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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
Matson Navigation Company?s fourth new vessel in three years was delivered to the company from her builder, Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, on July 12.
In response to the U.S. government?s proposal to issue Transportation Workers? Identification Credentials and the Coast Guard?s proposal to issue Merchant Mariners? Credentials to replace Merchant Mariner?s Documents, SUP Vice President Dave Connolly testified before representatives of the Department of Homeland Security?s Transportation Security Agency and the Coast Guard at a public hearing in Long Beach, California, on June 7, giving the Sailors? Union?s views on the regulatory changes.
Company officials informed the Sailors? Union on May 5, that it had entered into a long-term bareboat charter arrangement to acquire three U.S.-built Double Eagle class tankers. The Company intends to operate the ships in the Jones Act trade with SUP crews in all three unlicensed departments.
United States merchant mariners won a historic victory this month when Congress stripped language from the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2005 (H.R. 889) that would have permitted the unlimited use of foreign nationals to perform maintenance and repair work in U.S.-flag vessels in the international trades.