On April 20, the SUP, MFOW, SIU, MEBA, MM&P and AMO submitted testimony to the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
West Coast Sailors
Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft and Maritime Administrator Paul Jaenichen stressed the critical need for the Jones Act to protect our economic and national security.
The Sailors’ Union gained new work last month when Matson Navigation Company and Patriot Contract Services were awarded contracts to operate and maintain 10 vessels in the Ready Reserve Force. Seven of the ships are new for the SUP.
In the 1950s, there were more than 1,000 U.S. ships engaged in international trade. Each of these vessels employed and trained a pool of U.S. mariners we could rely on in a time of war to sail our forces to the fight. Today, there are only 78.
President Obama signed omnibus spending legislation approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate that includes much needed and significant new funding levels for the Maritime Security Program.
Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), the parent company of American President Lines, confirmed this month that it is in preliminary and separate negotiations with Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk and France’s CMA CGM for the possible sale of the company.
The maritime community is in mourning after the tragic sinking of the El Faro, a U.S.-flag roll-on/roll-off and lift-off vessel owned by TOTE.
The failure by Congress to renew the charter of the Export-Import Bank of the United States is costing American workers, including American maritime workers, jobs.
President Obama signed into law a bill renewing Trade Promotion Authority, known as "fast-track" which grants the administration the authority to negotiate trade pacts with other nations and present final deals to Congress without the possibility of amendment.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Temasek Holdings, a Singapore owned investment company, has put Neptune Orient Lines, the parent company of APL, up for sale.
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."