for this one.) Go to: http:// www.regulations.gov.  Follow the instructions.
2. Fax. The number is 1-202-493-2251.
3. Mail to: Docket Management Facility, (M–30), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, West Building, Ground Floor, Room 12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
4. Hand Delivery: Same as mail address above, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.  Or send it to the IBT and we'll deliver it.

Here's a sample letter:

FMCSA-2011-0097
April 11, 2011

Dear Sir:
An an American citizen, I am horrified by FMCSA's plan to open the border to Mexican trucks. Giving violent drug cartels more access to American highways is harmful to American interests. Mexico is in a state of war. Nearly 35,000 people have been murdered in drug violence in that country since 2007. Ciudad Juarez, which is right across the border from El Paso, is the most dangerous city in the world.
Sincerely,
Name
Address

Do it. Do it now.

Today's Teamster News 03.09.11

Wisconsin: Sen. Jauch Says 6 or 7 Republican Senators Don’t Want to Strip Collective Bargaining  firedoglake   ..."there is a strong majority of legislators who don’t want to get rid of collective bargaining but voted against the wishes of the constituents..."
Hundreds turn out in Appleton for anti-Scott Walker protest  Post-Crescent   ...now they’re saying he should be recalled... 
Not So Fast: Ohio’s Anti-Union SB 5 Has Several Hurdles to Clear  firedoglake   ...The only thing that is clear is that labor has been totally energized by this battle in Ohio, much like the similar battle in Wisconsin...
Protests against collective bargaining reform make noise during Gov. Kasich's State of the State address  The Plain Dealer   ...The proposal to reduce Ohio public workers' collective bargaining power ... made its mark on Kasich's speech the same day the House of Representatives held its first hearing on the issue...
Mexico outlines details of cross-border trucking pact  CNN   ...Unlike the failed pilot program, under the new plan there will be no limit to the number of companies who can participate and the trucks they can register for cross-border transport...
How Corbett fracked Pa.'s middle class  philly.com   ...all wealth is not viewed equally - at least not when it comes to Corbett's notions about bailing Pennsylvania out of its $4 billion budget hole...
YRC’s chief financial officer to leave  Kansas City Star   ...board member William Trubeck will serve as interim executive vice president and chief financial officer...

California Rep. Wants Hearing on Mexican Trucks

Bob Filner represents a district in Congress that encompasses the entire California/Mexico border, home to some of the busiest border crossings. Filner doesn't think the U.S. Department of Transportation is ready to open the border to Mexican trucks. In a recent letter to Teamsters President Jim Hoffa, he wrote,

I do not believe the Administration has any real sense of the impact of their proposal on road safety, border wait times, jobs or national security. Until these serious issues are addressed, any proposal to allow Mexican trucks access to our roadways will make our nation's roads less safe, will further lengthen border wait times, will put Americans out of work and will expose Americans to additional national security threats.

Filner has asked the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Homeland Security committees to hold hearings on the issue. In a separate letter, he told the leaders of those committees

I am not convinced that appropriate checks are in place to ensure the safety of Mexican trucks that are coming across the border or to ensure the drivers are appropriately trained and abide by hours-of-service regulations. Not only are there insufficient personnel to perform truck safety inspections, but it is also far too easy to forge drivers' certifications and forge logbooks.

And yet Mexico is pressuring the U.S. to open the border, according to a CNN report:

Mexico asked the United States on Tuesday to move forward with the creating a proposal to end a ban on cross-border trucking in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“We continue searching for any opportunity for dialogue and interaction with the (Obama) administration and Congress,” The Mexican Embassy said in a statement, according to Mexico’s official Notimex news agency. “We urge them to present a specific proposal to resolve the trucking impasse.”

U.S. Trade Representative said Tuesday that they're working as "fast as possible." Let's hope he's shading the truth on that.

Muslim cleric caught being smuggled from Mexico

The reasons for closing the border to Mexican trucks just keep piling up.

Here's the latest: a controversial Muslim cleric who had been deported from Canada was caught being smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.

The UK Daily Mail has the story:

U.S. border guards got a surprise when they searched a Mexican BMW and found a hardline Muslim cleric - banned from France and Canada - curled up in the boot.


Said Jaziri, who called for the death of a Danish cartoonist that drew pictures of the prophet Mohammed, was being smuggled into California when he was arrested, along with his driver Kenneth Robert Lawler.

The 43-year-old was deported from Canada to his homeland Tunisia in 2007 after it emerged he had lied on his refugee application about having served jail time in France.

Jaziri wasn't the first person to try to sneak into the U.S., of course. He allegedly paid an established smuggling cartel in Tijuana to smuggle him over the border.

If you haven't been following this, the Department of Transportation wants to open the border to Mexican trucks with another pilot program. The Teamsters will fight like hell against the plan because it will undermine highway safety, American jobs and border security.

Obama wants to open the border to this?

Here's still another reason to keep the border closed to Mexican trucks: Two American missionaries were shot in Mexico -- probably because they had an expensive truck.

FoxNews has the story:

Nancy Davis, 59, was hit in the head and died in a Texas hospital Wednesday afternoon, about 90 minutes after the two were shot at in Mexico. Her husband described a frantic scene in which he sped toward the border desperately driving against traffic over a bridge that connects Mexico to the United States.

