Mexican Truckers Oppose Cross-Border Plan

Mexican Truckers Oppose Cross-Border Plan

December 27, 2007

Elias Dip Rame, president of the Mexican National Truck Drivers Federation (Conatram), announced that in January 2008, members of his federation will block the border between Mexico and the United States if the pilot program that has authorized Mexican trucking companies to enter the United States and vice versa for the last few months is not put to an end.

In an interview with El Financiero, Dip Rame stated that Conatram members are willing to use the strength of their civil association, which he says has approximately 200,000 members, to stop the trucks that cross the border between the two countries every day.

"This program really hurts the trucking industry, this famous pilot plan, where the borders are opened, it really worries us. It was dead in the water, it has been in place for over two months and only 400 trucks have crossed the border under the plan, compared with about 450,000 containers that have been brought across the border by those of us who are not interested in the program. In other words, the program is ridiculous, the authorities are using strikebreakers to say that there is interest in the program when there is not."

After meeting with truckers in Nuevo Leon to announce the merging of Conatram and the Regiomontana Truckers Union, Dip Rame stated that the week before, he met with leaders of the US Teamsters Union, "and they are also not interested, this is really in the interest of the state or rather of the leaders of large privately-owned manufacturing companies, but it is not in the interest of the transport sector. It is irresponsible of the Mexican Government, of Felipe Calderon, to allow the interests of a powerful 2 percent of people in the Mexican economy to hand Mexican trucking over to the Americans."

"If our industry went under, and we will not let that happen, millions would be out of work, so the president who presents himself as the employment president, I am referring to Felipe Calderon, would become the unemployment president," he said.

Dip Rame stated that his union's strength "has already been proven to the federal authorities," noting that three weeks ago in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, about a hundred large trucks blocked the road for several hours, preventing 3000 truckers and vehicles from crossing into the United States.

The article was written by Jonathan Tapia and originally appeared inEl Financiero (Mexico City) in Spanish on December 7, 2007.