Speakers at the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department executive board meeting Feb. 24-25 in San Diego were especially strong in backing the Jones Act.Part of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, the Jones Act (named in honor of its author, the late Senator Wesley Jones, R-Wash.) mandates that cargo moving between United States ports is carried on U.S.-crewed, U.S.-flag, U.S.-owned and U.S.-built vessels.
The cross-section of guest speakers – from labor, management and government – offered remarks highlighting numerous benefits stemming from the Jones Act. Those plusses include jobs for U.S. mariners and a boost to America’s national and economic security.
General Norton Schwartz, commander, U.S. Transportation Command, noted that the Jones Act “generates jobs, to be sure, but what it does fundamentally is it maintains the national defense maritime industrial base.”
Captain Robert Johnston, senior vice president of SIU-contracted Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG), told the audience that his company is exploring the possibility of investing in as many as 17 new U.S.-flag ships that would sail in the Jones Act trades.
“We believe we can deliver,” Johnston stated. “We believe you can build the ships in the United States. We also believe you can crew and maintain the ships in the United States.”
But Johnston also pointed out that his company at one point nearly gave up its U.S.-flag fleet. In this case, political action saved the day – Johnston said the SIU and other pro-U.S.-flag interests helped secure fair changes in tax laws that partly enabled OSG and others to keep an American-flag presence.
Now, “We’ve bet $750 million on the Jones Act” in the form of the 10 new tankers being built at Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, he said. “The Jones Act is here to stay. The other thing we’re betting on is well-trained seafarers. The environment that we’re dealing with today is becoming more and more difficult. The quality of the seafarers has to continually improve. We are very happy with what we see.”
Johnston was far from alone in noting the importance of the Jones Act.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) got straight to the point when he said, “Thank goodness the Jones Act is still in place to protect domestic shipping interests – otherwise our economic and national security would be in direct threat. I will always stand to protect the Jones Act and our domestic shipping industry. It may be time to expand the Jones Act.”
U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) pointed to the Jones Act as a potential foundation for an expanded national maritime policy. He said he is carrying the message in Congress that “maritime has to be the number one security interest of this nation. Not just port security, but shipbuilding and a merchant marine owned and operated under the Jones Act must become a fundamental premise of American policy.”
U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) offered a word of thanks to mariners and others in the industry “for keeping it strong despite all the adversity that’s out there. Those of us that believe it’s the people that make our country and our industry strong pledge to you that the Jones Act will be preserved and that we will fight any waivers that are unnecessary.”
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney credited U.S. maritime labor for being “so vigilant about keeping the Jones Act strong and enforced. It just makes common sense to make sure that critical shipping is done by U.S.-built, U.S.-owned and U.S.-crewed vessels. I wish we had similar laws when it comes to our defense industry, our oil industry, airlines and airports and our seaports. They are simply too vital and too critical for any of them to be turned over to foreign nations, even friendly ones.”
An estimated 70 percent of the oceangoing self-propelled vessels in the Jones Act fleet are militarily useful. This is crucial because when American forces defend our interests on foreign soil, 95 percent of the materiel they require moves in ships.
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