Posted:
November 22, 2011
The Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO, has released the following statement criticizing the Maritime Administration's recent report comparing U.S. and foreign-flag operating costs.
American Maritime Officers, the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association and the Seafarers International Union also released a statement condemning the report. The statement is available online. The MARAD report is also available online.
The Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO stands with our affiliate maritime unions in questioning the U.S. Maritime Administration's acceptance and release of a flawed and inadequate report on American-flag shipping.
The Congressionally requested report was supposed to provide the White House and Capitol Hill with information and ideas on how to promote U.S.-flag commercial shipping. Instead, it restated the obvious - that U.S.-flag shipping is more expensive than Flag of Convenience shipping in the international market. On top of that, it suggested consideration of reduced crew sizes, diminished benefits, weakened work rules and even replacing taxpaying U.S. citizen mariners with low-wage foreign crews AND eliminating the Jones Act. We find it quite odd that MarAd would release a flawed report suggesting a second register while at the same time the United States is seriously considering the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Those conducting the research failed to contact a single maritime union, relying solely on shipping company representatives for their information about mariner contracts and benefits. The MTD welcomes the rejection of such ridiculous notions by U.S.-flag carriers within the study.
MarAd - the very agency within the U.S. Government created to promote the U.S.-flag merchant marine - never should have released, let alone accepted, a report that did not even attempt to cover the subject for which it was assigned. By doing such, MarAd shows it is out of touch with its own mission statement and with the Obama Administration's charge to maintain and create good American jobs.
The MTD finds it hard to believe that the agency of the federal government mandated to promote U.S.-flag shipping and its mariners can be so disconnected as to not know that its own sponsored report fails to meet its original objectives and then proves it does not even understand its own roles and missions.
Maritime Trades Department stands with affiliates in condemning flawed MARAD report
The Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO, has released the following statement criticizing the Maritime Administration's recent report comparing U.S. and foreign-flag operating costs.
American Maritime Officers, the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association and the Seafarers International Union also released a statement condemning the report. The statement is available online. The MARAD report is also available online.
The Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO stands with our affiliate maritime unions in questioning the U.S. Maritime Administration's acceptance and release of a flawed and inadequate report on American-flag shipping.
The Congressionally requested report was supposed to provide the White House and Capitol Hill with information and ideas on how to promote U.S.-flag commercial shipping. Instead, it restated the obvious - that U.S.-flag shipping is more expensive than Flag of Convenience shipping in the international market. On top of that, it suggested consideration of reduced crew sizes, diminished benefits, weakened work rules and even replacing taxpaying U.S. citizen mariners with low-wage foreign crews AND eliminating the Jones Act. We find it quite odd that MarAd would release a flawed report suggesting a second register while at the same time the United States is seriously considering the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Those conducting the research failed to contact a single maritime union, relying solely on shipping company representatives for their information about mariner contracts and benefits. The MTD welcomes the rejection of such ridiculous notions by U.S.-flag carriers within the study.
MarAd - the very agency within the U.S. Government created to promote the U.S.-flag merchant marine - never should have released, let alone accepted, a report that did not even attempt to cover the subject for which it was assigned. By doing such, MarAd shows it is out of touch with its own mission statement and with the Obama Administration's charge to maintain and create good American jobs.
The MTD finds it hard to believe that the agency of the federal government mandated to promote U.S.-flag shipping and its mariners can be so disconnected as to not know that its own sponsored report fails to meet its original objectives and then proves it does not even understand its own roles and missions.