Based on legislation and advice received from 140 countries, the SRI report reveals that 91 countries representing 80% of the world’s coastal United Nations Maritime States have cabotage laws restricting foreign maritime activity in their domestic coastal trades.
West Coast Sailors
Canadian seafaring Unions finalized an agreement this month with the Canadian government that secured cabotage rights for Canadian mariners aboard vessels flying any flag traversing that nation’s domestic waterways.
Americans want strong Unions. That’s the message from polling that shows more than 60% of voters nationwide approve of organized labor. And that’s certainly the message from Missouri, where voters on August 7, overturned the state’s so-called “right-to-work” law by an overwhelming margin.
SUP-contracted Matson Navigation Company christened the largest containership ever built in the United States in a ceremony at the Philly Shipyard on June 30.
On National Maritime Day, the introduction of the bipartisan Energizing American Shipbuilding Act was announced during a press conference featuring the bill’s sponsor in the House of Representatives, Congressman John Garamendi (D-California), and its sponsor in the Senate, Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi).
Sixty-six bipartisan Members of Congress stood up for good jobs, a strong U.S. maritime industry, and national security by supporting strong cargo preference –or “Ship American”– laws, by sending a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of Transportaion Elaine Chao.
On March 23, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 was signed into law after being approved by Congress ahead of the deadline to avert a partial shutdown of the federal government. The Appropriations Act provides, and in some cases exceeds, statutory funding for key maritime programs for the current fiscal year.
American President Lines announced last month a new foreign-flag Eagle Express X (EXX) service, offering an 11-day transit from Shanghai to Los Angeles.
USA Maritime, which the Sailors’ Union is a member, has joined with a large and diverse group of organizations urging the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support funding for the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program and the Food for Progress program. As stated in the Coalition’s January 30 letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, “these programs improve livelihoods and educational opportunities, while building the political stability and capacity necessary to grow future markets for U.S. agricultural products.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation told the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that Matson Navigation Company’s “untimely” challenge to federal subsidies granted to rival container shipper American President Lines for Guam and Saipan trade routes as part of the Maritime Security Program must be rejected for lack of jurisdiction.
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."