[/u]
The important ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, are in danger of being replaced thanks to yet another implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Southern California's twin ports are the nation's biggest cargo container hub. These two ports are a national treasure. Their value for both inbound and outbound cargo is priceless, not just for the region, but for the entire nation.

Hit hard by the “Great Recession”, in 2009, the two ports moved about 2.5 million fewer containers than the year before. Many longshoremen, railroad workers, warehouse workers and truckers have been idled. These represent working class American jobs that have been lost and diminished that will be difficult to replace.

Recovery will be a daunting task, but NAFTA is not helping. Thanks to the integrated giveaway that NAFTA has done to move our jobs to cheaper locations, like Mexico, and facilitating transportation networks to easily move these goods back to the United States, our ports are in serious trouble.

In Mexico, two ports -- Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas -- have emerged as real players, benefited by rail infrastructure improvements by lines such as Kansas Southern. Together, these ports in western Mexico handled millions of containers in 2009, most bound for the U.S. bypassing our workers either by rail, or by Mexican trucking companies. These trucking companies can now directly compete with U.S. drivers by being able to drive in this country, again because of the NAFTA treaty. (See my article at the above linked website titled “Fairness For America’s Truckers”)

Most shocking of all is the planned current building of a major port at Punta Colonet, located just 150 miles south of San Diego. The plan is to turn this into a multi-billion dollar deep water port able to handle next-generation vessels. Construction will be conducted in earnest over the next 10 years. This mega-port will be as large as the U.S. ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach combined! The projected multimodal maritime center would make Punta Colonet the third-largest in the world, after Singapore and Hong Kong.

Said Jack Kyser, an economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., "We can't just sit back and assume that we will get rapid growth again at the ports when the recovery starts, we are going to have to sing quite hard for our supper."

When elected to US Congress from CA-45, I will fight to abolish NAFTA, and any proposed North American Union. America's truckers, port workers, rail workers, and warehousemen can also count on me as a friend to an industry of hard working men and women. I will fight to keep these American jobs for Americans. As a truck driver myself for about a year in my youth, I understand this industry. I am a defender of professions that keeps America well supplied, and has jobs for Americans!

Bill

The transportation industry has been ignored by America for a long, long time. There are not enough places in this country to park a truck and sleep for the required 10 hours. There is a 70 hour limit on driving time. Truckers are limited by the hour yet they get paid by the mile. Many states have a 3 minute limit on idling time, can you imagine being in Wyoming in the dead of winter and the law says you have to shut off your truck after 3 minutes? Should Senators be limited to the same 3 minutes of heat while attempting a 10 hour nap mandated by DOT law

Jack Kyser, an economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.says, "We can't just sit back and assume that we will get rapid growth again at the ports when the recovery starts, we are going to have to sing quite hard for our supper."

The trouble is that Mexico has a vast supply of cheap labor. We American workers cannot compete with people who are slaves. The workers in Mexico are not required to buy health insurance, soon the American worker will be under Obamas plan. Soon we will be paying carbon taxes to corporate banks and the Mexican citizen will not.

From where I set, Americans will continue to pay for everything under the sun from banker bailouts, inflation, Presidential vacations and NAFTA Super Highways, and do it without jobs. Without hope and without rights. And all the while the American will wait for the economy to get better. You would think our lawmakers were wreaking American industry by design.