Does this sound like a place your average U.S. truck driver would want to travel? We think not.

Trade is supposed to be a two-way street. It's hard to understand how President Obama's proposal to open the border to Mexican trucks will benefit America. It will take away American trucker and warehouse jobs, make our highways more dangerous and promote the spread of drug violence.

If you haven't been following this, the Department of Transportation wants to open the border to Mexican trucks with another pilot program. The Teamsters will fight like hell against the plan because it will undermine highway safety, American jobs and border security.

Still another reason to close the border to Mexican trucks: Weapons trafficking

TeamsterNation just loves it when U.S. safety officials are asked if opening the border would cause Mexico's drug violence to bleed northward. Their response is usually, "Nothing to see here, keep moving, people. Nothing to see."

The New York Times, in a remarkably biased and erroneous story the other day, asked the Texas Department of Public Safety whether opening the border would lead to an increase in human, drug, illicit cash or weapons smuggling. The Texas DPS dismissed the idea, even though it had warned people not to go to Mexico over the holidays because of the violence.

Here's their response to the Times' question:
Nothing to see here

All commercial vehicles, including commercial vehicles operated by Mexican-based carriers, entering the U.S. through commercial border crossings from Mexico are already subject to various types of inspections by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, as well as the Texas D.P.S.

Here's the story today about weapons smuggling from the Arizona Republic:

The seizure of more than 700 guns and the indictments of 34 people announced on Tuesday are further confirmation that Arizona has become an iron highway for weapons into Mexico, according to federal authorities.

Many legal purchases by straw buyers at Arizona gun stores are being financed and orchestrated by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, federal officials said.

At least the U.S. Attorney for Arizona didn't say "Nothing to see here." Here's what he did say:

This is a huge problem in this state. It is a strange phenomenon...Drug cartels go shopping for their war weapons here in Arizona.

Many of the guns are seized after being used in crimes in the U.S. or Mexico. TeamsterNation is shocked, shocked to learn that border agents, customs officials and law enforcement officers at the border don't find every gun every time.

If you haven't been following this, the Department of Transportation wants to open the border to Mexican trucks with another pilot program. The Teamsters will fight like hell against the plan because it will undermine highway safety, American jobs and border security.

Still another reason to close the border to Mexican trucks: Mutilated bodies

The ruthless narcos that the Mexican government can't control are now chopping off more than heads. Recently five mutilated bodies were discovered in Monterrey. Reports Borderland Beat,

Gunmen dumped the five dead men, their heads, arms and legs chopped off, on a street in the town of Montemorelos south of Monterrey just before dawn, police and witnesses said, in a escalation of killings since the New Year blamed on drug cartels and alarming locals and businesses.

TeamsterNation is quite certain that Mexican law enforcement officials are more concerned about the corpses littering Mexico's streets than they are about highway safety. Borderland Beats says Monterrey's chamber of commerce agrees:

"The police don't have the capacity to patrol the streets. Business people know that they are opening and running their companies at their own risk," said Juan Ernesto Sandoval, the head of Monterrey's commerce, retail and tourism chamber.

Today, Jerry Corsi at WorldNetDaily confirmed that Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) has requested a hearing on Mexican trucks. Read Corsi's story here.

Still another reason to close the border to Mexican trucks: Massacres

Violence in Mexico doesn't get much attention in the U.S. news media (can't imagine why anyone would be interested in the war going on just across our border). So you may have missed the story about the gruesome massacre in Acapulco last week.

According to Borderland Beat, (warning: don't go to the link unless you have the stomach for grisly photos) at 12:35 a.m. on Saturday, an anonymous tipster called the emergency hotline to report bodies on the sidewalk in front of the commercial center, Plaza Sendero. The bodies had been dumped there. Witnesses said that earlier,

...vehicles with armed men drove up and set up roadblocks along the Cayaco and Puerto Marqués streets. The commandos then began to threaten bystanders, local shopkeepers and the customers inside, "telling them to shutdown their businesses and for everyone to clear the street or they would be shot."


The siege lasted about 15 minutes and it closed the busy avenue to the local transit services and other public service vehicles. During this time, police officers did not make their presence known, and authorities didn't respond to the scene until well after the assailants had fled.

The bodies had been decapitated, one had been semi-disemboweled, and the victims were as young as 16. The killers had probably washed their hands in the fountain at the center of the plaza, as the water in it was crimson.

Six more bodies were later found inside a taxi along the Vicente Guerrero Blvd., and two were found in a canal near the crime scene. A man was then gunned down near the Plaza Sendero. That same night, a body was found in a Volkswagen in La Cima with gunshot wounds to his head.

The L.A. Times reported a total of 31 people were killed in or near Acapulco that weekend in a turf battle among three drug gangs. Reports the Times,

Pedestrians and motorists have been stopped or pulled from their vehicles at gunpoint by masked men. Extortion is rampant in the tourism-dependent city. Forensic investigators tell of bodies mutilated with acts that they have no technical terms to accurately describe, such as decapitated human heads discovered without skin or hair.

TeamsterNation wonders, if Mexico were renamed "Afghanistan," would the U.S. government still be trying to open the border to trucks?