West Coast Sailors

November 2022

Just as the midterm elections brought change to Washington, Matson Navigation signed a deal for three new Aloha-class containerships to be built in Philadelphia. Intense objection and scrutiny came from Congress over the recent Department of Homeland Security waiver of the Jones Act in Puerto Rico. The SUP celebrated the historic wartime contributions of members and U.S. merchant mariners on Veterans Day and wishes everyone at sea and ashore a Happy Thanksgiving.     

October 2022

After all the hardship and pain of the pandemic, SUP members approved a raise and a new Agreement with APL. This issue breaks down the issues and the outcome, providing detail on the bargaining and the benefits. Pensioners get their own recognition and the fight goes on. The Garamendi cargo preference bill is analyzed as well as the predatory Jones Act disaster waiver process. A new study finds long-time Union members earn more on average than college graduates and the 28th Convention of the SIUNA gets some ink. That and more in the October issue of the West Coast Sailors.  

September 2022

SUP sailors in coastwise meetings voted for a strike resolution as negotiations continued with American President Lines. Warning that worsening conditions and declining pay was unacceptable, especially as the profits of shipping companies soared while essential workers struggled. The resolution does not mean sailors are walking off their ships, or necessarily going on strike, but it is a strong endorsement to streamline the procedure in favor of fast action. Meanwhile, the supply-chain rail unions seek deal ratification, China resumed lockdowns and Hurricane Fiona flooded Puerto Rico.

August 2022

The world's biggest container lines are in general on course to post remarkable profits in 2022, amid ongoing pandemic buying and a logistical squeeze. Recruitment difficulties in the U.S. military are highlighted in this issue as a window on the competitive labor market and the AFL-CIO calls out corporate execs on the negative effects of excessive pay. President Biden seals a string of victories with the Inflation Reduction Act and the Coast Guard honors the life-saving efforts of the SUP crew in CMA-CGM Herodote.

July 2022

At its Convention, America's unions made the Jones Act a keystone feature of its support for maritime working families. Meanwhile, the SUP remembered Bloody Thursday, and throughout the supply chain tense negotiations continued. Ukraine is the latest excuse for attacks on cargo preference and a foreign gas trader's Jones Act waiver request. Matson commits to LNG fuel on an indefinite schedule and a Spanish galleon is "discovered" off the coast of Oregon while SUP crews do the impossible on a daily basis.    

June 2022

Delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention this month elected the Federation's first woman president, and Fred Remond became the first African-American Secretary-Treasurer. The unsung heroes of World War II, the U.S. merchant mariners who delivered the war-fighting gear necessary to defeat fascism, got more official recognition via a Congressional Gold Medal. The ILWU contract with West Coast terminal operators was set to expire without a new contract but neither side expected any immediate action. Meanwhile, Jones Act battles flared as labor took up new defense of the nation's cabotage laws. 

May 2022

The SUP honors on Memorial Day the merchant mariners who made the ultimate sacrifice in the nation's wars, celebrates them again on Maritime Day, and calls attention to their hazardous workplace on Workers Memorial Day. Coastwise negotiations for a new longshore agreement began in San Francisco between the ILWU and the PMA, two senators raided the rules that reserve a portion of the U.S. Food for Peace program for American ships and mariners.

April 2022

Shanghai and other Chinese ports locked down on an Omicron surge that caused new delays, diversions and disruption to shipping across the trans-Pacific trade. This issue also reports on the outrageous mass firing of British ferry workers and the stranding and endangerment of seafarers stranded by war in Ukraine. Together with the Transportation Trades Dept of the AFL-CIO, the SUP put forth a new maritime policy that will grow the U.S.-flag fleet and strengthen the supply chain. West Coast longshore negotiations are set to begin in May and Congressman Don Young is remembered. 

March 2022

The Russian invasion of Ukraine launched a brutal land war that killed thousands, many of them civilians and forced a refugee crisis. This issue reports on the high alert and logistical demands for NATO and the attacks on merchant shipping. The federal budget passed Congress with merchant mariners support and a key supply chain study found that U.S.-flag ships strengthen American resilience.

February 2022

As war loomed and then broke out in Eastern Europe, cynical shipping interests hatched another dangerous plot to undermine American mariners via a "runaway flag" U.S. Virgin Islands ship registry. This issue covers the strong objection of American maritime labor as well the elemental failing of the rotten FOC system. SUP sailors went up the gangway in the APL Dakar, secured the work in the Watson-class ships, Kamokuiki arrived in Tonga, the SUP election concluded, that and much more in the February WCS.  

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