Anyone who doubts the growth potential of the U.S.-flag fleet should have listened to the heads of Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard (KPS) and NCL America, respectively, as they addressed the Maritime Trades Department convention.KPS CEO and President Dave Meehan and NCL America President and CEO Colin Veitch related separate accounts of two different segments of the maritime industry and two different companies. But the bottom line is the same for both. Working with maritime labor, which provided a skilled manpower pool and critically important political support, two businesses invested in the U.S. maritime industry and won.
In the process, they created employment opportunities for nearly 30,000 American workers, generated hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federal and state tax revenues and added billions more to the national economy.
Both speakers praised the skilled, unionized U.S. workers who helped make it all possible.
MTD President Michael Sacco cited both businesses as prime examples of the excellent progress that has been made since the previous convention four years earlier.
Kvaerner recently announced it will build 10 SIU-contracted double-hulled tankers for the Jones Act fleet with an option for two more such vessels. The five-year effort, known as the Product Tanker Program, is estimated to be worth at least $1 billion. According to recent studies, it will maintain some 800 shipyard jobs at Kvaerner over the next five years and create at least 6,000 related jobs in Philadelphia and nearby communities.
The Product Tanker Program comes in the wake of the three containerships that Kvaerner has built for Matson (a fourth is on the way).
According to Meehan, the project wouldn’t have been possible without the political support of maritime labor.
By working with maritime labor and Pennsylvania politicians like then-Governor Tom Ridge (R) and then-Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell (D), Kvaerner revived the historic Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, which had shut its doors in 1986 at the loss of more than 8,000 local jobs.
Meehan stressed that Kvaerner was willing to take this risk because it knew that as long as the Jones Act, the nation’s freight cabotage law, was on the books, there would be commercial opportunities.
“Like you, we share a strong belief in the Jones Act as an essential part of our nation’s security, and my job and the jobs of those 800 men and women employed at the shipyard depend on the continued existence of the Jones Act in its present form,” he stated.
He also credited all concerned with focusing on their goals rather than on obstacles. “The KPSI story has truly been a joint effort of labor, management and government parties simply refusing to listen to the naysayers, the critics and the prophets of doom,” he said. “As recently as last year at this time, the predictions of our demise were widespread in the industry and certainly throughout the media. And yet, today we find ourselves turning the corner in our journey to long-term stability.”
Half a world away, in Hawaii, there has been a remarkable revival of the U.S.-flag deep sea passenger vessel industry.
Speaking of the recent christening of NCL-America’s SIU-crewed Pride of America, Veitch observed, “This is the revival of the sector of the merchant marine that was completely dead after September 11th. There wasn’t a single U.S.-flag deep sea passenger ship left in existence.”
The 81,000-ton Pride of America is NCL-America’s second U.S.-flag ship, joining the Pride of Aloha, which began inter-island Hawaii cruising in July 2004. The company also plans to add a third vessel to the Hawaii trades starting in 2006.
According to Veitch, the restoration of this industry was made possible by the enactment of legislation introduced by Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), the Hawaii Cruise Ship Initiative. Veitch told delegates to the MTD convention that the project is off to a great start “because we have a partnership” with maritime labor. “We have approached this partnership knowing that if it doesn’t work for you, it won’t work for us.”
Thanking MTD President Michael Sacco and others, Veitch said that the three new U.S.-flag cruise ships mean jobs.
“The [shipboard union] membership will have been expanded significantly; but also shore-side unionized employment will have been expanded,” he observed. “The bulk of new employment from this venture is not on ships. It’s on shore with taxi drivers, hotel workers, tour guides, airport workers, dockworkers—the kinds of people that support the operation of a ship and entertain travelers when they come to take our cruises.”
He also pointed out that NCL America’s parent company is accustomed to working with organized labor. “We have an entirely unionized international fleet,” he noted. “We have had ITF agreements on all of our ships for decades, and so we are not one of the foreign-flag, flag-of-convenience, run-away-from-organized-labor shipping operations. From the outset this is a responsible, upstanding company.”
Additionally, he credited the SIU-affiliated Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education for helping provide vital preparation and schooling for NCL America crews, and further noted that those crews help strengthen U.S. national defense.
“There are not only people serving cocktails and making beds on these ships,” Veitch said. “There are literally hundreds and hundreds of deck and engine officers and ratings. The ready reserve of our nation is significantly strengthened by having that kind of workforce trained and in service.”
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