March 10, 2008

(Washington, D.C.) – Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa blasted the Bush administration today for its reckless indifference to the economic struggles of working Americans who are suffering under the North American Free Trade Agreement with more than a million lost jobs and billions of dollars in lost wages.

“No matter how many jobs we lose, no matter how many foreclosures, no matter how many people die on the highways, the Bush administration just doesn’t care about the safety and security of American workers,” Hoffa said.

Hoffa’s comments followed a news conference by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who extolled the so-called benefits of NAFTA. Peters claimed that closing the border to unsafe Mexican trucks would hurt American businesses that want to sell to Mexico.

Hoffa said he doubted that because of the crime problem in Mexico. “I mean, hello, do you really want to take a load of Cadillacs down there and park? I don’t think so.”

Peters also claimed that Mexico will retaliate against the United States if it closes the southern border.

Hoffa pointed out that the United States buys $70 billion more goods from Mexico than it sells to that country.

“I don’t buy it,” Hoffa said in a conference call with reporters. “They’ve got a $70 billion trade surplus. They’d be foolish to do it.” 

He cited a long list of companies that have moved their operations to Mexico, including Teamster employers such as Swingline Stapler, Square D, Mr Coffee, and others such as Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Whirlpool, Pillsbury, Lexmark, Eastman Kodak and Levis Wrangler.

“The Teamsters Union has been a constant critic of NAFTA,” Hoffa said. “We were right. We’re hemorrhaging jobs.”

Hoffa was joined by Dr. Robert E. Scott, director of International Programs for the Economic Policy Institute. Scott said that NAFTA cost 1 million jobs in the United States during its first 10 years of implementation. Without NAFTA, U.S. workers would have earned $7.6 billion more in wages in 2004 alone.

“It’s been really bad for workers in the United States,” Scott said.

Pennsylvania and Mississippi—both with upcoming presidential primaries—are two of the states hardest hit by NAFTA, Scott said.

Hoffa said Peters should close the border to Mexico because that country doesn’t have the same safety standards for truck drivers that the U.S. does. In Mexico there is no drug testing, criminal background checks, a complete database with driving records or enforcement of log maintenance.

“We do not need unsafe Mexican trucks on our highways,” Hoffa said.

Congress passed a law cutting off funding for the program that opens the border to unsafe trucks from Mexico. The law took effect on December 26, but Peters has chosen to ignore it and is keeping the border open.

The Teamsters sued to stop the program in the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco. Oral arguments were heard on February 12. The judges have yet to issue a decision.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The Economic Policy Institute is a Washington-based, nonpartisan think tank that researches the impact of economic policies and trends on working people.