Local 333: One Union! Table of Contents the Master, Mate & Pilot Is the Official Vol

Vol. 50, No. 6 Nov. – Dec. 2014 The International Marine Division of ILA/AFL-CIO Official Voice of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots MM&P – Local 333: One Union! Table of Contents The Master, Mate & Pilot is the official Vol. 50, No. 6 November - December 2014 voice of the International Organization Letter From the President 1 of Masters, Merger with ILA Local 333 offers MM&P a strong foundation for the future in a year Mates & Pilots marked by the impending break-up and sale of long-time employer Horizon Lines. (International Marine Division of the ILA), AFL-CIO. © 2014 IOMMP. News Briefs 2 The Master, Mate & Pilot Members vote to approve merger creating the new MM&P Atlantic Maritime Group; (ISSN 0025-5033) is published bimonthly by the International budget appropriates full funding for Maritime Security Program; awards for heroism Organization of Masters, Mates to Sandy Hook Pilots’ vessels New York and America, Matson’s MV Manukai & Pilots. MM&P Headquarters: and MSC’s USNS Richard E. Byrd; crew of Alaska State Ferry Malaspina rescues 700 Maritime Blvd., Suite B, Linthicum Heights, MD man as boat sinks; MM&P pledges to protect members’ interests in MSC Norfolk 21090-1953. consolidation; Medical Services Officer chronicles Ebola training exercise aboard Phone: (410) 850-8700 USNS Carl Brashear; officers and crew of Maersk Idaho and Maersk Kentucky E-mail: [email protected] Internet: www.bridgedeck.org provide help to children’s homes in Sri Lanka. Periodicals Postage Paid at Elkridge, MD and additional MM&P Health & Benefit Plans 18 offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Master, Increase in pensioner earnings limitation for health coverage; new investment Mate & Pilot, 700 Maritime options for 401(k) and IRAP plans. Blvd., Suite B, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090-1953 Don Marcus MM&P Pensioners 22 Chairman, Editorial Board Lisa Rosenthal Communications Director News From MITAGS 23 INTERNATIONAL OFFICERS Congressman Elijah Cummings calls for increased efforts to educate nation’s Don Marcus, President Steven Werse, Secretary-Treasurer legislators about the importance of the U.S.-flag fleet to our nation’s economy and security. VICE PRESIDENTS David H. Boatner, Offshore Pacific Wayne Farthing, Offshore Gulf MM&P Scholarships 24 Don Josberger, Offshore Atlantic C. Michael Murray, United Inland Profiles of the winners of the 2014-15 scholarships awarded to eligible dependents George A. Quick, Pilots of eligible members of the MM&P Offshore Group. Randall H. Rockwood, FEMG MM&P Directory 25 Cross’d the Final Bar 29 Printed on recycled paper using Thank You Contributors to the PCF! 31 vegetable-based inks and 100% wind power. Vol. 50, No. 6 Nov. – Dec. 2014 The International Marine Division of ILA/AFL-CIO About the Cover Connect with Us! Facebook.com/IOMMP Full steam ahead. MM&P is on Facebook, Twitter Official Voice of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots MM&P Atlantic and YouTube. Like us. Follow @MMP_Union us. Re-post and re-tweet. Every Maritime Group is time you do, you help MM&P MastersMatesPilots born after members of build an essential online MM&P and ILA Local community of members and allies. Connect with us today. And 333 vote “yes” on merger. if you have news or photos you want to share with everyone, MM&P – Local 333: One Union! send us an e-mail at: [email protected]. FROM THE PRESIDENT Loss and Opportunity Loss and opportunity may well be the bywords for MM&P others. We will make every legal effort to during the last quarter of 2014. Most striking and disturbing was maintain MM&P jobs aboard the vessels that the long anticipated sell off of Horizon Lines. The hope that the are transferred to new owners and to secure company might survive as a West Coast carrier to Hawaii and our contract rights aboard vessels that are Alaska ended with the Nov. 11 announcement of its impending laid-up. sale. The loss of Horizon Lines does not diminish As reported to the public, the company is to be sold off in the magnitude of the opportunity that has two parts. First, The Pasha Group is slated to acquire Horizon’s at the same time arisen in the form of the Hawaii ships and assets. Matson Inc. is then expected to acquire coming merger into MM&P of ILA Local all remaining assets, including Horizon’s Alaska vessels. 