[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6298-6299]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



       AMERICAN AND MEXICAN TRUCK DRIVERS ARE CASUALTIES OF NAFTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to recognize two often-
overlooked groups of people who have been innocent casualties of NAFTA, 
American and Mexican truck drivers. While I have repeated time and time 
again that American truckers will be forced to compete with their 
unregulated and underpaid counterparts south of the border, Mexican 
truck drivers are often overlooked casualties. But the truth is that 
NAFTA and its evil minions have forced Mexican truck drivers to work 1, 
2 and even 3 days straight to get their goods to the U.S.-Mexican 
border.
  The Mexican Government is one of the accomplices. Even though 
Canacar, the Mexican trucking association, has asked for 5 more years 
before the border is opened to unlimited truck hauling, the Mexican 
Government continually demands that the border be open immediately. 
Canacar admits that the Mexican truck fleet is old and in general 
disrepair, and neither the fleet nor its crews are safely ready to 
compete with newer American trucks and its rested drivers.
  So why does the Mexican Government continue to push for the cross-
border opening? Because the Mexican Government does not seem to care 
much about its own citizens. Right now, the Mexican economic system 
forces truck operators to drive days on end, and, as reported in a 
story by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, most of these 
drivers are often

[[Page 6299]]

fueled by narcotics. Mexican truck drivers freely admit that they would 
prepare for long hauls with beer, marijuana, pills, and cocaine.
  According to one driver, ``You must not eat too much meat on a long 
run, because it will make you sleepy and then you need more cocaine.'' 
Clearly, these drivers are sleep deprived.
  As another driver, Juan Alvarez, put it, ``The biggest problem is 
lack of sleep. I just drove 36 hours straight. Sometimes I get 6 to 12 
hours off between loads.'' Juan does this for $500 for every 15 days 
that he drives.
  The Mexican Government and its company-sponsored union have forced 
these drivers into this predicament. Unlike American drivers, Mexican 
drivers have no right to speak freely or bargain collectively. They 
know little about the specifics of the NAFTA treaty, and their 
government likes it that way.
  So this brings us back to the American truck drivers, who would be 
unfairly forced to compete against Mexican truck drivers that are 
treated with indifference by their own government. But American 
truckers realize that the Mexican truck drivers are not treated as 
people by their government; and that, simply put, is not the fault of 
Mexican truck drivers. It is the Mexican system that is at fault. It is 
our fault for entering into a treaty with a country that has a 
completely different socio-economic and labor-management structure than 
ours.
  Thankfully, President Clinton did not open up the borders, as NAFTA 
called for, on January 1, 2000. Because if he did, we would have 
thousands of these sleep-deprived Mexican truckers driving all over our 
highways and byways throughout this Nation endangering other truckers 
and motorists on the road.

                              {time}  1845

  In fact, many Mexican trucks and their drivers have already been 
found illegally in States throughout the United States of America. Most 
likely because their government tells them little about our current 
law.
  Clearly, President Clinton made the right decision by keeping the 
border closed. For the sake of all American truckers' jobs and the 
safety of the American public, let us hope it stays that way for a 
long, long time.

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