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Post by judes on Mar 15, 2011 18:41:19 GMT -6
I know several people who have turned to truck driving, leaving their families for several weeks at a time, just to eek out a meager living having lost their higher paying jobs in manufacturing or other sectors, and now this!! www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2011/Mar11/031411/031411-01.shtmlIn the face of mounting opposition, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said U.S. and Mexico representatives are “weeks, if not days” away from reaching a deal to open the border to long-haul trucks from Mexico.
Kirk told a group of reporters on March 10 that U.S. Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Mexican Transportation Minister Humberto Trevino are very close to inking a deal that will open the border to long-haul trucks from Mexico and that will end more than $5 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods.
In the months since the Obama Administration released a "concept document" that detailed a plan the U.S. would use during negotiations with Mexico, the plan to open the border has faced a growing storm of opposition..........................read rest at link...........................
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Post by blueneck on Mar 15, 2011 19:35:05 GMT -6
Two of the most talented engineers I know have left mfg for trucking. Another friend I know who was a very gifted mechanical tech also drives now
What happend to Obamas promise to fix or get out of Nafta? I guess we all see what he meant by "fix"
Where are the Teamsters?
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Post by blueneck on Mar 16, 2011 4:35:12 GMT -6
I've ben to Mexico and have seen how people drive there, and the old pieces of junk that pass a vehicles
do we really want this unsafe condition on our highways?
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Post by whoswho on Mar 16, 2011 8:31:47 GMT -6
I know several people who have turned to truck driving, leaving their families for several weeks at a time, just to eek out a meager living having lost their higher paying jobs in manufacturing or other sectors, and now this!!
I do too, Judes. Guess the only occupations left to kill now, would be those in the medical fields? But around here, even those are beginning to suffer. Too many people trying to drink from the same well.
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Post by danreller on Mar 16, 2011 9:27:09 GMT -6
Many medical services are also being outsourced. They are already being "killed".
X-Rays can be digitally sent and read anywhere in the world. Why pay a radiologist (a very lucrative salary in the US) here when you can have the X-Ray interpreted for much less abroad?
Tissue samples from biopsies can be shipped anywhere and processed into microscope slides that a pathologist (another very lucrative salary job inthe US) in another country can interpret for much less.
I'm a dentist and I've heard of dental labs overnighting lab work to the Phillpines and then have the completed item (crown, bridge, partial denture,etc...) mailed back to the States. Most times, the dentist isn't even aware that this is happening.
Some companies are paying for medical vacations for their employees so they can have their elective surgeries performed abroad far cheaper than if it was done in the US. They pay the airfare, hotel accomodations and convalescent time and still save by sending them overseas.
I'm sure there are other examples that I'm not aware of.
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Post by graybeard on Mar 16, 2011 10:27:32 GMT -6
Even with 100% inspection of imports, and high tariffs, lots of jobs would continue to be outsourced. I dunno how to fix that.
GB
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Post by waltc on Mar 16, 2011 11:38:55 GMT -6
Even with 100% inspection of imports, and high tariffs, lots of jobs would continue to be outsourced. I dunno how to fix that.
Punishing companies that off-shore services would be hard. The easiest way IMO would be to ban all off-shore tax preparation, legal aid and all medical related services.
Or at the very least enact a law that notifies the consumer that all service work at company 'x' is done overseas and that the consumer must agree in writing.
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Mar 17, 2011 0:32:04 GMT -6
Many medical services are also being outsourced. They are already being "killed". X-Rays can be digitally sent and read anywhere in the world. Why pay a radiologist (a very lucrative salary in the US) here when you can have the X-Ray interpreted for much less abroad? That's a big problem. And I still don't follow the legalities of it. At least until recently, you had to be licensed in the state you were in to practice medicine in that state (unless you were working for a Federal institution, like the military.) Though I know this is happening, I still can't understand how a radiologist not licensed in California, for example, can be allowed to read an X-ray on a patient in California. In fact, in order for this to happen, there must have been some kind of exception granted by the California Medical Board. I suppose this should come as no surprise, in a state where medicine is run and controlled exclusively by HMOs, health insurers, and Corporate Medicine. Again, this is another unbelievable deviation from state medical laws, which require physicians to be licensed in the state they practice medicine in. Here again, it appears health insurers must have bribed and bought out legislators to bypass state medical practice laws. Thanks for pointing this out, Danreller. My wife had a severe allergic reaction (hives) following a dental filling here in California. Though we have no proof, we suspect it was from the filling, which may well have come from somewhere outside the US. It never occurred to us, however, that even the dentist may not have known where the filling came from. Totally disgusting, because these criminal companies expect their American contracted doctors to pick up the pieces for any surgery or procedure gone awry in a foreign country. If these sleazeball employers have contracted with an American HMO, their costs for any follow up care are already fixed. So it will be their contracted American doctors who do all the follow-up care--and excessive follow-up care--necessitated by a foreign quack. And since their doctors are working for a capitated amount, there is 0 increase in reimbursement to cover the excessive medical care necessitated by bad procedures performed by foreign doctors in foreign countries.
