AMO Currents - Kings Point cadets will return to commercial ships

AMO Currents - Posted: February 17, 2017

Kings Point cadets will return to commercial ships

By Michael Murphy
National Vice President
Government Relations

Maersk Line, Limited, Crowley Maritime and American President Lines have officially been approved to receive U.S. Merchant Marine Academy midshipmen as cadets under the new DOT/MARAD Sexual Harassment/Sexual Assault (SH/SA) screening guidelines. The remaining commercial fleets that commonly place cadets from Kings Point aboard their vessels are being "fast-tracked" for clearance so the maximum number of cadets can be accommodated for the Sea Year that begins in March 2017.

The previous Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, suspended assignment of Kings Point cadets in June 2016. Informal surveys of the cadet corps caused Foxx to question the SH/SA guidelines in place at the academy and aboard commercial vessels, thus leading to the Sea Year suspension.

AMO's Washington, D.C. based team and AMO National President Paul Doell coordinated with a coalition of companies and the other maritime unions to work closely with DOT and MARAD to resume the Sea Year assignments. This coalition met with then-Deputy Secretary of Transportation Victor Mendez and then-Maritime Administrator Paul Jaenichen to provide input on moving the process forward. However, the coalition was also quick to point out to Mr. Mendez and Mr. Jaenichen that the industry already has stringent rules on SH/SA incorporated into their Safety Management Systems and these rules have been in place for over two decades.

The company vetting process is now proceeding quickly under new leadership at both DOT and MARAD, which is welcome news to all segments of the industry.

As a result of this process review, the government has generated some new rules to prevent incidents of SH/SA in the future. Primarily, there will be no fraternization outside of the work environment, and there will be assignment of vetted mentors, additional crew training on SH/SA and an overall zero tolerance of SH/SA. These rules will be reviewed in six months.

The eight-month Sea Year suspension has generated many hard feelings, conspiracy theories and a generally contentious atmosphere between industry and government. We all need to put this in the past and move forward with the business at hand, which is safely sailing ships and training the next generation of officers.