Teamsters Hail Delay of Mexican Truck Operating Permit

U.S. DOT Cites Safety Concerns Raised By Teamsters

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa issued the following statement today regarding the U.S. Transportation Department's delay of the first permit for a Mexican trucking company to start traveling freely throughout the United States. The delay was based on safety concerns raised by the Teamsters Union and its allies.  

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"The U.S. Transportation Department was right in heeding our safety concerns and delaying the first permit to operate trucks from Mexico freely throughout the United States. We are glad that transportation officials are now taking our concerns seriously.

"We will continue our fight to keep our borders closed to unsafe Mexican trucks. 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.

"The fly-by-night Tijuana operator passed a preliminary inspection last month -- a colossal bungling by transportation officials. The carrier has one unsafe, 20-year-old semi-tractor trailer that our government designated a 'gross polluter.' If this is the cream of the crop of Mexican operators, we can only imagine what will be crossing our border in the future.

"The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration clearly ignored Congress in conducting inspections that didn't meet the legal requirements. The Teamsters Union and our allies have filed a lawsuit to stop this illegal and dangerous cross-border trucking program before people get hurt.

"This delay proves what we've been saying all along: Opening the border to dangerous Mexican trucks is not in the interest of Americans. It will cost thousands of truck and warehouse jobs that we so desperately need, it will undermine border security, it will pollute our air and it will harm the driving public."

Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters