| Print | Close Window | AMO Currents - Posted: July 11, 2014 |
Assault on U.S. merchant marine continues on multiple fronts
Crucial maritime programs and policies, and key aspects of the nation's defense sealift capabilities that depend upon the U.S. merchant marine, have again been placed in the crosshairs in Washington, D.C. The renewed assault upon the U.S. maritime industry has unfortunately brought persistent threats to the surface and raised new dangers to the job base for U.S. merchant mariners and the long-term readiness of the U.S. military.
Absent the new attacks, our industry was already facing challenging times. With the sharp decline of wartime cargoes, the vast majority of which have been moved by U.S.-flagged commercial vessels, and the damaging reduction in the U.S.-flag share of U.S. food-aid cargoes enacted two years ago, the cargo base for U.S.-flag operators has suffered a dramatic contraction. The result has been the loss of several commercial ships operating in international trades under the U.S. flag.
Now, appropriations legislation passed by the House of Representatives has the potential to cut $20 million in funding from the Maritime Security Program in fiscal year 2015, and a bill introduced in the Senate seeks to entirely eliminate the carriage of U.S. food-aid cargoes by U.S.-flagged vessels.
Further, Military Sealift Command has stepped up its efforts to undermine the participation of U.S. merchant mariners in sealift operations with a shocking and unprecedented reversal of a previous decision regarding the manning of the fleet of joint high-speed vessels, some of which have been delivered and some of which are under construction.
Due to the large and diverse job base maintained by American Maritime Officers, the extraordinary professionalism and unrivaled reputation of AMO members sailing in all trades, and the membership's consistent and strong support of the Voluntary Political Action Fund, our union is well positioned to fight back against these attacks on Capitol Hill and to weather the difficult circumstances confronting the U.S. merchant marine.
However, even with the upcoming expansion of the AMO-contracted fleet in U.S. domestic trades with new ships under construction and on order at U.S. shipyards, it seems certain our industry will continue to face tough times and hard-fought battles in the present and the immediate future.
The JHSV fleet
One of the more disturbing developments of the past couple of months came in the form of an e-mail from MSC Commander Rear Adm. Thomas Shannon on May 30.
In his message, Rear Adm. Shannon announced to the presidents of U.S. seagoing unions that he would be reversing the decision of former MSC Commander Rear Adm. Mark Buzby to have five of the 10 JHSVs being built operated by private sector ship managers and manned by U.S. merchant mariners. Instead, Shannon now plans to man all 10 of the JHSVs with civil service mariners.
"The demand signal we are now receiving from our Navy and Marine Corps leadership will likely expand the JHSV mission beyond just intra-theater lift. The recent deployment of USNS SPEARHEAD (JHSV 1) to Europe and Africa and the plans for its follow-on operations in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility are evidence of the fact that the mission sets for JHSV will only increase across the spectrum of military operations," Shannon wrote. "It is our belief at MSC that the civil service mariner construct will best allow our Navy the flexibility it needs to execute these future missions and streamline management of the JHSV programs by providing a single line of logistics, maintenance, and crewing management."
This rationale is, of course, nonsense, considering that HSV 2 Swift - operated for MSC by Sealift, Inc. and manned top to bottom by U.S. merchant mariners - has been impeccably performing these missions under the demand signal described by Shannon for more than three years.
We suspect this decision was spawned by MSC's contracting department and has a lot more to do with the large number of civil service mariners who remain on the MSC payroll without active shipboard employment. And we expect MSC to continue strong-arming its ships, even those already under contract to private-sector ship managers, into the government manned and operated fleet at every opportunity, despite the more cost efficient and effective operating model provided by employing commercial ship managers and contract civilian mariners.
AMO and the Seafarers International Union have challenged MSC's decision regarding the JHSVs and we are taking the fight to Capitol Hill. However, MEBA and MM&P - predictably oblivious to the dire implications of this decision for the U.S. merchant marine and the long-term consequences for their own memberships - have not joined us in challenging MSC's decision.
Maritime Security Program
In June, the House approved the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, legislation that contains funding for the MSP in fiscal year 2015. The full funding level authorized by law for this universally lauded and exceedingly efficient program in the next fiscal year is $186 million. The House bill would provide only $166 million, which would amount to the loss of six or more ships from the fleet.
The Senate's version of the appropriations bill holds full funding for the MSP in the next fiscal year. The Senate bill has been reported out of committee, but at the end of June, had not advanced to a final vote.
AMO continues to work this issue in Congress and we remain cautiously optimistic that full funding for this crucial program can be restored. However, if the Senate bill stalls completely, the funding for the 60-ship MSP fleet may again be chained to a continuing resolution to fund the government.
Food for Peace
Also in June, Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker and Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons introduced the Food for Peace Reform Act of 2014, which seeks to implement the radical restructuring of the U.S. food aid program sought by the Obama administration and its congressional allies.
Similar to the Royce-Engel amendment defeated in the House last June, the Corker-Coons bill would replace shipments of U.S. grown commodities with commodities purchased from foreign sources, vouchers and direct cash transfers. The Corker-Coons bill would go even further than the Royce-Engel amendment that was voted down last year by completely eliminating the U.S.-flag cargo preference requirement for any shipment of U.S. food-aid.
This bill, S. 2421, would obviously wipe out U.S. food aid and have devastating effects on the U.S.-flag commercial fleet and the peacetime job base for U.S. merchant mariners, who are needed to man military sealift and defense reserve vessels in times of conflict and crisis.
In a cynical twist, the text of the legislation concludes with the following passage: "It is the Sense of the Congress that the United States Merchant Marine - (1) is a critical component of our Nation's military and economic security; (2) consists of a fleet of private, merchant ships that are registered in the United States and provide domestic and international transportation for passengers and cargo; and (3) with the dedicated crews of mariners that operate the fleet, is an essential part of defense capacity in times of peace and in times of war."
It seems the authors of the Food for Peace Reform Act of 2014 are not without a sense of irony.
Together with American seagoing labor, U.S.-flag carriers and the Navy League of the United States, among others, AMO stands in opposition to S. 2421 and we are closely monitoring this misguided legislation in the Senate.
As our union continues to engage on these and other issues with the potential to affect the U.S. merchant marine, I urge all AMO members to support the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund to the greatest extent possible. We have a sound record of success in defending the programs and policies crucial to the survival of the U.S. merchant marine and our determination remains undiminished.
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