Posted:
January 6, 2012
By Tom Bethel
National President
In the last days of 2011, American Maritime Officers and American Steamship Co. - our union's largest employer on the Great Lakes - came to terms on a tentative successor contract to the collective bargaining agreement that expired last August 1. A mail ballot ratification vote by the AMO engineers, mates and stewards in the ASC fleet will be completed later this month.
This settlement follows a brief summer strike by our union against ASC, the indefinite extension of the previous AMO-ASC contract, much communication between my administration and the ASC vessel officers, and difficult but determined negotiations between AMO and ASC. And I can say comfortably that this pending deal meets my principal objectives - it protects the economic interests of the AMO officers in the ASC fleet in several substantial ways, and it strengthens ASC's competitive capabilities.
This agreement also reflects a practical, realistic and long overdue shift in union policy with respect to the Great Lakes. It is a responsible first step toward lasting reform that will ensure long-term job and benefit security not only for the AMO members in the ASC fleet, but for every AMO officer sailing the Lakes.
In time, this contract will help American Maritime Officers regain its long-held, rightful position as the only U.S. merchant marine officers' union of any significance on the "Fourth Seacoast."
American Maritime Officers lost its singular status on the Great Lakes in July 2003, when Interlake Steamship Co. - a longtime AMO employer - signed a collusive, cut-rate contract with the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association while a valid agreement between AMO and Interlake was still in effect. This happened because of lazy leadership in the AMO administration in office at the time.
A year later, Grand River Navigation Co. launched its Great Lakes operation with a substandard top-to-bottom contract with the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots. Grand River carries cargoes that had traditionally gone to more established U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk vessel operating companies under AMO contract.
Interlake - apparently intent on monopolizing the Great Lakes iron ore, coal and stone trades - underbids ASC and other rivals by about 35 percent, and Grand River would take any opportunity to expand its cargo share.
Interlake's aggression, Grand River's ambition and the resurgence of MEBA and the MM&P on the Great Lakes were factors in the AMO-ASC negotiations. But there was something else driving the talks - a mutual understanding that Great Lakes maritime industry and labor could no longer operate as though the nature of the business had not changed so dramatically in the last 40 years.
The most conspicuous, tangible transformation in Great Lakes shipping since 1972 was the rise of the "thousand footer" and the consequent displacement of scores of smaller vessels - and of the jobs these smaller vessels provided.
Another factor harmful to the Great Lakes industry and its job base was the fall of the Midwest basic steel industry, which generates most of the cargoes hauled by the bulk boats. The "Steel Trust" fleets that once dominated Great Lakes shipping - U.S. Steel Corp., Bethlehem Steel Corp. and Inland Steel Co. - no longer exist, and the "pattern" wage and benefit bargaining that was the Steel Trust tradition is now pointless.
The independent Great Lakes vessel operating companies remaining in the wake of steel's decline endured bankruptcies, retrenchment and reorganization, all influenced essentially by the same economic and political factors that brought down Big Steel.
The tentative AMO-ASC agreement acknowledges that failure to adapt to change means failure to survive. But it also confirms that change can be accepted without sacrificing steady, rewarding employment for AMO officers or competitive opportunity for Great Lakes employers.
As always, I welcome comments and questions from AMO members. Feel free to call me on my cell at (202) 251-0349.
A responsible approach to changing Great Lakes industry
By Tom Bethel
National President
In the last days of 2011, American Maritime Officers and American Steamship Co. - our union's largest employer on the Great Lakes - came to terms on a tentative successor contract to the collective bargaining agreement that expired last August 1. A mail ballot ratification vote by the AMO engineers, mates and stewards in the ASC fleet will be completed later this month.
This settlement follows a brief summer strike by our union against ASC, the indefinite extension of the previous AMO-ASC contract, much communication between my administration and the ASC vessel officers, and difficult but determined negotiations between AMO and ASC. And I can say comfortably that this pending deal meets my principal objectives - it protects the economic interests of the AMO officers in the ASC fleet in several substantial ways, and it strengthens ASC's competitive capabilities.
This agreement also reflects a practical, realistic and long overdue shift in union policy with respect to the Great Lakes. It is a responsible first step toward lasting reform that will ensure long-term job and benefit security not only for the AMO members in the ASC fleet, but for every AMO officer sailing the Lakes.
In time, this contract will help American Maritime Officers regain its long-held, rightful position as the only U.S. merchant marine officers' union of any significance on the "Fourth Seacoast."
American Maritime Officers lost its singular status on the Great Lakes in July 2003, when Interlake Steamship Co. - a longtime AMO employer - signed a collusive, cut-rate contract with the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association while a valid agreement between AMO and Interlake was still in effect. This happened because of lazy leadership in the AMO administration in office at the time.
A year later, Grand River Navigation Co. launched its Great Lakes operation with a substandard top-to-bottom contract with the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots. Grand River carries cargoes that had traditionally gone to more established U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk vessel operating companies under AMO contract.
Interlake - apparently intent on monopolizing the Great Lakes iron ore, coal and stone trades - underbids ASC and other rivals by about 35 percent, and Grand River would take any opportunity to expand its cargo share.
Interlake's aggression, Grand River's ambition and the resurgence of MEBA and the MM&P on the Great Lakes were factors in the AMO-ASC negotiations. But there was something else driving the talks - a mutual understanding that Great Lakes maritime industry and labor could no longer operate as though the nature of the business had not changed so dramatically in the last 40 years.
The most conspicuous, tangible transformation in Great Lakes shipping since 1972 was the rise of the "thousand footer" and the consequent displacement of scores of smaller vessels - and of the jobs these smaller vessels provided.
Another factor harmful to the Great Lakes industry and its job base was the fall of the Midwest basic steel industry, which generates most of the cargoes hauled by the bulk boats. The "Steel Trust" fleets that once dominated Great Lakes shipping - U.S. Steel Corp., Bethlehem Steel Corp. and Inland Steel Co. - no longer exist, and the "pattern" wage and benefit bargaining that was the Steel Trust tradition is now pointless.
The independent Great Lakes vessel operating companies remaining in the wake of steel's decline endured bankruptcies, retrenchment and reorganization, all influenced essentially by the same economic and political factors that brought down Big Steel.
The tentative AMO-ASC agreement acknowledges that failure to adapt to change means failure to survive. But it also confirms that change can be accepted without sacrificing steady, rewarding employment for AMO officers or competitive opportunity for Great Lakes employers.
As always, I welcome comments and questions from AMO members. Feel free to call me on my cell at (202) 251-0349.