AMO is new member of SIUNA family

AMO is new member of SIUNA family

Affiliation agreement reaffirms unions' historic link, lasting friendship

      An historic bond was reinforced Nov. 7 when American Maritime Officers was chartered as an affiliate of the Seafarers International Union of North America in the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations.
      The charter was issued by the SIUNA to AMO when the two unions reached an agreement that provides for continued autonomy for AMO, which began as an affiliate of the SIUNA in 1949.
      The SIUNA-AMO affiliation agreement was announced by SIUNA President Michael Sacco and AMO National President Michael R. McKay.
      "This affiliation of the American Maritime Officers with the SIUNA is good news for the entire U.S. merchant marine and for all of America's working families," Sacco said. "This affiliation lets U.S. mariners speak with a more unified voice and helps ensure that our organizations can work together to make the U.S.-flag fleet stronger. It also strengthens the ranks of the AFL-CIO, the greatest ally of the American worker."
      McKay said the agreement "benefits not only our membership, but America's national and economic security--as we saw most recently during Operation Iraqi Freedom, our country's interests are best served by a strong U.S. fleet." The agreement "will help in the ongoing fight to revitalize the U.S. merchant marine and, by extension, help boost national security."
      Commenting later at AMO headquarters in Dania Beach, Fla., McKay said: "This was our most sensible and practical affiliation option. Our union began at the hand of the late, legendary SIUNA President Paul Hall, whose principles are upheld by Mike Sacco and his administration. AMO members everywhere will benefit from this affiliation agreement and the AFL-CIO membership this affiliation agreement provides."
      The SIUNA-AMO affiliation agreement shields AMO's deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters collective bargaining agreements from "raids" by other unions and allows AMO to participate fully in the AFL-CIO and its state, regional and local bodies--including the nationwide port councils of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department, the largest constitutional unit of the labor federation.
      In a Nov. 10 letter advising the AMO membership of the affiliation agreement, McKay said the charter from the SIUNA capped "our union's 10-year effort to rejoin the AFL-CIO." He emphasized that the SIUNA-AMO affiliation agreement "is not a merger."
      Under the agreement, "AMO maintains the autonomy that has allowed our union to thrive ... for 54 years, and our jurisdiction is protected," McKay explained in the letter. He added: "AMO will continue to operate under its own Constitution and By-Laws, shipping rules and job dispatch system. Our union will also continue to negotiate and enforce its own collective bargaining agreements, set its own dues structure and maintain its own treasury and other assets, conduct its own elections of officers and administer its own benefit funds. In sum, the affiliation agreement ensures continued self-determination for AMO."
      McKay noted that AMO had "lost its link to the AFL-CIO" when AMO withdrew as a district union from the National Marine Engineers Beneficial Association under "unavoidable circumstances" in March 1994. AMO members had authorized withdrawal from the National MEBA--which held the AFL-CIO charter that covered the three MEBA district unions--by a 96 percent margin in a two-month union-wide secret ballot referendum that ended in February 1994.
      "We have sought to regain standing in the 'House of Labor' ever since," McKay wrote in the letter. "Our affiliation with the SIUNA accomplishes that, and we are both pleased and privileged to be part of the nation's largest and most influential seafaring labor organization."
      The SIUNA-AMO affiliation agreement is a "significant milestone" that "represents a real advance toward the ideal of one union representing all licensed and unlicensed U.S. merchant mariners," McKay continued. The agreement "also establishes a formal connection between the most powerful licensed and unlicensed seagoing unions, strengthening a friendship that has endured for generations."
      The SIUNA-AMO affiliation agreement "marks a homecoming for AMO, which was chartered in (May) 1949 as the Brotherhood of Marine Engineers within the SIUNA," McKay concluded.
      The BME remained under the SIUNA banner until it merged with MEBA locals to become MEBA Great Lakes Local 101 and, later, District 2 MEBA-AMO, following the 1955 merger between the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955. Before the merger, MEBA was affiliated with the CIO.
      Chartered in November1938 by the American Federation of Labor, the SIUNA is the parent organization of 13 autonomous unions, including AMO. SIUNA affiliates represent a combined 84,000 members employed in the U.S. merchant fleet and in other industries in the public and private sectors.
      SIUNA affiliates include the Seafarers International Union Atlantic, Gulf, Lakes and Inland Waters District/National Maritime Union, the Marine Firemen's Union, the Sailors Union of the Pacific, the Seafarers International Union of Canada, and the Seafarers International Union of Puerto Rico.

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