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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Teamsters Union said Wednesday it will ask a federal appeals court to block the Bush administration's plan to allow Mexican trucks to carry cargo anywhere in the United States.

The union said it has been told by officials in the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that the first Mexican trucks will be coming across the border Saturday.

Teamsters leaders said they planned to seek an emergency injunction Wednesday from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

"What a slap in the face to American workers, opening the highways to dangerous trucks on Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest driving weekends of the year," said Teamsters President Jim Hoffa.

Joining the Teamsters in seeking the emergency stay were the Sierra Club and Public Citizen. "Before providing unconditional access throughout the country to tens of thousands of big rigs we know little to nothing about, we must ensure they meet safety and environmental standards," Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in a statement, said: "We believe this lawsuit is without merit and that our program will benefit consumers by reducing the costly practice of requiring all cross-border shipments to be hauled by three separate trucks operated by three different drivers and provide U.S. trucking companies the opportunity to expand their business into our nation's third largest trading partner."

The Bush administration said last week it would start the cross-border program once the Transportation Department's inspector general certifies safety and inspection plans.

Leslie Miller, a Teamsters spokeswoman, said attorneys for the federal truck safety agency advised the union's lawyers that they expect to get that certification Friday. She said the Teamsters also were told by the agency attorneys that limited authority for trucks to begin crossing the border will be approved Saturday.

The Teamsters got a powerful labor ally in its protest.

AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said in a news conference "the real issue there is the situation of safety and how this involves the delivery of food or product of Mexico to United States and vice versa.

"It's an ongoing dispute, and we don't think the Mexican government is enforcing their laws in that situation," said Sweeney in support of the Teamsters, who left the AFL-CIO to join a rival labor federation in 2005. "I think the Teamsters are taking the lead in this situation and rightly so deserve support."

Supporters of the plan say letting more Mexican trucks on U.S. highways will save American consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Labor and driver-owner groups have been fighting the measure -- part of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement -- since it was first proposed, saying the program will erode highway safety and eliminate U.S. jobs.

A one-year demonstration project would allow 100 Mexican motor carriers full access to U.S. roads. It can begin as soon as the inspector general certifies that safety and inspection plans and facilities are sufficient to ensure the Mexican trucks are as safe as U.S. trucks.

Since 1982, Mexican trucks have had to stop within a buffer border zone and transfer their loads to U.S. trucks.

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“However, a significant issues with specimen collection remains,” the audit states. “It is not clear as to whether the controls in place ensure that valid specimens are being collected before being sent to a certified laboratory. We found no evidence that collection site concerns have been resolved.”

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When the OIG looked at bus operations, inspectors found facilities – specifically mentioning the bus inspection facility in Laredo, TX – as being short on both physical facilities and inspectors.

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“Our observations at the Laredo crossing … confirmed the challenge FMCSA faces in screening project participants,” the audit states.

“Specifically, we observed hundreds of vehicles entering the United States at the Laredo crossing each day. FMCSA inspectors selected vehicles for inspection from the line of trucks waiting to cross the border. However, once an inspector selected a vehicle and diverted it for an inspection, no FMCSA personnel remained at the screening point to monitor carrier traffic.”

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FMCSA reported to the OIG that Mexico’s Licencia Federal Information System now contains 269,000 valid licenses, 140,000 expired licenses and 9,000 disqualified or restricted licenses. Through April 2006, U.S. federal and state law enforcement officials have accessed LIFIS 19,000 times.

The agency reported that 82 percent of the inquiries returned a valid CDL. Expired and restricted licenses came back in 2 percent of the inquiries.

However, 16 percent of the searches came back “driver not found.”

“We could not determine whether the large percentage of queries to LIFIS that resulted in a response of ‘driver not found’ were due to data entry problems by U.S. users of the system, attempts by Mexican drivers to operate with invalid licenses, incompleteness of the Mexican database, or other unknown reasons,” the OIG audit states.

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“Specifically, we observed hundreds of vehicles entering the United States at the Laredo crossing each day. FMCSA inspectors selected vehicles for inspection from the line of trucks waiting to cross the border. However, once an inspector selected a vehicle and diverted it for an inspection, no FMCSA personnel remained at the screening point to monitor carrier traffic.”

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The North American Free Trade Agreement is the trade bloc in North America created by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its two supplements, the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and The North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), whose members are Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It came into effect on 1 January 1994.

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In the United States, Americans were divided on whether NAFTA benefited the U.S. economy (42% good, 43% bad), but they tended to feel that NAFTA was good for consumers like them (55% good, 30% bad), good (51% vs. 33% bad) for their own standard of living, and good (50% vs. 36% bad) for American companies. However, the American public felt that NAFTA was bad for creating jobs in the United States (56%) and for job security for American workers (60%). Thus both Mexicans and Americans seem to subscribe to the overall benefits of free trade as represented by NAFTA, but at the same time feel concern about members of their society put at risk by freer trade—in the case of Mexico, people in the countryside, and in the United States, workers.

Polling evidence shows general public support for NAFTA in Mexico, Canada and the United States, and at the Summit of the Americas in November 2005 Presidents Fox and Bush and Premier Martin all favored the more expansive FTAA. Opponents of trade agreements, however, may frame the issue in terms of winners and losers, and public opinion seems to resonate with the view that a trading partner will have the better deal. Public opinion is also attuned to the problem, often noted by trade economists, that while there may be general benefits of freer trade, specific groups in a society can often be hurt.

See: www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brlatinamericara/161.php?nid=&id=&pnt=161&lb=btgl

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And Sheepdancer, you should be happy....I understand you know alittle spanish.....recruiting should be easy. Think "BIG BONUS>>>STOCK OPTIONS".

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