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Job Base And Benefits Make AMO Secure In 51st Year |
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By MICHAEL R. McKAY | |
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In its 51st year, AMO is here, there, everywhere. Our union's ever-expanding deep-sea job base includes engine and deck assignments on maritime prepositioning ships, fast sealift ships, large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off ships, T-AGOR oceanographic vessels, T-AGOS and SWATH surveillance vessels, and T-5 tankers--all operated for the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command. In addition, AMO members and applicants man RO-ROs, container ships, break-bulk freighters, the world's largest semi-submersible heavy-lift ship, and MPF(E) ships for MSC in afloat prepositioning and other services. AMO engine and deck officers also work about half the Ready Reserve Force fleet of strategic sealift ships managed for MSC by the Maritime Administration in the Department of Transportation. AMO's ocean-going commercial fleet roster includes: four container ships operating under the Maritime Security Program authorized in the Maritime Security Act of 1996; three car carriers participating in MSP and one operating independently of the program; integrated tug-barges; a growing fleet of self-propelled tankers in domestic and foreign oil, petroleum, and chemical trades, including five newly built double-hulled Jones Act ships; RO-ROs operating in domestic trades in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest; the only deep-sea cruise ship now in U.S. registry, and the only cable installation and repair ships in the American fleet. On the Great Lakes, AMO represents the engine and deck officers and stewards on virtually every self-propelled dry bulk carrier and tanker and on ITBs and car ferries, and our inland fleet includes scores of tugs, tows, and barges and three paddlewheel cruise vessels operating on the Mississippi and other rivers. Ahead are another paddlewheeler, as many as five mid-sized coastal cruise vessels, at least three large deep-sea domestic cruise ships for one company and as many as three for a second operator, two large U.S.-built RO/ROs for domestic trade, and four high-speed container ships for trans-Atlantic commercial trade. Meanwhile, the AMO Pension, Medical, Vacation, Safety & Education, MPB and 401(k) Plans continue to thrive, paying out record benefits to active and retired union members and their dependents. Our training programs--pressured as never before by the demands of STCW--continue to produce raise-of-grade licenses. AMO's Washington staff--backed by a strong AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund--boasts a remarkable record protecting our union's interests on Capitol Hill and in the Executive Branch. The bad news? There is none, and we anticipate no difficulties. While we will take each year--and each development--as it comes, we are confident of our union's secure place in the future. That's an enviable position to be in, and I thank AMO members for their part in getting our union there. Jones Act A Topic In WTO Session U.S. Trade Representative Peter Collings and Maritime Administrator Clyde Hart were to meet in Washington with representatives of the European Union and Japan Feb. 7 to explain and defend the U.S. position barring World Trade Organization bargaining over the Jones Act, the 1920 cabotage law that holds all domestic waterborne commerce for vessels owned, built, flagged, and manned in the U.S. Collings and Hart were expected to justify the Jones Act in writing in response to chronic foreign criticism of the cabotage restrictions as contrary to free trade and the spirit of the WTO. The EU has framed its recent Jones Act complaints in economic terms, while Japan--which five years ago asked the WTO to declare the Jones Act illegal--doubts the law's national security merit. "For over 200 years, American cabotage laws have been the cornerstones upon which U.S. maritime power and national maritime infrastructure rest," said the U.S. Maritime Coalition in a statement issued in advance of the Jones Act session. "Cabotage laws, which exist throughout the world, provide important national security, economic, commercial, environmental, and safety benefits to the U.S.--now is certainly not the time to change them." The coalition--which includes AMO, and which is chaired in the capital by Transportation Institute President Jim Henry--went on to say: "Maritime matters are effectively excluded from WTO coverage. There is no agreement covering maritime transportation services. Moreover, the U.S.-build requirement of the coastwise laws is exempt from GATT obligations." GATT stands for General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the WTO's predecessor body. "Next week, we understand USTR will respond to questions raised by other countries in the context of a designated five-year review of the explicit U.S.-build exemption to GATT requirements," the coalition's statement continued. "In July 1999, Deputy Trade Representative Esserman explained that the administration supports the Jones Act because it is an essential element of the nation's maritime policy, transportation network, and readiness capability, assuring U.S. control of essential transportation assets. For all these reasons, the administration has been quite clear that it will not be proposing changes to the Act." We trust Collings and Hart will make an effective Jones Act case. But we can't help but wonder why the U.S., as a sovereign nation and as the world's only real superpower, should have to explain its exclusively internal workings to any foreign government or to a multilateral bureaucracy like the WTO. Next month's issue of American Maritime Officer will include more detail on the meeting. |
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