333. Thanks to the successful outcome Horizon Lines service between Puerto Rico and the East Coast of the democratic process and months of effort on the part of the is scheduled to terminate by the end of December 2014. Many leadership of both organizations, a 1300-member-strong group of details, including regulatory approval for the sale of the Hawaii tug, ferry and harbor tour vessel mariners, based mostly in New assets, were pending when this issue of The Master, Mate & Pilot York Harbor and the Northeast, will join our ranks. went to press. For this reason Horizon’s West Coast operations The advent of the new MM&P Atlantic Maritime Group will are expected to continue through much of 2015. As might be give our union an inland/coastal presence on the East Coast expected with a transaction of this complexity, numerous hurdles similar to what we enjoy with our United Inland Group on the must be overcome before the deal can be completed. West Coast and the Great Lakes. Our combined organization will As reported to our Offshore membership aboard Horizon be larger, stronger and enhanced with a greater base of mariners, vessels and ashore, MM&P has met with the company in both licensed and unlicensed, to serve as a foundation for the conjunction with the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association future. (MEBA). We have submitted formal demands to the company to A warm welcome goes out to the new MM&P Atlantic bargain over the effects of the decision and to obtain information Maritime Group members who have put their faith in our that we are contractually entitled to regarding the details of organization. At the same time we salute the current MM&P the pending sale. Paramount, of course, is protecting our members who recognized in this merger the opportunity to rights under the Sales & Transfers provisions of our collective grow our union and expand the opportunities available to bargaining agreement. all concerned. We welcome Ron Tucker as the new Atlantic There is little comfort in all of this for the MM&P members Maritime Group Vice President and the newest member of our who have sailed aboard Horizon Lines vessels during the last ten General Executive Board. We also welcome former Local 333 years. A “thank you for a job well done” will not be forthcoming Delegates Paul Roura, Mike Riordan and Rich Russo, who as from the shareholders who walk away with what is left of MM&P representatives will continue their work in New York Horizon Lines after the company’s many sea-going and shore- Harbor and the Northeast. side jobs disappear. Particular recognition is due our rank and file Field What should not be forgotten is that the professionalism, Representative Kyle Grant, Secretary-Treasurer Steve Werse, economic sacrifice and dedication to duty of our members and Atlantic Ports Vice President Don Josberger and Chief of Staff the other shipboard union workers undoubtedly put off the Klaus Luhta. Without their dedication and the support of many company’s demise by at least two years. Our members and the others in our organization, this merger would not have become a other mariners aboard Horizon vessels should take pride in the reality. exemplary way in which they carried out their jobs under the While challenged by the loss of Horizon Lines and our most difficult circumstances: through multiple sales that gutted decades-long service to Puerto Rico, MM&P is by no means the company of equity and saddled it with debt, illegal price- losing steam. In Congress, the authorized $186 million for the fixing that drained it of capital and a succession of business Maritime Security Program (MSP) has been budgeted for fiscal decisions that bordered on fantasy. year 2015. This effort and the effort to increase funding for It is truly lamentable that the successor to what was once the the program are both ongoing and will continue into the new proud and innovative Sea-Land Service Inc. is now on its final Congress. The efforts of Jim Patti and MIRAID, our legislative voyage. office in Washington, D.C., have been crucial in the successes we MM&P will assert all of our rights under our collective have achieved in this arena. bargaining agreement to the fullest extent possible. Further, as has been proven over many decades of ups and downs, our continued on page 2 membership will overcome this challenge as we have countless The Master, Mate & Pilot - 1 - November - December 2014 NEWS BRIEFS Crew of Alaska State Ferry Malaspina Rescues Man as Fishing Boat Sinks The crew of the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) ferry Malaspina rescued a fisherman from a boat that sank off British Columbia in the early morning hours of Oct. 18. Two other fishermen missing in the accident are presumed to have died. The MM&P members aboard the Malaspina at the time were Captain Scott Macaulay, Pilot Gabriel Baylous, Chief Mate Dave Turner and Mates Gary Homan, Shane Begley and Paul Kerber. The fishing boat, Atlantic Harvester 1, capsized for unknown reasons and quickly sank in the icy water. The two missing men had disappeared before the Malaspina arrived on the scene. “Their boat rolled over and sank so fast that there was nothing we could do for them,” Macaulay said.

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