In a testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure?s Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on July 12, the Sailors? Union of the Pacific, and other maritime unions, told members of Congress that the implementation of the long-delayed Transportation Worker Identification Credential program must enhance the security of the Nation?s transportation system, but must also preserve the legitimate rights of workers.
West Coast Sailors
On June 2, 2007 a medi cal evacuation by heli copter took place aboard Matson Navigation Company?s m/v Manulani.
Ending more than thirty years of declining tonnage under its house flag, Chevron Shipping Company embarked on a new era in its long history as its newest tankship ?the Mississippi Voyager? loaded refined product at Richmond Long Wharf and sailed for Barber?s Point, Hawai?i.
A top Homeland Security Department, testifying before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on April 12, could not assure lawmakers that a congressional deadline will be met to begin issuing Transportation Worker Identification Credentials for maritime workers.
The implementation phase of the Transportation Workers? Identification Credential, or TWIC, is imminent.
IMO Sub-committee initiates new competences and seatime requirements for unlicensed mariners.
In another development that will forever change the credentialing of the United States? maritime workforce, the Transportation Security Administration released an advance copy of the Final Rule in the rulemaking that will establish the Transportation Workers? Identification Card or TWIC.
A hole was blown in San Francisco?s formerly solid Union waterfront when the federal government recently awarded the contract for the ferry run to Alcatraz Island to a non-Union company.
According to a recently released General Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must address and solve key challenges before implementing the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program.
On September 30, the Senate passed and on October 13, President Bush signed into law the Security and Accountability for Every Port (SAFE Port) Act of 2006 (H.R. 4954)
Among the Union's objectives is "to support a journal which shall voice the sentiments of the seafaring class, and through its columns seek to maintain the knowledge of and interest in maritime affairs." The first issue of the West Coast Sailors, in June of 1937, noted that "Common sense, fearlessly applied, brings success to a Union."