Posted:
February 16, 2012
By Tom Bethel
National President
In June 2009, I wrote in this space about the "class and character" of the American Maritime Officers membership in all domestic and international trades, the seagoing professionalism they define and the absolute dedication AMO members apply to the job at hand aboard their vessels, despite excessive regulation, increasing responsibilities, economic twists and turns and often daunting conditions beyond their control - the threat of piracy off the coast of Africa and elsewhere, for example, or the risk of delay or detention in foreign ports for political or diplomatic reasons.
"We (the AMO administration) hold our greatest admiration for the men and women we are privileged to represent in American Maritime Officers," I said at the time. "We know from practical experience that, because of the grace, dignity and strength AMO members bring to their jobs, all things are possible for our union."
Since then, AMO has grown steadily and substantially in a shrinking industry, thanks in meaningful part to this fundamental truth about the AMO membership. Deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters AMO members remain committed to the safe, efficient, competitive and profitable operation of every U.S. merchant vessel under AMO contract, despite the fatigue, frustration, aggravation and loneliness that often go with this commitment. AMO members understand that the quality of their work helps keep employers in business, and that employers in business represent wages and benefits for themselves and their families.
Most of the shipping company executives and vessel management personnel we deal with every day acknowledge and appreciate the real value of the AMO members they employ.
But others are either unaware of or indifferent to what AMO members do and why it matters. Consciously or not, they tend to view their vessel officers not as flesh and blood, but as parts of ship machinery.
For example, these individuals set unrealistic fleet-wide policies that cannot be applied equally to each vessel - especially when the company fleet is comprised of vessels of varied age, size and configuration and purpose - or they cut overtime without reducing the workload that warrants the extra pay. Such senseless "business decisions" result most often in additional stress for the vessel officers.
This is not the way to reverse a growing industry-wide shortage of qualified U.S. merchant marine officers - a shortage that could in time cripple every U.S. vessel operating company in every trade. This is not the way to attract cadets in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy or in the six state-operated maritime academies to careers at sea under the U.S. flag. Nor is it the way to retain the highly skilled marine engineers and deck officers already employed by these companies, or to stem the flight to what many American merchant mariners see as the brighter horizon of the energy trades in the Gulf of Mexico.
Everyone working in a vessel operating company's front office has to make a greater effort at understanding both the differences between their lives and the lives of the vessel officers and the difficulties AMO members and all other U.S. merchant marine officers must endure just to make a living.
Like all U.S. merchant marine officers, AMO members live where they work, and they spend long stretches away from family and friends, often missing holidays and family events. Company personnel are at home with their spouses and children at the end of the workday - unless they are on business travel, in which case the trip is not nearly as long as the time a vessel officer spends at sea.
Like all U.S. merchant marine officers, today's AMO member must obtain both a Merchant Mariner's Credential and an original or raise-of-grade license from the U.S. Coast Guard and a Transportation Worker Identification Credential from the Transportation Security Administration - at his or her personal expense - to qualify for a job aboard a U.S. merchant vessel in domestic or international trade. No other class of American worker - including vessel operation and personnel managers - must be vetted as thoroughly by even one federal agency.
Like all U.S. merchant marine officers, today's AMO member is subject to pre-employment, random and post-incident alcohol and drug testing under Department of Transportation rules and to stiff penalties - including license revocation - for even what many legal experts would consider minor violations. The atmosphere is so intimidating and the risk so high that many AMO members hesitate to enjoy the occasional cold beer, even when they are home on vacation, miles and months away from their vessels and from their shipboard responsibilities. Of course, front-office company personnel are free to imbibe - or inhale - when the night comes.
Like all U.S. merchant marine officers, today's AMO member is subject as well to rigorous, over-the-top physical health standards, and the U.S. Coast Guard has a long list of medical conditions it says can bar a merchant mariner from seagoing employment - high blood pressure, for example, even when managed through prescribed medication. Vessel operating company personnel can report to work daily while taking any number of prescription drugs for any number of conditions.
Moreover, AMO members are - like all vessel officers - required to demonstrate proficiency in an ever-growing number of seafaring disciplines under the ever-evolving STCW, the International Maritime Organization's Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping. While the AMO Safety and Education Plan provides STCW training at no cost to AMO members, these individuals must undergo weeks of instruction and practical application on their own time. Employer representatives are not subject to such training regimes, and they are not required to advance whatever degrees or qualifications they may have.
