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Area meetings foster open lines of communication
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By Tom Bethel National President Participating in an American Maritime Officers membership meeting is difficult for many of the men and women our union represents. The meetings are scheduled during one week each month in Dania Beach, Toledo and Brooklyn, but these meetings are not at all convenient for AMO members who live great distances from these ports, or who work typically for months at a stretch aboard vessels that do not call at or near these locations. To help overcome this obstacle to broader, better communication between union officials and the seagoing membership, I have launched what I expect will be an important new tradition in AMO -- informal but informative membership meetings held periodically in ports where active vessels call frequently, where reserve sealift ships are berthed, and where ships under Military Sealift Command charter are moored in reduced operating status. The first meetings were in Baltimore on May 14 and in Portsmouth (Va.), just outside of Norfolk, a day later. In both ports, I briefed AMO members on developments in our union since January 2007 and reported on continuing efforts to make the AMO administration more transparent and more accessible. AMO National Secretary-Treasurer Josˇ Leonard reported on finances, union-owned real estate and other assets, and a forthcoming policy compliance initiative intended to make AMO officials, representatives and employees more accountable. AMO National Assistant Vice President At Large Bob Kiefer discussed collective bargaining with deep-sea vessel operators. AMO Plans Executive Director Steve Nickerson and Smith Barney Vice President Larry Goldstock were also on hand in Baltimore and Portsmouth. Nickerson reported on the sound state of the AMO Medical, Pension, Vacation and Safety and Education Plans and summarized steps he and Plans personnel are taking to increase day-to-day operating efficiency in AMO Plans and enhance service to AMO members and their families. Goldstock explained his firm's successful management strategy for the AMO 401(k) Plan and the AMO Pension Plan Money Purchase Benefit and outlined options AMO members have to monitor and guide their individual 401(k) and MPB accounts. Leonard, Kiefer, Nickerson, Goldstock and I fielded questions from the floor. After each meeting, we met individually with AMO members who had specific additional questions or comments. No topic was off limits. There was healthy dialogue in both ports. AMO members demonstrated active and productive interest in union affairs. They offered opinions and made policy recommendations. There was also healthy disagreement. But, more significantly, AMO members who spoke out critically did so without fear of administrative reprisal -- this alone was indicative of the new atmosphere in our union. Some AMO members welcomed the opportunity to grill me face-to-face. This was their chance to vent on such issues as the six-year criminal case that led to the felony convictions of four former AMO officials and two former AMO and AMO Plans employees and the way in which this administration emerged through the fallout in January 2007. Questions were asked freely, and they were answered truthfully and completely. And some perspectives may even have changed as a result of the honest exchange. Many AMO members were relieved by the end of the difficulties our union had been through since June 2000 and buoyed by the strong prospect of AMO's swift and lasting recovery. Many were content to know that AMO was emerging --tentatively, at times -- from the turmoil with its reputation, its credibility and its status as the nation's largest, strongest and most prosperous union of merchant marine officers intact. The Baltimore and Portsmouth meetings convinced me that the policy of bringing meetings to the membership is worthwhile. The more we in the administration can get together with seagoing AMO members for open discussion, the better off we all are as a union. Two-way conversation can only be helpful to everyone in AMO. Additional membership meetings outside of Dania Beach, Toledo and Brooklyn will be scheduled when possible and practical. We at AMO headquarters are considering locations along the Gulf and West Coasts, and we will return to the mid-Atlantic and hold meetings in other East Coast ports as circumstances warrant and allow. We will also make every reasonable effort to increase direct contact with AMO members stationed abroad under government charter. See you on the road. |
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