Posted:
April 6, 2009
By Tom Bethel
National President
In a forthcoming 90-day secret ballot referendum, all members of American Maritime Officers will be asked to apply their traditionally sound judgment once more by approving construction of a union headquarters building better able to meet their professional needs and better suited to our union’s stature and strength.
The referendum will mark the second time this year that a major policy decision is put directly to deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters AMO members in line with my commitment to greater transparency and greater participatory democracy in our union. In union-wide balloting that ended March 16, voting AMO members approved a contemporary overhaul of the American Maritime Officers National Constitution and a streamlined AMO National Executive Board by an 82 percent margin.
The issue this time will be just as straightforward and significant. AMO — the nation’s largest and strongest union of merchant marine officers — has outgrown its real property resources. The new headquarters building would address this difficulty in a responsible and reasonable way.
The proposed building would rise on land owned for many years by AMO on Federal Highway in Dania Beach, Florida, across from the cramped two-story structure that now functions — barely — as our union’s principal place of administrative business. AMO members who have been to the AMO and AMO Plans complex in Dania Beach know the site as “the bank building,” which now houses the AMO accounting department and the membership services desk.
Money for the project would come from a portion of the proceeds from the intended sale of AMO-owned property in Dania Beach to the American Maritime Officers Safety and Education Plan. The Plan now leases the 6.5-acre parcel from AMO for the operation of its Simulation, Training, Assessment and Research Center and the housing, parking and recreation areas used by AMO members enrolled in STAR Center.
The AMO Safety and Education Plan proposed purchasing the AMO-owned site to expand and diversify STAR Center’s comprehensive training, certification and license upgrading programs in response to sustained growth by AMO in traditional and emerging seagoing job markets in the United States and worldwide.
I saw the AMO Safety and Education Plan’s proposal to buy the property from AMO as an opportunity to generate substantial new economic gain for our union. The land is owned outright by AMO — no mortgages, no liens. Thus, the proceeds from the sale would go entirely to AMO — money raised in the transaction but not used for the construction project would count as a cash windfall to the AMO treasury.
I also saw a new headquarters building as a source of several practical benefits for everyone in AMO:
Moreover, we will solicit bids from contractors and vendors in the next several months, and we expect to take advantage of an increasingly competitive construction market.
American Maritime Officers has never had a headquarters building in the commonly understood sense of the term. In its formative years, the union we now call AMO had its base in limited space in Seafarers International Union halls in Manhattan and Brooklyn. For too long a subsequent time, headquarters was in two run-down rat-trap row houses on a long abandoned and chronically neglected stretch of the smelly Gowanus Canal waterfront in Brooklyn. Now the AMO administration and the seagoing AMO membership are limited by the inadequate building we call “home” in Dania Beach.
AMO members deserve more — much more. They have worked too hard and too well for too long to help put and keep American Maritime Officers on top, and they are entitled to a central structure equal to the singular quality they represent. A new building would be appropriate, and it would make absolute sense from every conceivable angle.
A detailed description of the proposed AMO headquarters building and its cost will be included with the referendum ballots that will be sent to all AMO members, and my office will provide all AMO members with additional information in the next several weeks. Meanwhile, as always, I welcome whatever comments and questions AMO members may have.
Upcoming 90-day referendum will give membership the final say on development of AMO headquarters
By Tom Bethel
National President
In a forthcoming 90-day secret ballot referendum, all members of American Maritime Officers will be asked to apply their traditionally sound judgment once more by approving construction of a union headquarters building better able to meet their professional needs and better suited to our union’s stature and strength.
The referendum will mark the second time this year that a major policy decision is put directly to deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters AMO members in line with my commitment to greater transparency and greater participatory democracy in our union. In union-wide balloting that ended March 16, voting AMO members approved a contemporary overhaul of the American Maritime Officers National Constitution and a streamlined AMO National Executive Board by an 82 percent margin.
The issue this time will be just as straightforward and significant. AMO — the nation’s largest and strongest union of merchant marine officers — has outgrown its real property resources. The new headquarters building would address this difficulty in a responsible and reasonable way.
