| 11.02.05 -
President Bush and the Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff are pushing a new and
improved version of employing immigrants. It has been
dubbed as a guest worker program. |
| The plan will allow Mexicans
to come north with jobs already in place. One area of shortages
in the job market is professional CDL drivers. This plan will
put many Teamster jobs at risk. |
| The proposed guest worker
program has raised concern among conservative Republicans
because some of the estimated 8 million to 12 million
undocumented workers already in the country would be able to
qualify for the program.
|
| Chertoff has stated that the
plan would give no amnesty to illegal aliens or provide a
pathway for those workers to gain permanent residence or
citizenship.
|
| Under present rules set down
by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)
section 398.3(c)(4), titled "Qualifications of Drivers or
Operators", it reads as follows: |
| (c)(4) Knowledge of
English. Every driver shall be able to read and speak
the English language sufficiently to understand highway traffic
signs and signals and directions given in English and to respond
to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and
records. |
|
| In April 1993, Richard Aceves.
the Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local Union No. 542 in San
Diego, California. addressed Congress with the following
statement. "The Teamsters Union, which represents 1.4
million working men and women, is adamantly opposed to the North
American Free Trade Agreement. This agreement will cause massive
job loss, a threat to public safety, and destruction of the
infrastructure of the U.S. transportation system."
The full statement can be found in the Library of Congress. |
| On January 2004, President
Bush stated, "Reform must begin by confronting a basic fact
of life and economics: some of the jobs being generated in
America's growing economy are jobs American citizens are not
filling. Yet these jobs represent a tremendous opportunity for
workers from abroad who want to work and fulfill their duties as
a husband or a wife, a son or a daughter." |
| Teamsters need to be aware of
the programs and what
may be happening in their work environment regarding new hires. By insuring the above rule is followed,
Teamsters can be a first line of defense as to the abuse of this
English language requirement rule.
Comment
on this report. |
| Report Sources: |
| http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040107-3.html |
| http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.asp?rule398.3 |
| http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r103:E21AP3-35: |
