Labor and maritime industry leaders convened in Washington D.C. on May 7 with one overlaying message in mind: Now is the time for U.S. maritime to shine.
Beginning with the unveiling of a new television ad campaign that will run nationally on many major networks, speakers at the annual Maritime Trades Department executive board meeting pointed to the groundswell of public and political support for U.S. shipbuilding as a signal of a potential new golden era for the U.S. Merchant Marine.
“We’ve got an opportunity and we have to seize it,” said Jennifer Carpenter, president of the American Maritime Partnership (AMP). “I think there is an emerging bipartisan consensus that growing our maritime industry is essential to economic and homeland and national security.”
Key to this recent resurgence has been staunch political support for the Jones Act, the nation’s oldest and most pivotal cabotage law.
“The case for the Jones Act has never been stronger or more relevant to issues that Americans care about,” said Carpenter, who heads the largest coalition of domestic maritime companies in the country. “Everybody is focused on working-class American jobs and that is the Jones Act through and through.”
In recent months, the Trump Administration has signed the executive order on restoring American maritime dominance and a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders have reintroduced a beefed up SHIPS for America Act, which is designed to give a host of incentives to increase ship production and cargo in the United States.
Groups such as AMP have also been successful in contacting many of the 67 freshmen currently serving in Congress to educate them on why the Jones Act and the maritime industry are so important to the economic success and national security of the nation.
Carpenter also premiered a new 30-second television and digital ad that features a captain of American Maritime Officers discussing the importance of the Jones Act. The ad is expected to run through Maritime Day on May 22.
Dispelling false narratives and providing facts to decision makers will be key to moving bills like the SHIPS for America Act forward, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said. It starts with protecting the Jones Act.
“We’re going to fiercely defend the Jones Act with everything we have at all times because it’s bedrock and it is fundamental,” she said.
Shuler and Carpenter both discussed maritime’s importance to border security and the national supply chain, which was tested during the global COVID-19 pandemic just a few years ago.
While many other countries saw empty shelves and crippling shortages as populations were advised to shelter in place, U.S. merchant mariners continued to move goods around the country to keep vital supplies available.
Controlling our own commerce domestically is as critical to the nation’s economic goals as boosting the international fleet, Carpenter said.
“A strong Jones Act is critical to a strong American workforce, economy, supply chain, border security,” she said. “And now more than ever we need to amplify the voice of all workers in support of the Jones Act.”