Seafarers Man New Tanker Thompson Pass Pressure from Union See Page 12 Brings New Safety =• UJ

iNl UcJ AJ NI cJ lEiOdlS 1 'J Official Publication of the Seafarers International Union • Atlantic, Gulf, Lakes and Inland Waters District • AFL-CIO vgi-g^o AUGUST 1978 M: Seafarers Man New Tanker Thompson Pass Pressure From Union See Page 12 Brings New Safety =• UJ ^Si Measures to Lakes Tf'tSW See Page 3 SlU Blasts Plan to Export •ate Slit Backed Ocean Mining Bill Naif Way There See Special Supplement Pages 17-24 J- . sr f - ' >. •>• „ «• .. •: ^ •- -.f-.M'.;*#- .V>»' •? rt 'tt*' : > -. V , -• • • j. •- '• -.<( . •••. • T, - « •rc-'gipr^v-! - -T^^r •'••'•"'1. • • >• Hovercraft Industry May Find New Home in U.S. The southwest portion of Alaska, is seeking a temporary waiver of the ical developments in the maritime in as part of the future of shipping and where the Yukon and Kuskokwin Rivers Jones Act to use foreign built hover dustry. began preparing SIU members to crew form a delta, is rough country. The craft for experimental purposes. Under A decade ago, the huge cargo storage them. 40,000 mile area is flat, treeless and the Jones Act, all vessels carrying cargo tanks and special safety equipment of Today, hovercraft are part of the covered with snow most of the year. in the U.S. domestic trades must be LNG tankers made those carriers seem future of maritime. And, when these There are no roads connecting outlying American built. more like special effects from a science vessels arc ready for commercial opera areas with the principal population The two U.S. Senators from Alaska, fiction movie than seagoing vessels. tion in the U.S., the SIU will be ready center. And roads, even basic gravel Mike Gravel and Ted Stevens, have But the Union recognized LNG ships for them. roads, would cost from $300,000 to been working hard to get the hovercraft $1,000,000 per mile to build. experiment under way. They feel hover The rivers are the main transporta craft can be used successfully in Alaska, tion arteries in this area and they are as well as other regions of the U.S. frozen from October through May. "This unique mode of transporta Even after the summer thaw, fluctuating tion," Sen. Gravel said, "could help to water levels make the water routes solve many of Alaska's transportation difficult to navigate. problems in the more remote areas of One way of solving Alaska's trans the State which will improve the oppor portation problems is through the use of tunity for the development of a domestic . commercial hovercraft in the state. market for a hovercraft industry." Hovercraft are massive vessels that skim Because of the potential jobs a U.S. over the water's surface, supported on a hovercraft industry will create in both cushion of air, and controlled by pro building and manning the vessels, the pellers and rudders. SlU supports the proposed Alaska ex They can be used to carry both periment for hovercraft. passengers and cargo, shuttling resi SIU President Paul Hall extended the dents to hospitals, schools and jobs, and Union's support for the hovercraft delivering fuel supplies, which often fall project to Alaska's Senators. "The main critically low, for home heating and goal of the Seafarers Union," Hall said, electric generation. Use of these vessels "is to promote, to the maximum extent in Europe, where they ferry across the possible, the development of a U.S. Channel between France and England, hovercraft industry. has proved they are a viable means of "Once tested," Hall added, "such craft water transport. should become a new source of employ Alaska's state legislature has appro ment for American shipping and Amer priated money to fund a feasibility study ican workers." Hovercraft like this may soon be operating in Alaska on experimental basis. If on the use of hovercraft. But, since the The SIU has traditionally encouraged the experiments are successful, the U.S. will probably see clear to establish a vessels are not built in the U.S., the state and prepared for the newest technolog hovercraft industry for America. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiniiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiinMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniininiiiHiiiiitiitiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinimiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiniimiiiiiimiiiiiiiimiimiiiii In 1973, the SIUNA helped to set up the Ad Hoc Committee on Maritime Industry Problems. Since then, this Committee, which is made up of representatives from all the major maritime unions, has worked with a degree of success on legislation and in smoothing out jurisdictional and other disputes among the unions themselves. The SIU-AGLIWD has also taken two important steps in strengthen ing our own organization by