-Caveat Lector- The son, that is - and like father, like son.....it is obvious by now that Jimmy Hoffa . did not accept Clinton's invitation to join this WTO.....note Clinton seems oh so at home, in Harlemn - but wait until those Black Panther's really oranize. Seems the creators have lost touch, with their creators. The Teamsters Union to date is Not For Sale. Jimmy Hoffa remained loyal to the Union that pays his salary and paid the salary of his father - this man is not for sale. Saba July 30, 2001 Teamsters May Stall Bush Goals for Mexican Trucks and Trade By PHILIP SHENON The Associated Press Trucks lined up on Wednesday to enter Route 905 in San Diego after crossing to the United States from Mexico. The Teamsters union is lobbying to keep Mexican trucks off American roads, citing safety issues. Join a Discussion on the Bush Presidency WASHINGTON, July 29 � A lobbying campaign led by the Teamsters union to keep Mexican trucks off American roads is on the verge of handing organized labor a major legislative victory over President Bush, endangering one of his most cherished foreign policy goals and reminding the White House of the political muscle still flexed here by labor unions. If the Teamsters prevail, it could undermine the president's hopes of improved trade and diplomatic ties with Mexico, which has demanded the opening of the border to Mexican trucks under terms of the eight-year- old North American Free Trade Agreement. Mr. Bush had hoped to comply by next year. Nafta and its liberalized trade rules have long been a target of the Teamsters, which has 1.4 million members, many of them truck drivers. The union's critics offer grudging admiration for its tactics in the legislative battle. They say the key to the union's success in blocking Mr. Bush's open-border plan has been its ability to turn the debate from one of protectionism � the desire of American truckers to prevent low-paid, nonunionized Mexican drivers from taking their jobs � to one of public safety. The House voted last month to retain a near-total ban on Mexican trucks on American roads outside a 20-mile-deep border area. The Senate is nearing a vote on a measure that, while less restrictive, would still impose strict security and insurance standards on Mexican trucks and would probably delay a full border opening for years. Mr. Bush, who has befriended President Vicente Fox of Mexico and has made clear that he wants closer ties with Mexico to be a central legacy of his presidency, is threatening to veto this year's $60 billion transportation spending bill if it contains the House or Senate restrictions. But the Teamsters and their allies � among them a large, bipartisan group of members of Congress, including many Republicans who usually side with the White House � appear convinced that a veto could be overturned. Their argument is bolstered by government studies showing that Mexican trucks entering the United States fail safety inspections at a higher rate than American trucks; about 37 percent of the Mexican trucks inspected at the border last year were removed from the road because of safety violations, versus about 24 percent for American trucks inspected nationwide. The administration has said it would beef up inspections and put a program in place to scrutinize the safety programs of Mexican trucking companies that would be given permits to operate in the United States. But the Transportation Department's inspector general, in testimony this month, questioned whether those plans were adequate to ensure safety. In a procedural vote last week, 70 senators � 19 Republicans, all 50 Democrats and one independent � suggested that they would support the measure to restrict Mexican trucks. "We have lobbied tremendously on this," said James P. Hoffa, the president of the Teamsters. Mr. Hoffa has appeared on Capitol Hill repeatedly in recent weeks to press members of Congress face to face to block Mr. Bush's plan. "The issue of unsafe trucks coming up from Mexico is one that all of the American driving public should care about," Mr. Hoffa said in an interview. "You could have trucks coming across the border with no brakes, with no insurance, with untrained drivers, carrying hazardous waste. It's untold the number of catastrophes that could happen." The union's lobbying campaign has a been a traditional one, carried out in coordination with consumer- protection and environmental groups that also say they oppose the opening of the border on safety grounds. "I don't think this is happening just because of the Teamsters," said Joan Claybrook of Common Cause. "But I do think the Teamsters have done excellent work." The Teamsters say they have not needed outside lobbyists or pollsters to make their case, and their advertising budget on the issue has been minuscule by recent Washington standards: $50,000 for radio commercials featuring the sound of truck wheels skidding on a freeway before smashing into another vehicle. "There's no doubt that the Teamsters have had a very big impact here," said Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has sought to kill the Senate measure to restrict Mexican trucks. He said the union had "really prevented meaningful negotiations" among senators that might have allowed a compromise to emerge. Mr. McCain � in an increasingly rare alliance with President Bush, who is usually portrayed as his political rival � says the restrictions in the House and Senate measures would be a clear violation of the North American trade agreement and would invite trade retaliation from Mexico. The Senate Republican leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, has described the moves to restrict Mexican trucking as "anti-Mexican" and "anti-Hispanic." Since the trade agreement signed by the United States, Mexico and Canada went into effect in 1993, the Teamsters have worked aggressively � and successfully � to hold off carrying out of provisions that require that the border be open to commercial vehicle traffic with Mexico. (The Teamsters represent large numbers of Canadian workers, and the union has had no similar complaints about an open border with Canada.) Although it is traditionally less closely aligned with the Democratic Party than other large unions, the Teamsters held enormous sway in the Clinton administration, which repeatedly sought the union's support. Critics of the Clinton White House contended that it was too willing to overlook the union's longstanding reputation for corruption. Aides to Mr. Clinton acknowledged that the union played an important role in his 1995 decision to back away from provisions of Nafta that should have allowed Mexican trucks to begin traveling freely in border states that year, and his decision last year to back away from provisions that should have allowed Mexican trucks to begin traveling freely throughout the country. The Clinton administration's decision last year was made when Vice President Al Gore was eagerly seeking the union's endorsement of his presidential campaign. Mr. Gore eventually received the endorsement. The election of Mr. Bush suggested that the Teamsters would have significantly less influence at the White House. And given Mr. Bush's close ties to Mexico as a former governor of Texas and his eagerness to support President Fox, there was little surprise when the White House announced that it would reverse the Clinton administration's policy and open the borders. The White House said Mr. Bush was motivated by a Nafta arbitration panel that decided in February that the Clinton administration's ban on free border travel by Mexican trucks violated American treaty obligations. The panel's findings were the subject of heated debate in the Senate last week, with each citing the decision to bolster its case for or against restrictions on open borders. While the panel did conclude that the United States had violated rules of the trade agreement, it also emphasized that "the safety of trucking services is a legitimate regulatory objective" and that the United States is "responsible for the safe operation of trucks within U.S. territory, whether ownership is U.S., Canadian or Mexican." Home | Back to Politics | Search | HelpBack to Top The New York Times Newspaper. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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