Posted:
January 7, 2013
By Tom Bethel
National President
Most everyone sailing the Great Lakes with American Maritime Officers understands the real connection between seagoing jobs under the U.S. flag in any trade and practical politics. Among the few exceptions, one stands out for its ignorance and its reckless tone.
In this specific case, which came to my attention December 13, a Great Lakes AMO member I will not identify declined to approve a contribution to the American Maritime Officers Voluntary Political Action Fund through his earned vacation benefits. While this AMO member had every right not to contribute to the fund, he had no right to justify his decision with inaccurate statements scrawled along the bottom of the AMO Vacation Plan deduction authorization form.
This AMO member - who holds a permanent position as First Mate and relief Captain with one AMO Great Lakes employer, and who had until then contributed to the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund through authorized deductions from his vacation pay - said he had changed course this time because of "our recent reduction in pay, increase in dues and because Tom Bethel is so unresponsive to Great Lakes members."
The truth is that, like every other AMO engineer and mate on the Lakes, this individual has had no pay cut in his job. In fact, the new AMO collective bargaining agreement covering this individual's current employment provides for wage increases totaling 15 percent for everyone in increments outpacing the national average. This contract also protects this individual's participation in the AMO Vacation Plan and in all other employer-paid AMO benefit plans.
Like wages, membership dues in American Maritime Officers are scaled to shipboard positions. Captains and Chief Engineers pay the most, while Third Mates and Third Assistant Engineers pay the least (all AMO officials pay the rate applicable to Captains and Chief Engineers). And, while it's natural for anyone in our ranks to grumble over a dues increase, this individual's financial obligation to our union will rise by only $46 in 2013 - and by less if he sails below Captain.
Either way, the AMO membership dues increase in effect this year is modest at even the maximum level, and membership dues in American Maritime Officers remain the lowest among the three U.S. merchant marine officers' unions. This matters not only because AMO members are left with much more in their pockets, but also because AMO members get much more bang for their buck - the largest job base, the greatest professional opportunities in diverse domestic and international trades, the only real chance at sustained union-wide growth, and the strongest prospect of long-term job and benefit security.
Rather than citing the dues increase as a reason to cut off contributions to the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund, the individual at the core of this column would do all of us a greater service by encouraging his shipmates and friends in AMO to keep current with their dues payments - as I have said here, in communications to the AMO membership, in vessel visits and in many AMO membership meetings, persistent, inexplicable dues delinquency is what drove the 2013 dues increase in the first place.
As for this individual's charge that I am "unresponsive" to the Great Lakes membership ... well, I believe most AMO members on the Lakes disagree. They know me as the first AMO president ever to take and return phone calls and to respond personally to letters and emails. They know me as the first AMO president since the late Ray McKay in the mid-to-late 1950s to service Great Lakes vessels and encourage honest, wide-open discussion, the first to ease access to the entire AMO administration and support staff and the first to participate from the start in Great Lakes contract negotiations. Great Lakes members may not always like the response they get from me, but they know they can ask me any question and get an honest answer.
The real issue here is the practical, real-world way in which I have transformed our union's operation on the Great Lakes, where the fleet has declined steadily and substantially since the long-lost day of proprietary steel fleets, Seaway-sized vessels, uniform, fleet-wide labor costs under a single officers' union and clean competition - or as much competition as the Steel Trust would allow. Under policies put in place on my watch, the Great Lakes job base will stabilize and maybe even grow - these policies represent positive change leading to greater Lakes-wide security, and change of any kind takes some getting used to.
What troubles me most about this individual's comments, and what causes me to address them publicly, is the certainty that he is doing his level best to encourage others in our union to turn thumbs down on the American Maritime Officers Voluntary Political Action Fund - whether to make what he believes is an effective personal point, or to spite me.
But I would remind all of our Great Lakes engine and deck officers that their jobs - and all other jobs in all domestic maritime markets - exist only because of the Jones Act, the federal law that restricts all waterborne commerce between and among U.S. ports for merchant vessels owned, built, flagged and manned in the United States. As this publication will document over the next several months, the Jones Act will be challenged in a number of ways on a number of fronts this year, and our union will be as active as possible in the fight to keep this law intact. How much energy we can put into it and how effective we will be will be determined only by the size and strength of the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund.
As always, I welcome your comments, questions and criticisms. Feel free to call me on my cell at 202-251-0349.
