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Vol. 56, No.2 April|May|June 2020 Official Voice of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots Keeping the Supply Lines Open in the Age of Covid-19 Global Maritime Industry Pushes for Crew Change To Resume Unions, Employers Seek “Emergency Stipend” for Maritime Security Fleet Your Photos From the Frontlines Table of Contents The Master, Mate & Pilot is the Vol. 56, No. 2 April | May | June 2020 official voice of the International Organization of From the President 1 Masters, Mates & Pilots. The mariners of the world work to keep the supply lines open in the © 2020 IOMMP. age of Covid-19. The Master, Mate & Pilot (ISSN 0025-5033) is published quarterly News Briefs 3 by the International Organization Unions, international organizations, call for urgent resumption of crew of Masters, Mates & Pilots. MM&P change process aboard merchant ships; kudos to AMG members Headquarters: 700 Maritime Blvd., Suite B, Linthicum Heights, MD aboard Staten Island Ferry, North Ferry and NY Water Taxi; MM&P’s 21090-1953. Steve Werse honored by Marine Society of the City of New York; Phone: (410) 850-8700 MM&P Civil Service mariners and pilots bring Comfort and Mercy to E-mail: [email protected] coronavirus hot spots. Internet: www.bridgedeck.org Periodicals Postage Paid at Our American Heroes 10 Elkridge, MD and additional America’s mariners have been designated “essential workers.” We offices. POSTMASTER: Send celebrate MM&P members’ achievements with photos from the address changes to The Master, Mate & Pilot, 700 Maritime frontlines. Blvd., Suite B, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090-1953 Washington Observer 14 Don Marcus America’s seafaring unions, contracted employers and supporters Chairman, Editorial Board in Congress press Administration to shore up Maritime Security Lisa Rosenthal Program, provide protective equipment and implement additional Communications Director measures to mitigate pandemic’s toll. INTERNATIONAL OFFICERS Don Marcus, President MM&P Health & Benefit Plans 16 Don Josberger, Secretary-Treasurer Temporary changes to MM&P IRAP and MM&P 401(k) arrangement as permitted by the CARES Act; new telemedicine benefit; IRS VICE PRESIDENTS Thomas Bell, Great Lakes & Gulf limitations for 2020. Stephen H. Doherty, Atlantic Maritime Thomas Larkin, Offshore Atlantic News From MITAGS 19 Klaus Luhta, Offshore Gulf & MITAGS, Maritime Conference Center staff, give back to the Government Affairs community during Covid-19 pandemic. George A. Quick, Pilots Randall H. Rockwood, Federal MM&P Pensioners 20 Employees Timothy Saffle, Pacific Maritime Region MM&P Directory 21 Lars Turner, Offshore Pacific Cross’d the Final Bar 24 Thank You Contributors to the MM&P PCF! 26 About the Cover Connect With Us! Official Voice of the International [email protected] Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots Civil Service mariners aboard USNS Comfort. Vol. 56, No.2 April | May | June 2020 MM&P members deployed along with Navy medical personnel to help Americans in Bridgedeck.org regions significantly affected by the pandemic. Facebook.com/IOMMP (Left to right) Third Officer William Culp, Third Officer Nathan Grant, First Officer YouTube: MastersMatesPilots William Courtney, Second Officer Navigator/ Operations Victor Deveso, First Officer Instagram: bridgedeck Keeping the Supply Lines Open in the Age of Covid-19 Andrew Chen, and Second Officer Cargo Global Maritime Industry Pushes for Crew Change To Resume Twitter: @MMP_Union Unions, Employers Seek “Emergency Stipend” for Maritime Security Fleet Brandon Markey. Your Photos From the Frontlines FROM THE PRESIDENT We Deliver Union Sisters & Brothers, For MM&P members, the most absurd and unnecessary injustice Once again MM&P members are called into action keeping comes from none other than the our nation’s supply chain open and delivering the goods despite U.S. Navy. Once again holding the the unique risks and hardship that the Covid-19 pandemic has Merchant Marine in contempt, the wrought. Navy’s Military Sealift Command For those coming of age during this crisis, it is likely to be issued a “gangway up” order that remembered as the defining moment of your career; defining defies belief. This order applies only what it really means to commit to a career of going to sea for to Civil Service mariners and contract a living. The risks to health and safety, extreme anxiety about mariners aboard naval auxiliary and loved ones back home, the often blanket and illogical restrictions chartered vessels. So, for example, aboard ship – by now extending to months at a time, and, for aboard a fleet oiler, the vessel’s Navy crew may come and go in those employed overseas aboard shuttle vessels or government overseas ports, the home port or in shipyard evolutions while the contract vessels, the multiple months of extended dispatch Merchant Marine crew cannot step off the vessel – even if their time awaiting relief personnel and repatriation: this will be the home is down the street, their car is about to be towed from the enduring revelation of what it means to