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ITF And FOCs: The Issues And Why They Matter In U.S. |
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By MICHAEL R. McKAY | |
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AMO was pleased to join the Seafarers International Union, the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, the International Longshoremen's Association, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the National Maritime Union, the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots, and the Sailors' Union of the Pacific to host a rally at the Capitol Sept. 18 in support of the International Transport Workers Federation and its worldwide drive against flag-of-convenience cargo and cruise ships. The rally, well attended by several lawmakers, despite a relentless if light rain, was the official kick-off of a U.S. "Week of Action" to bring new public and political attention to the FOC fleets and the evils they represent. During the week, ITF ship inspectors--including AMO National Assistant Vice President At Large Tom Bethel and AMO National Executive Board Member (Inland Waters) Bob Kiefer--boarded FOC ships in the ports of New York-New Jersey, Philadelphia, Camden, Baltimore, Norfolk, Savannah and Charleston, as well as in ports along the Gulf and West Coasts. The inspectors--authorized to check vessels for safety hazards and to determine whether living and working conditions meet at least minimal standards--reported their findings to the ITF, which will zero in on offending vessels. As you know, the FOC system allows a ship owner in one country to flag his vessel in another country and recruit his officers and crews from still other countries. The largest of the so-called "open registers" have their ship documentation centers not in their capitals, but in New York City, London, and Reston, Va. According to a fairly recent report in The Christian Science Monitor, a ship owner seeking the Panama ensign can visit a bar in Balboa, have a bourbon straight-up, and register his vessel, all at lunchtime. FOC states sell their flags to unprincipled business interests at modest rates because they desperately need the revenue. And these countries understand that they can neither expect nor order much in return--insistence on safety standard compliance or demands that crews be paid decent wages would only drive the ship owners to competing flags with more liberal terms. There are so many FOCs vying for tonnage that rates continually drop, and many offer safe haven from taxes and complete anonymity, which frees businesses from accountability and economic, social and moral responsibility. Many believe that, in some cases, the money earned by FOC states goes not to the citizens, but to whatever political faction happens to be in power. For the Third World crews working below such flags, life at sea is a never-ending nightmare that often begins with a large payoff to a recruiting agent and sometimes ends in death or dismissal in a foreign land with no repatriation. In between, there are work days that routinely stretch to 18 or more hours seven days a week, wages as low as $1 an hour, inadequate food, poor plumbing, the ever-present threat of ship seizure or abandonment in financial disputes, and little or no contact with family. Complaints--or contact with the ITF--result in dismissal, persecution and blacklisting. These conditions are documented each day by the ITF and by the port chaplains and clerics who minister to FOC seamen in the U.S. and around the world, men like the Rev. Paul Chapman, founder of the Center for Seafarers' Rights in New York in 1981 and author of Trouble On Board: The Plight Of International Seafarers. In Fort Lauderdale to address a recent port ministers' conference, Rev. Chapman told reporters: "It was not uncommon for a seafarer to say to me, 'Don't tell anybody, but I haven't been paid for six months.'" "People from countries with low wages and high unemployment can easily be exploited," Rev. Chapman continued. "I met a ship from China where the crew appeared to be smiling and waving when I approached, only to find they were desperately in need of food--they hadn't eaten in weeks." Meanwhile, in London, the Rev. Cannon Ken Peters of the Mission to Seafarers described an increasingly common FOC practice--the abandonment of ships--as "particularly cruel." He said crews on abandoned ships are in a "lose-lose" situation--if they leave the ship, no matter what the port, they could forfeit their right to wages owed; if they remain aboard, they earn nothing more. Rev. Peters said ship owners who dump vessels find it easier and less expensive to buy the ship back at court-ordered auction--often through surrogates--than to pay wages owed to the officers and crew. The flag-of-convenience shipping system demeans the impoverished countries that put their flags out for bid, and it makes misery the norm for seafarers too impoverished, too uneducated, and too intimidated to influence real change without the help of the ITF. The FOC system will not change overnight. But the ITF is determined to make a difference--one ship at a time, if necessary--and U.S. seagoing unions are just as determined to help. The demonstration in Washington was a start, an important way to help keep this extraordinary human rights issue and the ITF's moral cause in view. |
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