February 6, 2008

(Washington, D.C.) – The Teamsters launched a nationwide grassroots campaign to fire Transportation Secretary Mary Peters for unlawfully opening the border to unsafe trucks from Mexico.

“It’s a disgrace that Mary Peters is still in office,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “She has broken the law and defied the will of the American people by exposing them to dangerous trucks from Mexico.”

The Senate voted 75 to 23 and the House voted 411 to 3 to keep the border closed to unsafe Mexican trucks. The legislation became law on December 26, 2007 as part of the Omnibus budget bill. Under Peter’s direction, the Department of Transportation has refused to comply with the law.

The “Fire Mary Peters – Lawbreaker” campaign includes:

• A web site, www.FireMaryPeters.com, with blog, downloadable “Fire Mary Peters” windshield signs, recommended actions and an e-mail component urging concerned citizens to ask their elected representatives to find Mary Peters in contempt of Congress.

• Posters and floor graphics now up in the Navy Yard Metro stop near the Department of Transportation (DOT) in Washington.

• An anonymous hotline set up for whistleblowers to report additional transgressions by Mary Peters.  

• A leafleting campaign at the Metro stop, where DOT employees will be handed cards asking them to call the hotline to report other laws that Mary Peters has broken.

• “Fire Mary Peters -- She Breaks the Law” bumper stickers mailed to thousands of Teamsters and others.

• “Fire Mary Peters” radio commercials to air on WTOP, the No. 1 radio station in the Washington, DC area, and nationally on the Air America radio network.

• “Fire Mary Peters” Web ads on key political sites in Washington, DC and Arizona, Peters’ home state.

The Teamsters Union will argue in court on February 12 that Peters broke federal laws aimed at ensuring American motorists aren’t endangered by allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. highways. The case will be heard in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The Teamsters are supported by CONATRAM, the federation of Mexican truck drivers who categorically reject Mary Peters’ program to open the border. They fear it will devastate their industry, just as U.S. agribusiness wiped out Mexican farms after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The “Fire Mary Peters” campaign has a special focus in Peters’ home state of Arizona, where letters and bumper stickers have been mailed to thousands of Teamsters, urging them to take action.

It’s an open secret that Mary Peters is planning to run for governor of Arizona in 2010. Arizonans need to know that Mary Peters is the lawbreaker who opened the border to Mexican trucks. 

For more information about the campaign, go to www.FireMaryPeters.com.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.