In addition to navigating vessels, supervising cargo loading and discharge, meeting arrival and departure schedules, operating and maintaining vessel propulsion and electrical systems, administering the payroll and serving as emergency medical technicians in cases of shipboard injury or illness, today's typical AMO member must address port state control mandates, manage waste and keep accurate waste discharge records - work that will compound under forthcoming air emission and ballast water treatment rules. These requirements do not apply to the average vessel operations manager ashore.
Moreover, AMO members must cope daily with increased uncertainty resulting from a persistently weak economy, the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq, the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and an emerging shift in conventional wartime strategy.
These factors could cause demand for commercial ship services and for strategic sealift in support of the U.S. military overseas to slacken even more, but the demands placed on AMO members would not decline proportionately. While I am confident that most AMO members would ride it all out and hold to the professional standards and work ethic that distinguish them among U.S. merchant marine officers, I would be hard-pressed to fault an officer who decided to pack it in under the cumulative circumstances.
As unions go, American Maritime Officers is the most progressive of its class. My administration considers a contract between AMO and a vessel operating company as much a pledge to partnership and mutual interest as an element of job and benefit security for AMO members and their families. We allow our employers the flexibility to hire officers of their choice for key positions, and we allow AMO members to hold permanent jobs in the interest of greater competitive stability. We free our employers from archaic work rules so that they can make decisions that can generate additional profit and create more jobs for the marine engineers and deck officers we represent.
Coupled with the individual initiative shown each day in each job by each AMO member, these AMO policies benefit both our union membership and our employers - which is how it should be in a time of diminishing business and employment opportunities in the U.S. maritime industry.
But profit and payroll are sometimes not at issue. The bottom line is better served when the top tier - the men and women of American Maritime Officers - are given the full and fair consideration they are due not as workhorses or pack mules, but as human beings.
As always, I welcome your comments, criticisms and questions. Please feel free to call me on my cell at (202) 251-0349.
AMO employers and the human element at sea
By Tom Bethel
National President
In June 2009, I wrote in this space about the "class and character" of the American Maritime Officers membership in all domestic and international trades, the seagoing professionalism they define and the absolute dedication AMO members apply to the job at hand aboard their vessels, despite excessive regulation, increasing responsibilities, economic twists and turns and often daunting conditions beyond their control - the threat of piracy off the coast of Africa and elsewhere, for example, or the risk of delay or detention in foreign ports for political or diplomatic reasons.
"We (the AMO administration) hold our greatest admiration for the men and women we are privileged to represent in American Maritime Officers," I said at the time. "We know from practical experience that, because of the grace, dignity and strength AMO members bring to their jobs, all things are possible for our union."
Since then, AMO has grown steadily and substantially in a shrinking industry, thanks in meaningful part to this fundamental truth about the AMO membership. Deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters AMO members remain committed to the safe, efficient, competitive and profitable operation of every U.S. merchant vessel under AMO contract, despite the fatigue, frustration, aggravation and loneliness that often go with this commitment. AMO members understand that the quality of their work helps keep employers in business, and that employers in business represent wages and benefits for themselves and their families.
Most of the shipping company executives and vessel management personnel we deal with every day acknowledge and appreciate the real value of the AMO members they employ.
But others are either unaware of or indifferent to what AMO members do and why it matters. Consciously or not, they tend to view their vessel officers not as flesh and blood, but as parts of ship machinery.
For example, these individuals set unrealistic fleet-wide policies that cannot be applied equally to each vessel - especially when the company fleet is comprised of vessels of varied age, size and configuration and purpose - or they cut overtime without reducing the workload that warrants the extra pay. Such senseless "business decisions" result most often in additional stress for the vessel officers.
This is not the way to reverse a growing industry-wide shortage of qualified U.S. merchant marine officers - a shortage that could in time cripple every U.S. vessel operating company in every trade. This is not the way to attract cadets in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy or in the six state-operated maritime academies to careers at sea under the U.S. flag. Nor is it the way to retain the highly skilled marine engineers and deck officers already employed by these companies, or to stem the flight to what many American merchant mariners see as the brighter horizon of the energy trades in the Gulf of Mexico.
