COVID surge, record daily case count force cancellation of November meeting
From The Wall Street Journal, Monday, October 26: "From the corridors of Washington to the cobblestones of Paris, the coronavirus is roaring back and authorities are ramping up restrictions again. This time around, however, everyone is tired."
Pandemic fatigue, a deep and widening national divide over how to contain, control and cure contagion, and difficulty distinguishing between political observation and scientific analysis affect each of us each day as the COVID-19 crisis surges in 47 states, with new cases exceeding a record 80,000 nationwide on October 23 and October 24 and deaths in the U.S. surpassing 225,000 as of October 26.
Here at AMO headquarters, we take these developments seriously, and this administration stands behind its first priority - to protect AMO deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters members and their families from potentially deadly infection.
For these reasons, the reluctant consensus within the AMO Executive Board is that we have no choice but to cancel the regularly scheduled monthly AMO membership meeting set for Monday, November 2.
Here in Florida, the statewide positivity rate - the percentage of people found through daily testing to have been infected with the disease - is 5.94 percent, according to the Florida Department of Health. However, an independent analysis by Johns Hopkins University put the state's positivity rate at a staggering 16.3 percent.
In Palm Beach County to our North, the positivity rate is 6.18 percent, up from 5.14 percent a day earlier.
In Miami-Dade County to our South, the positivity rate is 5.76 percent, up from 3.43 percent a day earlier.
In Broward County, which includes Dania Beach, the daily positivity rate is 7.08 percent, up from 4.55 percent a day earlier.
Under county and municipal restrictions still in place in Broward County and in Dania Beach, gatherings of 10 or more people in one place are barred - even if all participants wear masks and remain at least six feet apart - when the positivity rate exceeds 5 percent.
Given these circumstances, it would be reckless for this administration to encourage AMO members to assemble for a headquarters meeting, even if this meeting were held in an outdoor space across Federal Highway at STAR Center, where capacity would be limited under comprehensive health and safety protocols in place at the AMO Safety & Education Plan's training and student housing campus.
An additional complication was factored into this AMO Executive Board decision - the potential for political protest or violence at or near polling places in Florida - a "battleground state" in the Presidential balloting - on Election Day, November 3. No one knows what will happen or where, given the fierce ideological and partisan discord driving the vote and its outcome across the U.S. The AMO Executive Board cannot encourage the presence of AMO members in or near areas where they risk injury as well as illness.
We will hear - again - that the AMO Constitution requires official membership meeting at headquarters every month.
We will respond - again - that the AMO Constitution was not written and adopted in anticipation of a deadly, unchecked pandemic, and that every union, every corporation and every public institution has had to adapt and adjust to unprecedented, unpredictable circumstances.
We will hear - again - that AMO can conduct membership meetings safely through virtual apps like Zoom.
We will respond - again - by noting the difficulties other seagoing unions, businesses and public interest groups have experienced with virtual meetings. For example, media reports last week said a virtual City Council meeting in nearby Plantation, Florida, was adjourned abruptly when pornographic video found an unwanted, unintended place on the agenda and on the computer screens at home.
No one in this administration is happy about having to cancel eight consecutive AMO membership meetings since this national health emergency was declared in mid-March 2020. We have important business to report on. We also enjoy the conversation, and we address the occasional controversy openly in these sessions.
But we are doing everything we can to get vital information out to the AMO membership in the deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters sectors, with frequent updates on finances and benefits through AMO Currents and AMO membership email. AMO representatives are on the road, meeting with AMO members aboard their vessels in safe ways on the East, West and Gulf Coasts, on the Great Lakes, and along the inland waterways.
In addition, AMO officials remain at work at headquarters and at home every day, addressing the professional and personal complications endured by AMO members during this pandemic - unduly long stretches aboard ship, difficulty reaching vessels to relieve other officers, "gangway up" and restricted to ship. We are also pursuing important arbitration on the East Coast and prepping for imminent, complicated contract negotiations on the West Coast and on the Great Lakes.
We are grateful for your patience and your understanding, and we ask again that we stand united in moral support for AMO members who have had to miss important family milestones through no fault of their own or who have had to support family members suddenly unemployed or losing a small business in this COVID economy.
As always, we welcome your comments, questions and perspectives.
Paul Doell
October 28, 2020