The Iranian Revolutionary Guard seized an offshore supply vessel on July 31, adding to tensions in the Gulf of Hormuz.
West Coast Sailors
The full House of Representatives passed its version of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act on an unprecedented strictly party-line vote.
On Saturday, June 15 in San Diego, the General Dynamics shipyard NASSCO christened and launched the merchant ship Lurline on June 15.
A wide array of protestors launched marches, rallies, demonstrations around the world on May 1, the day designated for many decades as International Workers’ Day.
Senators and Representatives have urged their colleagues to support the Maritime Security Program.
Two sets of hearings in both the House and Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. on March 6, highlighted the critical nature of existing legislation, government funding and program support for maritime interests as both a vital American industry and a national defense asset.
The triennial election of officers of the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific –via secret, mail balloting over a two-month period– concluded on February 1, with the tallying of ballots and the certification of the election by UniLect, the Impartial Balloting Agent selected by the membership at the November 2018 Union meetings.
The Military Cargo Preference Act of 1904 is crucial to the survival of the U.S. Merchant Marine. The law provides that only U.S.-flag ships “may be used for the transportation by sea of supplies bought for” the military services, thereby providing an essential base of preference cargo that sustains the private U.S.-flag fleet in times of peace.
Continuing its initiative to force American President Lines from the Guam trade in order to regain its monopoly, Matson Navigation Company on November 7, filed suit in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia against the Maritime Administration to stop the agency from making Maritime Security Program payments for the APL Guam and APL Saipan,
SUP-contracted Matson Navigation Company has launched its new direct U.S. flag service between Honolulu and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (“RMI”), reducing cargo transit times to the RMI from the U.S. mainland by as many as eight days.
Among the Union's objectives is "to support a journal which shall voice the sentiments of the seafaring class, and through its columns seek to maintain the knowledge of and interest in maritime affairs." The first issue of the West Coast Sailors, in June of 1937, noted that "Common sense, fearlessly applied, brings success to a Union."