the mergers with the Inland Boatmen's Union of the Atlantic and Gulf in 1975 and the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union Paul Hall pi two months ago. A more recent development toward consolidation of maritime unions has been the move by the SUP and the MFU to merge. These two SIUNA affiliates have also jointly invited the IBU of the Pacific to merge with them. Everything Is Secondary to Jobs The SIUNA and NMU have set up dual committees to study the Maritime labor has traditionally been regarded, and rightly so, as among possibility of a future merger. the hardest working segments of the labor movement concerning contracts, These mergers and proposals of merger represent real progress. Such organizing and legislation. actions would have been impossible a few short years ago. But up until a few years ago, maritime labor in at least one respect was I believe that the groundwork the SIUNA has helped to form in this area operating with an albatross around its neck. has not only strengthened our union, but it has provided a whole new That albatross, plain and simple, was the inability of maritime unions to atmosphere of cooperatipn.and brotherhood throughout the maritime labor work together with any degree of consistency. movement. This basic deficiency in the movement has its roots in the 1930's when Despite these advancements in intra-union relations, maritime labor still maritime labor really grabbed hold in this country. has a long way to go in the area of total cooperation. The differences between the unions and the people involved were very Presently, there are approximately 27 unions representing seagoing real, and at the time some of them were legitimate. American workers in the deep sea, inland and Great Lakes sectors. In some cases, the differences were political, philosophical, geographic The goal of all these organizations is the protection of the jobs and job and economic. In other cases, the people involved simply didn't like each security of their respective memberships. However, in the U.S. maritime other and allowed these personality feuds to keep the movement industry—an industry that is admittedly in trouble and in some respects fragmented. shrinking—there are bound to be disputes, jurisdictional, contractual or At that time though, the unions felt that they could afford the luxury of otherwise. keeping to themselves. The U.S. merchant marine had more ships and more The real test will be labor's ability to resolve these disputes quickly and jobs for seamen than any other fleet of the world. * intelligently when they arise. Failure to resolve them adequately, though, But things are drastically different today. The U.S. merchant fleet has will not only damage the immediate unions involved, but could have serious dropped from 3,000 ships to 500. And our ranking among the world fleets implications for the rest of the industry. has fallen from first to tenth. There is too much at stake for maritime labor to become bogged down in On top of this, the U.S. flag is facing the stiffest competition ever from unnecessary problems. foreign national lines and the growing flag-of-convenience fleets. And there Despite the troubled waters our industry is in, there remains a great is an increasingly hostile attitude toward many maritime issues in the U.S. potential for it to improve. But the burden of fostering these improvements Congress. lies squarely on the shoulders of maritime labor. In other words, the U.S. maritime industry is not in good shape. Maritime By pooling our resources and by simply working together, I sincerely labor recognizes this. But more importantly, the unions recognize that we believe that maritime labor possesses the ability to turn our industry around can no longer afford to work alone, or much worse, work against each other. and start to bring it back to its former level of greatness. There is no question that maritime labor has been making a sincere effort It all depends on the movement's ability to avoid petty differences and to shed the difference of the past. And I'm proud to say that the SIUNA has personality clashes and concentrate on the truly important issues. After all, led the way in trying to bring together a coalition of maritime unions to work what it really all comes down to is jobs—jobs on ships, jobs on tugs and jobs together on important issues. in shipyards. Everything else is secondary. iiiiiuiiiuiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiuiiit!iiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiji IllillllllllUIIIII Change of address cards on Form 3579 should be sent to Seafarers International Union, Atlantic, Gulf Lakes and Inland Waters District. AFL-CIO 675 Fourth Aw Rmnkiun IM v 11232. Published

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