West Coast Sailors

May 2007

Ending more than thirty years of declining tonnage under its house flag, Chevron Shipping Company embarked on a new era in its long history as its newest tankship ?the Mississippi Voyager? loaded refined product at Richmond Long Wharf and sailed for Barber?s Point, Hawai?i.

April 2007

A top Homeland Security Department, testifying before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on April 12, could not assure lawmakers that a congressional deadline will be met to begin issuing Transportation Worker Identification Credentials for maritime workers.

March 2007

The implementation phase of the Transportation Workers? Identification Credential, or TWIC, is imminent.

February 2007

IMO Sub-committee initiates new competences and seatime requirements for unlicensed mariners.

January 2007

In another development that will forever change the credentialing of the United States? maritime workforce, the Transportation Security Administration released an advance copy of the Final Rule in the rulemaking that will establish the Transportation Workers? Identification Card or TWIC.

December 2006

A hole was blown in San Francisco?s formerly solid Union waterfront when the federal government recently awarded the contract for the ferry run to Alcatraz Island to a non-Union company.

November 2006

According to a recently released General Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must address and solve key challenges before implementing the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program.

October 2006

On September 30, the Senate passed and on October 13, President Bush signed into law the Security and Accountability for Every Port (SAFE Port) Act of 2006 (H.R. 4954)

September 2006

After an absence of 29 years, SUP-contracted American President Lines resumed U.S.-flag liner service to the East Coast with the arrival of the C-10 class vessel President Adams at Port Newark Container Terminal, New Jersey, on August 27.

August 2006

Just prior to the Congress recessing for a month, Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) added language to the pension reform bill that exempts U.S.-flag operators from paying the 50 percent ad valorem duty on equipment purchase abroad for repairs made in U.S.-flag vessels by U.S. mariners outside of the United States.

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