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Post by fredorbob on Mar 17, 2011 1:52:47 GMT -6
Trucking may be low blue collar but I enjoyed it. I made $50,000 one year in 1990's, in my early 20's, with only 1 month of trade school to get into trucking, hehe. And it only took me about 3 hours to find a job after I went on vacation (quit one company).
The old time truckers, and they were all old, said they were making about $50,000 in the 1970's. So basically wages have remained stagnant while consumer prices have increased, what progress society has made. But wage stagnation isn't good enough for the Plutocrats, they want to bring in the amigos to lower trucking wages to minimum wage level.
Yes what progress we have made as a society. They are Plutocrats, not Americans.
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Post by jacquelope on Mar 19, 2011 9:12:34 GMT -6
You know, I'm open for... alternative ways to stop Mexican trucks from going around in the U.S....
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Post by blueneck on Sept 20, 2011 8:31:14 GMT -6
Trucking may be low blue collar but I enjoyed it. I made $50,000 one year in 1990's, in my early 20's, with only 1 month of trade school to get into trucking, hehe. And it only took me about 3 hours to find a job after I went on vacation (quit one company). The old time truckers, and they were all old, said they were making about $50,000 in the 1970's. So basically wages have remained stagnant while consumer prices have increased, what progress society has made. But wage stagnation isn't good enough for the Plutocrats, they want to bring in the amigos to lower trucking wages to minimum wage level. Yes what progress we have made as a society. They are Plutocrats, not Americans. Where's Jimmy Hoffa Sr when we need him? he would have never put up with that crap Another example is supermarket workers. - I was making close to 9 bucks an hour with full dental, medical, optical benefits and vacation in the late 70's early 80's. enough to pay my way thru school, drive a decent car and buy my first house. today grocery workers still make around 7-9 bucks an hour but withless benefits, and of course that was good money back in the 80s, not so much today. I saw where a grocery worker in the 70s making that would be the equivalent of 20 bucks an hour today
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Post by graybeard on Sept 20, 2011 11:12:49 GMT -6
Ah, but then clerks had to operate a cash register and make change correctly every time.
If we had Medicare for all, there wouldn't be the need for union strikes for health benefits, like the current crisis in SoCalif.
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Post by mdub on Sept 21, 2011 2:54:21 GMT -6
More job - killing FTAs are about to get passed. I guess enough Republicans have agreed to the TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance) program that will train displaced blue collar workers to be greeters at Wall Mart or pizza delivery drivers. The sad thing is that millions of working class Americans are going to vote for this asshole because he's the "lesser of two evils". www.economyincrisis.org/content/job-killing-ftas-one-step-closer-passage
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Sept 21, 2011 11:37:04 GMT -6
More job - killing FTAs are about to get passed. I guess enough Republicans have agreed to the TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance) program that will train displaced blue collar workers to be greeters at Wall Mart or pizza delivery drivers. The sad thing is that millions of working class Americans are going to vote for this asshole because he's the "lesser of two evils". www.economyincrisis.org/content/job-killing-ftas-one-step-closer-passageWhy does Reid have to take these agreements to the floor for a vote? There is no law that forces him to do so. It's strictly up to him whether to do so or not. If it was the Republicans in charge, and it was something they opposed, they absolutely would NOT bring it to the floor. Why do Democrats have to be such cowardly, spineless little wimps? Is it because they've caught the same "cowardice bug" that Obama was infected with at birth?
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Post by jacquelope on Sept 21, 2011 17:24:55 GMT -6
Who's up for slashing Mexican truck tires?
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Sept 21, 2011 23:01:11 GMT -6
Who's up for slashing Mexican truck tires? I can't mention names, but I know at least one person who is.
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Post by graybeard on Sept 22, 2011 6:02:24 GMT -6
People are gonna' die in horrific crashes before this gets seriously addressed. But then, the corporate media will just ignore it, like the Wall St. demonstrations.
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