Another nail driven in the casket for American workers

For seventeen years Mexican trucks have not been allowed to enter America except to warehouses at the borders. The North American “Free” Trade Agreement had a provision to allow them access under specific guidelines. I want to state right at the beginning that in my opinion all of the so called free trade agreements were approved to the benefit of corporations not citizens of any of the three countries.
I have a question. Why was it our responsibility to spend $2.5 million to equip their trucks with monitoring devices? It would appear to me that Mexico should bear whatever costs are needed.
Mexico imposed tariffs on a dozen US made products in 2009. If we had leaders who cared about American workers we would have reciprocated at that time, tit for tat. But no, the so called super power once again allows the third world country to stomp on us; all the while we give Mexico billion dollar grants every year for assistance in their drug war.
The net effect will be to put pressure on American truck drivers to work for fewer dollars as the Mexicans will undoubtedly be paid far less. Each Mexican truck entering America will replace an American truck. This alone will have a devastating effect on American workers. Go ahead and say “they are only unskilled and don’t deserve high pay”. To you I say “walk in the other guy’s shoes and see how you like it”. One more sector of American workers being pressured to lower their life styles for the sake of consumers.
My last question is what ever happened to the members of Congress who had supported our truck drivers? Are they so busy trying to keep us from defaulting on the national debt that they dropped the ball?


Jack B. Walters
July 9, 2011