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Accurate information leads to honest dialogue
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By Tom Bethel National President One way my administration promotes open communication and greater transparency in American Maritime Officers is to provide all AMO members and their families with immediate access to accurate information. When important facts are at the fingertips, and when essential data are obtained easily, rumor, misunderstanding and misinterpretation have a lot less harmful influence over the conversation. This is why I took the unprecedented step of posting our union's most recent financial report to the U.S. Department of Labor on the official AMO Web site. The report - required of all labor unions in the United States and known generally as the LM-2 - is available to AMO families and to the public on the DOL Web site, but not without some hassle (for example, you cannot go to the DOL site and pull up an LM-2 if you do not know the file number assigned by DOL to the specific union). I wanted to make it easier for seagoing AMO members to review the AMO LM-2, and I wanted AMO members to be informed reliably about the report by going straight to the source. The content of the AMO Web site (www.amo-union.org) has been expanded in other significant ways since January 2007: ODS was established as a voluntary fund in 1973. AMO members who contribute to the ODS -frequently, occasionally or a single time - can apply to ODS for financial assistance when they need legal counsel in misdemeanor and felony criminal cases. The once secretive ODS fund was tapped rarely until June 2000, when DOL and the U.S. Department of Justice began their joint investigation of AMO and AMO Plans. Several AMO officials no longer in office applied for the aid when they learned they were targets or subjects of the investigation, and AMO officials who were not targets or subjects but who testified under subpoena and under oath before a federal grand jury in connection with the case requested assistance to help pay for routine legal advice. The criminal investigation and the consequent surge of ODS claims made the fund a source of question and controversy within our union, and I wanted to remove the mystery - and the myths - by putting the information out there. The ODS entry on the AMO Web site includes a financial accounting of the fund's assets and liabilities, instructions on applying for an ODS grant, and the address and telephone number of the fund's independent third party administrator. Common Cause, Congressional Quarterly, The Wall Street Journal and others have acknowledged the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund as one of the largest and most effective of its kind - a testament to the consistently strong support the fund receives from the seagoing AMO membership. In addition, the fund - which is used only to support the campaigns of House and Senate candidates who believe in our industry - has helped make AMO one of the most respected and influential participants in maritime policy debate and discussion in Washington. The AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund matters because every job held by every AMO member or applicant for AMO membership is dependent upon action taken in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate. Our union would not be at work aboard coastal container, trailer and roll-on/roll-off ships, on Great Lakes bulk carriers, aboard ocean-going tugs and barges operating in domestic markets or on harbor tugs were it not for steady and strong bipartisan Congressional support of the Jones Act. AMO would not have its jobs aboard ships owned or chartered by the Navy's Military Sealift Command or in the Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Force were it not for adequate funding of defense sealift programs by federal lawmakers. The jobs provided for AMO members aboard 13 ships participating in the Maritime Security Program would not exist were it not for Congressional authorization and renewal of MSP and Congressional approval of the MSP budget each year. Despite its proven purpose and value, the fund is subject to misconceptions that discourage even greater participation by deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters members and applicants. Some believe mistakenly that salaries paid to our union's Washington staff are drawn from the AMO VPAF; others believe incorrectly that a disproportionate share of the money covers administrative costs; still others believe wrongly that disbursements from the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund are determined exclusively by a Congressional candidate's ideology or party affiliation (the truth is that the only criterion used to generate a campaign contribution from AMO is the candidate's level of support for the U.S. merchant fleet). But this section of the Web site does more than pitch the Political Action Fund. It provides a direct link through which AMO members can access Federal Elections Commission records detailing how money from the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund is used. I recommend it to all AMO members. The AMO Web site also houses AMO Currents, where AMO families can find the latest news concerning AMO, AMO Plans, the AMO fleet, AMO employers, the maritime industry and federal regulation and legislation. In addition, the site provides direct links to the AMO Plans and AMO job dispatch sites and information on training and license upgrading, the newly established AMO integrity line and the newly expanded AMO Coast Guard Legal Aid Program. The site also offers an AMO newspaper archive and a complete AMO directory. The AMO Web site is an important resource, and more useful information will be added - anything we can post without compromising real or potential AMO employment or our union's solid competitive position as the largest and strongest union of its kind will be available. This is a priority to me because information is conducive to honest dialogue, and dialogue can lead only to an even better union for everyone in AMO. |
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