The proposed building would rise on land owned for many years by AMO on Federal Highway in Dania Beach, Florida, across from the cramped two-story structure that now functions — barely — as our union’s principal place of administrative business. AMO members who have been to the AMO and AMO Plans complex in Dania Beach know the site as “the bank building,” which now houses the AMO accounting department and the membership services desk.
Money for the project would come from a portion of the proceeds from the intended sale of AMO-owned property in Dania Beach to the American Maritime Officers Safety and Education Plan. The Plan now leases the 6.5-acre parcel from AMO for the operation of its Simulation, Training, Assessment and Research Center and the housing, parking and recreation areas used by AMO members enrolled in STAR Center.
The AMO Safety and Education Plan proposed purchasing the AMO-owned site to expand and diversify STAR Center’s comprehensive training, certification and license upgrading programs in response to sustained growth by AMO in traditional and emerging seagoing job markets in the United States and worldwide.
I saw the AMO Safety and Education Plan’s proposal to buy the property from AMO as an opportunity to generate substantial new economic gain for our union. The land is owned outright by AMO — no mortgages, no liens. Thus, the proceeds from the sale would go entirely to AMO — money raised in the transaction but not used for the construction project would count as a cash windfall to the AMO treasury.
I also saw a new headquarters building as a source of several practical benefits for everyone in AMO:
- AMO members would no longer have to conduct routine union business in the uncomfortably confined space of the existing structure, and AMO officials, representatives and employees would no longer have to trip over each other to get their day’s work done.
- A new headquarters building would include a spacious hall for membership meetings.
AMO has never had its own place for membership meetings. For many years, the meetings were held at the old Seafarers International Union hall and in the former AMO Plans building in Brooklyn. AMO now leases space from AMO Plans at considerable cumulative expense for all AMO membership meetings and election and referendum tallies held in Dania Beach. - The building would also include comfortable conference rooms conducive to productive business.
The professional, accommodating environment would allow AMO to take complete competitive advantage of its superior size and strength among the licensed seagoing unions by making it easier to meet with current and prospective vessel operating employers.
This would in turn reduce the need for AMO officials to travel at union expense in pursuit of recognition and collective bargaining agreements. - With its senior officials, representatives, dispatchers, accountants and support staff under one roof, AMO would be able to manage its steady expansion more effectively and more efficiently.
- With all of its operating departments in a single location, AMO would be able to provide smoother services to AMO members and their families calling at Dania Beach.
- Ownership of the existing AMO headquarters building and its surrounding property by the AMO Safety and Education Plan would hasten the long-planned expansion of STAR Center for the lasting benefit of all AMO members.
- The additional space resulting from the acquisition of the existing headquarters building by the AMO Safety and Education Plan could ease the size constraints now nagging the AMO Pension, Medical, Vacation and 401(k) Plans.
Moreover, we will solicit bids from contractors and vendors in the next several months, and we expect to take advantage of an increasingly competitive construction market.
American Maritime Officers has never had a headquarters building in the commonly understood sense of the term. In its formative years, the union we now call AMO had its base in limited space in Seafarers International Union halls in Manhattan and Brooklyn. For too long a subsequent time, headquarters was in two run-down rat-trap row houses on a long abandoned and chronically neglected stretch of the smelly Gowanus Canal waterfront in Brooklyn. Now the AMO administration and the seagoing AMO membership are limited by the inadequate building we call “home” in Dania Beach.
AMO members deserve more — much more. They have worked too hard and too well for too long to help put and keep American Maritime Officers on top, and they are entitled to a central structure equal to the singular quality they represent. A new building would be appropriate, and it would make absolute sense from every conceivable angle.
A detailed description of the proposed AMO headquarters building and its cost will be included with the referendum ballots that will be sent to all AMO members, and my office will provide all AMO members with additional information in the next several weeks. Meanwhile, as always, I welcome whatever comments and questions AMO members may have.