| Print | Close Window | AMO Currents - Posted: May 1, 2013 |
Media drive could mean new jobs for AMO in unconventional trades
National President
During an April 15 interview on FOX News Network's FOX and Friends, I said confidently that the U.S.-based international cruise industry could minimize the risk of underway incidents and improve its public image by employing U.S. merchant marine officers in key bridge and engine room positions. I pointed out that these officers are trained more completely and vetted more thoroughly than the foreign nationals now filling these jobs, and that a visible American presence at sea would reassure the U.S. citizens who account for nearly all cruise ship ticket sales worldwide.
My remarks in this interview - a live feed from the unique 360-degree-view ship's bridge simulator at the American Maritime Officers Safety and Education Plan's STAR Center in Dania Beach FL - did not address the legal status of foreign-flagged cruise ships operating exclusively from U.S. ports, the issue of cost and competition or the prospects of a U.S.-flagged ocean-going cruise fleet thriving on the U.S. East, Gulf and West Coasts. I was focused instead on raising the possibility of productive agreements like the groundbreaking contract under which AMO members work in some senior billets alongside foreign officers and crews aboard liquefied natural gas tankers operated worldwide by Shell Oil.
Since this three-minute FOX spot, I've had many phone calls and emails from AMO members pleased that I had acknowledged the worldwide first-class standing of U.S. merchant marine officers in general and of AMO members in particular. This is, of course, one of my fundamental responsibilities as national president of American Maritime Officers, and I have done it publicly many times. But this was especially gratifying because my comments were carried to a large, nationwide audience, many of whom were hearing the phrase "U.S. merchant marine officers" for the first time.
I've also been approached by reporters and producers from cable and broadcast television, radio, Internet and print media, asking for more information about the work that AMO members do, why this work matters, and the difference AMO members can make - not only in cruise markets, but in all international dry cargo and energy trades. If these media are willing to give American Maritime Officers the airtime, the bytes and the ink to tell our story, I'm willing to take advantage of the opportunities - with three specific goals in mind.
New jobs for AMO
When it comes to long-term job and benefit security for the seagoing AMO membership, it's necessary to think in uncommon, untraditional ways, to take advantage of emerging trends and to anticipate varied career options. This is more critical now than ever, with the Jones Act and U.S.-flag cargo preference laws at real risk, with severe federal budget cuts limiting jobs for American merchant mariners under government contract, and with Maritime Security Program funding in long-haul doubt.
But there is plenty of seagoing work to be had in this world, and media contacts can help American Maritime Officers get much of it. A lot of prospective employers now understand the practical advantages of having highly skilled U.S. citizen merchant marine officers aboard their vessels, especially in safety-sensitive areas like cruising and offshore energy exploration and recovery - and news segments like the one I participated in on FOX and Friends can help persuade these prospective employers that AMO is a responsible and realistic source of the skilled, licensed seagoing professionals cruise lines and energy companies would welcome.
Just days after the FOX segment aired, I received serious inquiries about the number of AMO members with Dynamic Positioning training and experience, along with questions about the unique DP training available at STAR Center. I will pursue this credible lead, and I hope to report soon on a new breakthrough agreement for AMO.
Telling the merchant marine story
Having represented American Maritime Officers on Capitol Hill for eight years, I know from direct experience that federal lawmakers and Congressional staffers value the privately owned and operated U.S. merchant fleet and American merchant mariners as economic and defense assets when the industry is explained clearly and concisely to them. And I believe that the American public at large would understand and appreciate U.S.-flagged cargo ships and U.S. citizen vessel officers and crews as well if they knew what we do in peacetime and in war.
The average American does not connect the U.S. merchant fleet with the mass movement of tanks, vehicles, helicopters and heavy defense equipment to U.S. troops halfway around the world. Most people assume that mobilization is just another government function to be taken for granted, or they believe all that hardware gets to a war zone by air.
Nor does the average American link the consumer goods they buy with the U.S.-flagged containerships that bring at least some of these products to the U.S., or with the tankers that carry gasoline, home heating oil and other refined petroleum products in domestic markets.
What better, easier way to get the public's attention than through a series of telling news program and talk show sound bites replayed repeatedly for 24 hours or more? If American families understood the political hostilities directed all too often at the U.S. merchant fleet, they could be inspired to contact the White House and Congress to express legitimate concern - and the laws that sustain the fleet as we know it today would be far less vulnerable.
A reliable source of information
American Maritime Officers could through media contacts become the principal source of important, accurate information about the U.S. merchant fleet and American merchant mariners, the U.S. policies and international conventions that affect these ships and mariners and the consequences - unintended or otherwise - of what the President and Congress do or don't do.
Such standing would allow for sustained outreach to prospective employers, enhance AMO's reputation as a peerless advocate of U.S. merchant marine officers and strengthen our already solid growth position in diverse trades on the high seas, along the U.S. coasts and on the Great Lakes and inland waterways.
As always, I welcome your comments and questions. Please feel free to call me on my cell at (202) 251-0349.
| Copyright © American Maritime Officers, All Rights Reserved |