Lede: The Teamsters are opposing a Bush administration Mexican trucking experiment. Doug Cunningham explains.

By Doug Cunningham

The Teamsters say opening the nation’s highways to Mexican trucks is a risk to national security that amounts to playing a game of Russian roulette on U.S. highways. The Teamsters have long fought the unfettered access to U.S. highways by Mexican trucking companies. A couple of years ago the Department of Transportation Inspector General found that Mexican motor carriers didn’t meet safety requirements and other regulations mandated by Congress. But the Bush administration wants to go ahead with a an experimental program that could start as soon as six weeks from now. Mexican trucks have been limited to within 20 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border, but this new program will open up the entire U.S. highway system to them. Enforcement of U.S. wage and hours laws is just one of the issues the Teamsters are concerned about.
Teamsters President Jim Hoffa says making guinea pigs out of the U.S. traveling public is unacceptable and Congress should put an end to this experimental policy allowing Mexican trucks onto U.S. highways.