A misguided take on Great Lakes contracts, dues and political action
By Tom Bethel
National President
Most everyone sailing the Great Lakes with American Maritime Officers understands the real connection between seagoing jobs under the U.S. flag in any trade and practical politics. Among the few exceptions, one stands out for its ignorance and its reckless tone.
In this specific case, which came to my attention December 13, a Great Lakes AMO member I will not identify declined to approve a contribution to the American Maritime Officers Voluntary Political Action Fund through his earned vacation benefits. While this AMO member had every right not to contribute to the fund, he had no right to justify his decision with inaccurate statements scrawled along the bottom of the AMO Vacation Plan deduction authorization form.
This AMO member - who holds a permanent position as First Mate and relief Captain with one AMO Great Lakes employer, and who had until then contributed to the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund through authorized deductions from his vacation pay - said he had changed course this time because of "our recent reduction in pay, increase in dues and because Tom Bethel is so unresponsive to Great Lakes members."
The truth is that, like every other AMO engineer and mate on the Lakes, this individual has had no pay cut in his job. In fact, the new AMO collective bargaining agreement covering this individual's current employment provides for wage increases totaling 15 percent for everyone in increments outpacing the national average. This contract also protects this individual's participation in the AMO Vacation Plan and in all other employer-paid AMO benefit plans.
Like wages, membership dues in American Maritime Officers are scaled to shipboard positions. Captains and Chief Engineers pay the most, while Third Mates and Third Assistant Engineers pay the least (all AMO officials pay the rate applicable to Captains and Chief Engineers). And, while it's natural for anyone in our ranks to grumble over a dues increase, this individual's financial obligation to our union will rise by only $46 in 2013 - and by less if he sails below Captain.
Either way, the AMO membership dues increase in effect this year is modest at even the maximum level, and membership dues in American Maritime Officers remain the lowest among the three U.S. merchant marine officers' unions. This matters not only because AMO members are left with much more in their pockets, but also because AMO members get much more bang for their buck - the largest job base, the greatest professional opportunities in diverse domestic and international trades, the only real chance at sustained union-wide growth, and the strongest prospect of long-term job and benefit security.
Rather than citing the dues increase as a reason to cut off contributions to the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund, the individual at the core of this column would do all of us a greater service by encouraging his shipmates and friends in AMO to keep current with their dues payments - as I have said here, in communications to the AMO membership, in vessel visits and in many AMO membership meetings, persistent, inexplicable dues delinquency is what drove the 2013 dues increase in the first place.
As for this individual's charge that I am "unresponsive" to the Great Lakes membership ... well, I believe most AMO members on the Lakes disagree. They know me as the first AMO president ever to take and return phone calls and to respond personally to letters and emails. They know me as the first AMO president since the late Ray McKay in the mid-to-late 1950s to service Great Lakes vessels and encourage honest, wide-open discussion, the first to ease access to the entire AMO administration and support staff and the first to participate from the start in Great Lakes contract negotiations. Great Lakes members may not always like the response they get from me, but they know they can ask me any question and get an honest answer.
The real issue here is the practical, real-world way in which I have transformed our union's operation on the Great Lakes, where the fleet has declined steadily and substantially since the long-lost day of proprietary steel fleets, Seaway-sized vessels, uniform, fleet-wide labor costs under a single officers' union and clean competition - or as much competition as the Steel Trust would allow. Under policies put in place on my watch, the Great Lakes job base will stabilize and maybe even grow - these policies represent positive change leading to greater Lakes-wide security, and change of any kind takes some getting used to.
What troubles me most about this individual's comments, and what causes me to address them publicly, is the certainty that he is doing his level best to encourage others in our union to turn thumbs down on the American Maritime Officers Voluntary Political Action Fund - whether to make what he believes is an effective personal point, or to spite me.
But I would remind all of our Great Lakes engine and deck officers that their jobs - and all other jobs in all domestic maritime markets - exist only because of the Jones Act, the federal law that restricts all waterborne commerce between and among U.S. ports for merchant vessels owned, built, flagged and manned in the United States. As this publication will document over the next several months, the Jones Act will be challenged in a number of ways on a number of fronts this year, and our union will be as active as possible in the fight to keep this law intact. How much energy we can put into it and how effective we will be will be determined only by the size and strength of the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund.
As always, I welcome your comments, questions and criticisms. Feel free to call me on my cell at 202-251-0349.