be in the Merchant base parking lot or their family is waiting at the gate. Marine. In the meantime, ships are undertaking routine shipyard For my generation in MM&P, the defining moment was our periods in such unhealthy locations as Italy, Bayonne and Union’s ill-advised tanker strike which painfully exposed our Boston, during which time merchant mariners cannot leave disabilities under federal labor law, our vulnerability to inter- their vessels, but anywhere from 20-100 shipyard workers, other union treachery and resulted in permanent job loss. Reality set in Navy or MSC personnel may come and go daily with only light quickly then, and similarly now, when our members have been screening and little or no personal protective equipment. The placed on an almost war-time footing overnight and without result was not long in coming: half the crew of one Civil Service notice. vessel, USNS Grumman, tested positive for Covid-19, including The seafaring life as we know it has its upside but the harsh one fatality, while undergoing work at Boston Ship Repair Yard. downside is starkly apparent today. MM&P members are not The ship as a Covid-19 free “bubble” or “citadel” does not work alone in this circumstance. Worldwide, seafarers – essential if some are restricted in the bubble and others – even members work notwithstanding – are left without recourse or recognition. of the same crew – are free to come and go… One would think Thousands of seafarers are working months beyond the term of that would be pretty obvious. their employment contracts awaiting repatriation, most often Also, one would think that the resources of the Federal restricted to their vessels, and subjected to increasing health risks Government would be available to repatriate U.S seafarers. At – both physical and mental. this time, five U.S flag commercial shuttle vessels are unable On the global scale, we have perhaps the most vivid example to change out crew members in ports in the Mediterranean, yet of the corrupt and exploitative Flag of Convenience system. Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. To their credit, our employers are Hundreds of thousands of the 1.6 million seafarers crewing the doing their best to relieve personnel, but the governments of the 95,000 merchant ships of the world are unable to get home at ports these vessels serve, which have received billions of dollars the end of their tours – many of them held aboard idle vessels in U.S. economic and military aid (often delivered directly from without pay or stranded in port. Now we can gauge the full these same vessels) are denying transit for mariner crew changes. measure of the enforcement capability of International Maritime Our employers and all the U.S. maritime unions have been Organization treaties, standards and the Maritime Labor seeking assistance from the Federal Government: Department of Convention. These generally excellent measures are often ignored Transportation/MARAD, U.S. TRANSCOM, State Department by port states, including our own. Until the supply chain breaks, and, most recently members of Congress. As this is being the plight of seafarers will be forgotten except by those who have written, mariners aboard government contract vessels are finally lived through it. continued on page 2 www.bridgedeck.org - The Master, Mate & Pilot 1 President’s Message continued beginning to be relieved and, again, it was the pooled efforts of members (or former members) have tragically passed away and our employers, not the Federal Government, that is making this at the fiasco in Boston Ship Repair Yard with our Civil Service possible. mariners (where one member was grievously ill but thankfully As American-citizen merchant seamen are a component part of recovered), to date our members have been healthy and our ships the global supply chain, it is not surprising that we are facing the safe. This is a testament to our members as well as our employers same obstacles to repatriation as the rest of the global seafaring and we must hope this good fortune continues. workforce. However, this is particularly difficult to comprehend Despite the health risks, extended dispatches overseas, considering that U.S. citizen merchant seamen are also the fourth restrictions aboard ship, anxieties for loved ones back home and the arm of defense for the United States. U.S. mariners are supplying mental stress, fatigue and increased risk of accidents attendant with our troops overseas and delivering government cargoes of all sorts, those pressures, our members are delivering the goods. including essential foreign aid to many of the same countries that A few vessels have been laid up both in foreign and domestic are preventing their repatriation. At the most pragmatic level, trades. In inland waters our members have seen jobs evaporate in how can it be that to date there has been no effective Federal the harbor boat tourist sector, but when and wherever they are Government intervention to prevent a critical break in the logistical employed, our members perform their duties professionally and supply chain of our military? without fanfare.