Everyone working in a vessel operating company's front office has to make a greater effort at understanding both the differences between their lives and the lives of the vessel officers and the difficulties AMO members and all other U.S. merchant marine officers must endure just to make a living.
Like all U.S. merchant marine officers, AMO members live where they work, and they spend long stretches away from family and friends, often missing holidays and family events. Company personnel are at home with their spouses and children at the end of the workday - unless they are on business travel, in which case the trip is not nearly as long as the time a vessel officer spends at sea.
Like all U.S. merchant marine officers, today's AMO member must obtain both a Merchant Mariner's Credential and an original or raise-of-grade license from the U.S. Coast Guard and a Transportation Worker Identification Credential from the Transportation Security Administration - at his or her personal expense - to qualify for a job aboard a U.S. merchant vessel in domestic or international trade. No other class of American worker - including vessel operation and personnel managers - must be vetted as thoroughly by even one federal agency.
Like all U.S. merchant marine officers, today's AMO member is subject to pre-employment, random and post-incident alcohol and drug testing under Department of Transportation rules and to stiff penalties - including license revocation - for even what many legal experts would consider minor violations. The atmosphere is so intimidating and the risk so high that many AMO members hesitate to enjoy the occasional cold beer, even when they are home on vacation, miles and months away from their vessels and from their shipboard responsibilities. Of course, front-office company personnel are free to imbibe - or inhale - when the night comes.
Like all U.S. merchant marine officers, today's AMO member is subject as well to rigorous, over-the-top physical health standards, and the U.S. Coast Guard has a long list of medical conditions it says can bar a merchant mariner from seagoing employment - high blood pressure, for example, even when managed through prescribed medication. Vessel operating company personnel can report to work daily while taking any number of prescription drugs for any number of conditions.
Moreover, AMO members are - like all vessel officers - required to demonstrate proficiency in an ever-growing number of seafaring disciplines under the ever-evolving STCW, the International Maritime Organization's Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping. While the AMO Safety and Education Plan provides STCW training at no cost to AMO members, these individuals must undergo weeks of instruction and practical application on their own time. Employer representatives are not subject to such training regimes, and they are not required to advance whatever degrees or qualifications they may have.
In addition to navigating vessels, supervising cargo loading and discharge, meeting arrival and departure schedules, operating and maintaining vessel propulsion and electrical systems, administering the payroll and serving as emergency medical technicians in cases of shipboard injury or illness, today's typical AMO member must address port state control mandates, manage waste and keep accurate waste discharge records - work that will compound under forthcoming air emission and ballast water treatment rules. These requirements do not apply to the average vessel operations manager ashore.
Moreover, AMO members must cope daily with increased uncertainty resulting from a persistently weak economy, the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq, the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and an emerging shift in conventional wartime strategy.
These factors could cause demand for commercial ship services and for strategic sealift in support of the U.S. military overseas to slacken even more, but the demands placed on AMO members would not decline proportionately. While I am confident that most AMO members would ride it all out and hold to the professional standards and work ethic that distinguish them among U.S. merchant marine officers, I would be hard-pressed to fault an officer who decided to pack it in under the cumulative circumstances.
As unions go, American Maritime Officers is the most progressive of its class. My administration considers a contract between AMO and a vessel operating company as much a pledge to partnership and mutual interest as an element of job and benefit security for AMO members and their families. We allow our employers the flexibility to hire officers of their choice for key positions, and we allow AMO members to hold permanent jobs in the interest of greater competitive stability. We free our employers from archaic work rules so that they can make decisions that can generate additional profit and create more jobs for the marine engineers and deck officers we represent.
Coupled with the individual initiative shown each day in each job by each AMO member, these AMO policies benefit both our union membership and our employers - which is how it should be in a time of diminishing business and employment opportunities in the U.S. maritime industry.
But profit and payroll are sometimes not at issue. The bottom line is better served when the top tier - the men and women of American Maritime Officers - are given the full and fair consideration they are due not as workhorses or pack mules, but as human beings.
As always, I welcome your comments, criticisms and questions. Please feel free to call me on my cell at (202) 251-0349.