I just returned from the meetings in DC to finalize the Ships for America Act
AMO and SIU had teams of people there working hard to make sure your best interestest are represented in the Bill.
Meanwhile alledgedly both the MM&P and MEBA presidents were on another IMO United Nations vacation, this time in Marrakesh
They didn’t even send their VP’s or deputies.
THE best opportunity to get more jobs, higher pay, tax breaks and benefits in my lifetime and zero participation
Infuriating
Not only the bill but the Navy is working hard to keep MSC manned so they don’t have to lay up 17 ships. I can’t report details but questions kept coming up about brining in foreign labor. AMO President Willie Barrere was working tirelessly in side meetings to find alternative solutions.
Why are MEBA and MM&P members paying for builings and campuses in and near DC if their leadership doesn’t want to attend critical meetings in DC.
Beyond belief. Keep calling them out. I remember a time when MEBA would be calling for heads but now? Have they morphed into some employment agency for ship owners? Do their members agree to this crap? Has MMP and MEBA been bought?
Classic there in Europe, it’s Octoberfest.
IDK what a union president for domestic container ships, has anything to do with IMO regulations. Probably something under the table stuff.
Was MARAD or USCG there?
I wonder what the Navy’s plan is, I would think they could try the Blue and Gold crew. Like that have most ships already. 6 months on 6months off. They could also put more navy personnel on the ship. Maybe could just run the flight deck for UNREP ships. They also have recruits who could be in Norfolk or San Diego sitting on navy ships.
And if anyone had doubts that Adam is the darling of executive managment watching their bottom lines and not the working man… he’s litterally the Maritime Executive man of the month ``
I read the article and I still don’t understand what he’s accomplished for members. It litterally says he’s struggling to grow the union and that members want better pay but he can’t get that right now.
He could at least pretend to be holding maritime executives accountable for stagnant wages.
This guy is everything Calhoun was not. I do not recognize the current MEBA and wonder about the members. Have they bought into the go along to get along so you won’t be replaced by a foreigner threat?
That’s part of it. The “us vs them” has certainly shifted to US vs foreign but…. Most us flag shipping companies now are owned by foreign companies so that doesn’t entirely explain it
I think it’s a corporate culture thing. Everyone is taught by bug HR departments to be nice, don’t rock the boat and just accept what the corporate overlords tell you. If you don’t follow the script you are “toxic”
It’s only recently that this corporate safetyism culture has permeated our ships and unions.
I still would not want to be in the same building as Harold Daggett or any of his associates but if him & Adam Kovac are the two extremes union members have to choose between I’ll keep negotiating for myself. From JK’s gcaptain editorial.
“When a union leader is celebrated by the very people he’s supposed to be pushing for better wages, benefits, and working conditions, it raises a profound question: whose interests is he really serving?”
"If union members don’t see the oddity of this cover story, it’s time to step outside the bubble and ask: Is MEBA’s leadership fighting for mariners, or for the praise of maritime executives who have been paying U.S. Merchant Mariners stagnant or inflation-adjusted declining wages for decades?
We should be able to find a middle ground. As I said in my article AMO and SIU leadership was at the bill writing workshop in DC fighting for mariner tax breaks and other measures
One of the largest if not THE largest unionized federal employee groups broke with tradition ( not to say all traditions are good) and backed a Republican in 2016. Well, he’s back again and the very people he’s got out front and center supporting the very foundation on which he easily beat that ding dong Kamala, have made themselves one of the easier targets for weakening/eliminating their collective bargaining ability with DC. ICE may not be the greatest Federal job in the US, but I imagine there’s plenty of upward and lateral movement opportunities AND they get paid overtime…. Or at least until they don’t.
this below was from mid 2022. As best as I can tell, they are no longer affiliated with American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) or AFL CIO.
*************
AFGE National ICE Council 118:
This union represents a large portion of ICE employees, including officers, agents, and other staff.
Disaffiliation:
AFGE has initiated the process of disclaiming interest in the ICE council chapter. This means they are seeking to legally separate from this specific union chapter.
Potential Impact:
This disaffiliation could mean that the 7,500 ICE employees currently represented by this union chapter may no longer be covered by a collective bargaining agreement through AFGE, according to the Federal News Network.
Ongoing Process:
The process of disclaiming interest is ongoing, and the exact implications for the union and the affected employees are still unfolding.
If the people at immigration/customs don’t won’t to be associated with the AFL CIO or covered under any collective bargaining agreement they should be allowed to “de-unionize” so to speak and be on their own without union representation.
However for an executive order to be issued not allowing federal employees or employees of federal shipping contractors to be represented by unions such as MMP, AMO and MEBA is illegal until congress changes the labor law in the USA.
Ahhhh, screw it. Who needs congressional voting and congressional procedures supposedly required by law when you can get all your buddies on the Supreme Court (if it even happens to make it past your other buddies on the lower branches/appellate courts) to make it happen for you…. No matter what anybody else says.
And if even Republican congressman complain….. just get it done when they’re out of session. This shit is just tooooo easy.
It is called an autocracy/dictatorship. Same thing happened in the democracy of Germany in 1933, Hungary in 2010, and Turkey in 2003. On paper constitutional democracies but in practice autocracy countenanced by the congress and courts. Why? Money rules. I laugh when people complain about the complete Epstein files not being released. They will never be released because the political donor class for both parties are in them and they control the country.
