Brooklyn office closes with a chapter of AMO history

Brooklyn office closes with a chapter of AMO history

American Maritime Officers July 1 closed its former headquarters office in Brooklyn, New York.

AMO National President Tom Bethel said the office - located at 652 Fourth Avenue - was closed because of a steady decline in both local vessel traffic and in visits to the hall by deep-sea and inland waters AMO members.

"Deep-sea vessels manned by our union now call almost exclusively at container and tanker terminals a good distance away in New Jersey or at other East Coast ports," Bethel noted. "Tug traffic in New York harbor is not sufficient to justify continued operation of the Brooklyn hall.

"Visits by deep-sea AMO members registering to ship declined significantly after the dispatch department was moved to Dania Beach within a few years," Bethel continued. "The number of 'walk-in' vacation claims processed in Brooklyn declined as well. It got to the point where we could not muster quorums for the regularly scheduled monthly AMO membership meetings in Brooklyn. Closing the office was a matter of common sense and practical economics."

Bethel said the National Executive Board of AMO would determine the need for a replacement "constitutional port" at another East Coast location. Under Article VI Section 2 of the AMO National Constitution, Dania Beach (headquarters), Toledo and Brooklyn are designated as "constitutional ports" that administer "the functions of this union."

"The National Executive Board and I will base this decision in large part on the feedback we get from AMO members," Bethel said. "In any case, the AMO National Constitution will have to be amended to reflect the shutdown of the Brooklyn office and the establishment of a new 'constitutional port,' if any."

AMO Deep-Sea National Executive Board Member Don Nilsson, the only union representative working from the Brooklyn office, relocated to Norwood, New Jersey (please refer to AMO Port Directory, Page 10). "Don will continue to call on AMO members aboard the deep-sea and inland vessels in the immediate area and at other East Coast ports," Bethel said. "There will be no interruption of service to the AMO membership in the New York-New Jersey area and the greater Northeast."

AMO found a buyer for the Brooklyn property and was expecting to close on the sale later this summer, Bethel said. "The property is free and clear," he continued. "There are no mortgages and no liens, and the sale price defies the nationwide downturn in property and resale values. Proceeds from the sale will go directly to the AMO treasury."

Bethel said the decision to close the Brooklyn hall was made after several AMO members questioned the need for an office and staff in the essentially inactive location. He said the volume of union business conducted at the site was "monitored closely" for more than a year. "The executive board and I agreed that the office had to go in the interest of greater operating efficiency."

650 Fourth Avenue was AMO headquarters for nearly 50 years. The union had operated from the Seafarers International Union of North America headquarters hall in Brooklyn before acquiring the property.

"For years, 650 hosted scores of union members every day," Bethel observed. "Ships tied up frequently at the foot of Columbia Street minutes away in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, and along the Gowanus Canal, which ran parallel to Third Avenue behind headquarters. There was a time when the Narrows - before and after the Verrazano Bridge - was filled with vessels manned by members of what is now AMO."

The Brooklyn location was where the AMO training programs were developed during the Vietnam war, and where the AMO Pension, Medical and Vacation Plans were established as the first such benefit funds for U.S. merchant marine officers.

"There is a lot of important history there," Bethel said. "It was not uncommon to find labor legends like Paul Hall and industry figures like George Steinbrenner meeting with the late AMO President Ray McKay at 650. But times change, and our union has to change with them."

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