Mex.Truckers Blockade in Texas

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Truckers, U.S. clash on safety
Mexican drivers, fined for violations, threaten blockades

April 11, 2001

Waiting game costly to both sides
NOGALES - Mexican truck drivers are threatening to block the commercial port of entry here for a second day this week unless U.S. officials stop levying hefty fines against drivers whose rigs fail to meet safety requirements.

The strike has halted shipments of tons of produce to the United States as shoppers prepare to hit supermarkets for the Easter weekend. Arizona Department of Transportation officials were to meet in Nogales today with representatives of the drivers, who blocked the border crossing for more than eight hours Monday to protest fines of more than $1,000 for safety violations such as bald tires and faulty brakes.

Failure to reach an agreement could lead to a "catastrophe" for the produce industry in Nogales, which already has lost thousands of pounds of perishable produce from Monday's blockade, said Kathleen Vandervoet, spokeswoman for the Fresh Produce Association of The Americas.

"A lot of orders have been canceled due to the strike," she said. "More could be a catastrophe, a crisis for the industry here." The stalemate is spurned by the U.S. policy that fines truck drivers - not their employers - for safety violations.

"What we're asking is that mechanical problems with the trucks are not blamed on drivers," said Mario Perez, who shuttles trucks filled with Mexican produce from Nogales, Son., to a distribution center in Rio Rico.

"In Mexico, those problems are the responsibility of the truck owners. We want to follow the (U.S.) laws, but they are punishing the wrong people."

Department of Transportation officials, charged with ensuring the safety of big rigs on state highways, promised to work with Mexican truckers to reach a compromise.

"We can't go out and say we won't write the tickets," said Frank Valenzuela, spokesman for the Department of Transportation. "Our main concern is public safety. We can't turn our heads to a violation that should be cited, just for better trade relations with Mexico. "We're trying to educate truck drivers and growers from Mexico about the law," said Valenzuela, who estimated the department inspects an estimated 30 percent of all trucks passing through the port of entry for brake, tire and structural safety. "We're citing only for the more flagrant violations right now."

from Top DPS officials also plan to contact Arizona courts to explain the circumstances of the tickets written on truckers in the past few weeks, which could lead to possible reduction of the fines, Valenzuela said.

Celia de la Ossa, chief inspector of cargo for the U.S. Customs Service in Nogales, which sees more than 1,000 trucks pass through its ports daily, said business was back to normal yesterday. About 95 percent of Tucson's tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, squash and mangoes is imported though Nogales, Frankel said. Produce coming through Nogales also is shipped to grocers as far away as the East Coast.

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Dennis

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001


"Produce coming through Nogales also is shipped to grocers as far away as the East Coast."

Yup. That would affect us all right.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001


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