Reprinted from past issues of the Seafarers LOG.1949
Certified by the NLRB as collective bargaining agent for nine Cities Service Oil Company tankers, the SIU immediately called upon the company to enter negotiations for a contract covering the company’s unlicensed personnel. The contract will culminate two years of effort by the SIU to obtain union wages, conditions and security for Cities Service seamen.
The company began firing crew members by the shipload at the end of each voyage as the election drew near, but the replacements hired recognized the need for union representation and voted for the SIU. The company’s attitude was scored by the NLRB: “… it ill behooves the employer to file objections stemming principally from its own recalcitrance.”
1973
With anti-U.S.-flag merchant marine interests stepping up their efforts to weaken and destroy the Jones Act, the SIU has called for vigilance in preserving the law that restricts domestic shipping to vessels of American registry. Government agencies and members of Congress are being increasingly peppered with requests from various interests seeking waivers of the Jones Act that would permit them to bring foreign-flag ships into domestic operations.
Since the sharpening of the energy crisis over the past few months, requests for Jones Act waivers have been based on the deception that the fuel situation would be eased by permitting foreign-flag fuel carriers to operate between U.S. ports.
1992
Seafarers are answering their nation’s call to duty again as they crew vessels headed to the East African nation of Somalia. At the request of the United Nations, U.S. military forces are leading an international effort to bring food and peace to the war-ravaged nation. Two years of civil war as well as many more years of famine and drought have caused an estimated 600,000 people to die. As of Dec. 24, a total of 17 SIU-crewed vessels were involved in the relief effort.
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