Teamsters call for DOT chief ouster over U.S./Mexico trucking plan

Teamsters call for DOT chief ouster over U.S./Mexico trucking plan The International Brotherhood of Teamsters have launched a national media campaign calling for the replacement of U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, whom they hold responsible for an ongoing pilot program allowing Mexican-domiciled trucks to move cargo throughout the United States.
   The radio and direct-mail campaign claims Peters has ignored a law passed last year and other Congressional demands to end the five-month-old cross-border program.
   The union will begin running radio spots today on the Air America radio network. The ads, which will run for a week, feature a blaring horn followed by the sound of a crash. The ad ends by calling for Peters to be fired.
   The Teamsters are also hoping to generate opposition to the truck program by sending letters to more than 250,000 of its members who live near the U.S.-Mexico border or who haul freight.
   The union is specifically targeting the transportation chief's home state of Arizona, where Peters is being talked about as a gubernatorial candidate for 2010.
   'Part of what we want to do is make it clear that there is a political price for doing this,' Teamsters spokeswoman Leslie Miller told the San Diego Union Tribune.
   The DOT dismissed the attacks out of hand.
   The launch of the campaign against Peters coincides with the start of oral arguments next week in a lawsuit before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco seeking to halt the truck program. Opponents of the plan, including the Teamsters, contend in the lawsuit that the Bush administration program is not holding Mexican drivers to the same safety standards that U.S. drivers face, thus creating a danger on U.S. highways. The administration has said the program requires Mexican trucks to meet all of the standards that U.S. trucks face.
   Under the program, which started in September, the DOT plans to authorize fleets from 100 pre-screened Mexican trucking firms to travel throughout the United States. Under terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico and the United States must allow access to trucks from each nation. Since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, legislation and litigation have limited Mexican trucks to a narrow 20 to 25 mile zone along the border.
   To date, several dozen Mexican firms have been authorized by the DOT, but actual traffic from Mexico to the United States under the plan has been limited.
   The plan has met fierce opposition from labor, trucking and public safety groups, with most citing U.S. job losses and inadequate U.S. control of safety regulations on Mexican trucks and drivers as main concerns.
   Twice last year, both the House and Senate passed de-funding language regarding the truck program to transportation bills that were eventually signed by the White House. Despite these moves, the Bush administration has remained committed to keeping the plan operating.