Wednesday, February 28, 2007

A Taco Stand at Every Truckstop?

Don't know about you all, but I cringe when my union brothers and sisters seem to rely on anti-immigrant, racist, and fear-of-terrorism arguments. Concerning NAFTA provisions that allow goods from Mexico to be delivered in Mexican trucks, we get this:

Speaking by telephone with VOA, Teamsters Union spokesman Galen Munroe stresses that the number of U.S. inspectors involved in the program is inadequate to the task [of inspecting trucks coming from Mexico].

"It is a real concern of ours from a safety standpoint and, frankly, from a security standpoint," he said. "We do not know what is coming over these borders. They claim they are going to look at each truck and inspect each truck, but they try to do that now and they cannot even do ten percent of the trucks that come over the border."


You combine the Teamster's right-wing history with this kind of jingoism and I am repelled by the anti-NAFTA crowd. These are not the type of arguments I want to associate myself with. I know that some of you do. Anyone want to defend our Teamster brothers (let's face facts) here? If you are opposed to Mexican trucks on American roads, on what grounds? I know I'm wrong on this one, but I still can't seem to see it. And please let's not have any NAFTA is evil because capitalism is evil arguments. Yes, yes, but that has nothing to do with Mexican trucks, "American jobs," or anything that the Teamsters might believe.

5 comments:

ash said...

mmmm...tacos.

wobblie said...

I'll buy the safety (and environmental quality, not that a Teamster will make one) arguments. If the U.S. has more stringent truck safety standards (or environmental standards with regards to diesel fuels, etc.), but we're not allowed to enforce these standards on trucks entering the country because they're "unfair trade barriers," I think that's horseshit and a violation of our sovereignty.

The "costing us jobs" and "security risk" rhetoric is, however, xenophobic crap.

wobblie said...

Oh, and tacos are delicious.

dave3544 said...

Again, when recovering radicals like my friend wobs starts up with "violation of our sovereignty" crap, then I get worried. This is how the neocons started out my friend.

And what do any of us know about truck safety; in Mexico or the US. The only way this argument flies is if we buy that Mexican trucks are by definition less safe than American trucks. I have to suppose that they are dirtier and have more children as well. Next thing you know they'll be hogging up all the spaces in the repair shops, just lounging around waiting for a free lube job, while good, hard-working American trucks will be forced to work two, three times as hard just to get an oil change.

Oh yes. I enjoy the occassional taco as well. I am not against tacos at truck stops. We could easily replace the "free coffee" trailers with "free tacos" low-riders. See, NAFTA = tasty = good.

Anonymous said...

perhaps you have...not sure when i came out in favor of nafta. i have indicated that i am a fair trade guy, usually in response to the notion that jobs can somehow belong to a nation-state or that goods made elsewhere are somehow inferior. i do also tend to reject the reflexive notion that any product not made in the good ol' u.s. of a. is by definition made by exploited labor (or, as the case may be, labor more exploited than anywhere else in the world, including the u.s.a.). if i am not here to question these assumptions, then i don't know who the hell is.

the rejection of the 'capitalism is evil' argument, in this context, stemmed from the fact that the Teamsters were not advancing it. i am specifically asking if anyone cares to defend the teamsters here, or can we all call a collective bullshit on the "we must reject Mexican trucks because they are a safety threat" argument. unless, you want to argue that deep down inside, the teamsters are actually trying to destroy the capitalist system, but need to do it by appealing the worst instincts of the 'merican people.