The SIU and the Seafarers International Union of Canada last month approved a joint resolution aimed at protecting mariners’ rights while respecting the modern-day realities of port security requirements. During mid-June meetings in Montreal between the SIU’s Atlantic, Gulf, Lakes and Inland Waters District/NMU and the SIU of Canada—affiliated through the Seafarers Interational Union of North America—officials from both unions carefully put together a statement that will serve as a guidepost for the SIU in the months and years ahead, particularly with respect to impending new requirements for mariner credentials.
Among other points, the SIU asserts that the United States and Canada should recognize and accept the two countries’ respective mariner identifications. This is an important and fair step in light of the elimination of crew-list visas, which have been utilized for many years to facilitate shore leave for merchant mariners.
Passed on June 16, the joint resolution notes that tighter security requirements inevitably have evolved since September 11, 2001. “The Seafarers International Union and its members, by the very nature of the work we do, have been at the forefront of these efforts to resist and to prevent acts of terrorism from spreading through international and domestic trade routes,” the unions declared. “However, mariners have also been among the most profoundly affected by the international focus on frontier and border security. For these reasons, the Seafarers International Union has determined that it is essential in the best interest of its members and mariners worldwide and in order to further the battle against international terrorism to adopt the present resolution.”
The resolution notes that the International Maritime Organization (IMO), through recent amendments to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, “has reviewed measures and procedures to prevent acts of terrorism which threaten the security of passengers and crews and the safety of the ships by issuing revised measures specifically designed to enhance maritime security.”
The unions further point out that the implementation of the ISPS Code in July 2004 requires ships and ports to apply a series of specific measures to ensure the security of vessels and port facilities and to provide a standardized, consistent framework for evaluating security risks. This standardized framework is designed to permit governments to respond to perceived threat levels and vulnerability for ships and port facilities through determination of appropriate security levels and corresponding security measures.
Providing additional important background, the resolution notes “that in addition to the revision of the ISPS Code, various governments expressed an urgent need to revise ILO Convention C108, Seafarers Identification Documents (SID), first adopted in 1958 and ratified by 64 countries. As a result of this expressed need, in its Conference held in London in December 2002, the IMO adopted a series of amendments to update and reinforce the security value of the SID; that the revised SID will clearly demonstrate that the holder is a genuine Seafarer and ensure that a Seafarer’s identity can be verified positively and that adoption of the revised SID would, if widely adopted by Contracting Governments, permit Seafarers to maintain a fair and essential freedom of movement in the normal conduct of their profession, while contributing to the maintenance of heightened security norms.”
The General Conference of the ILO adopted the revised Convention during its Ninety-first session in June 2003 as C185, but very few countries have ratified it, including the United States, Canada and Great Britain.
The SIU joint resolution continues as follows:
“Considering the continuous and difficult struggle of both American and Canadian Seafarers to cross the U.S.-Canada border in this era of heightened border security; and given that the barriers have become so great that in numerous instances Seafarers are being completely denied access to the neighboring territory, and this simply because there is no generally accepted and easily available set of identity documents;
“Considering that as long as seafarers have gone to sea, shore leave has been a cherished right; that vessels could not be manned should shore leave not be granted; and given that the livelihoods of many American and Canadian seafarers are presently at stake as a result of the absence of an agreed and efficient system of providing identity documents;
“Considering that there have been important revisions to passport and visa requirements for Seafarers in North America and elsewhere; that there is not presently an all-encompassing maritime worker identity verification and background check system that is generally recognized by both Governments; and that neither the SIU AGLIWD nor the SIU of Canada is favorable to the present obligation imposed on their members to obtain passports and visas in order to have access to shore leave;
“Considering that the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) may be the solution to the problem of establishing generalized and systematized identification criteria;
“The Seafarers International Union, representing both its American and Canadian districts, hereby:
“RESOLVES through each District to lobby their respective Governments in order to secure the establishment as rapidly as is reasonably possible of uniform North American regulations governing Seafarer identification, whether through the North American implementation of TWIC rules or some similar protocol; that these uniform regulations would involve a collateral agreement between Washington and Ottawa with the objective of permitting Seafarers secure access to North American ports and the territory of both the U.S. and Canada based on this uniform identity documentation;
“RESOLVES that whatever form this uniform identity document will take, whether as a TWIC document or otherwise, that it will conform to the following principles: (a) that it be recognized and accepted throughout the United States and Canada; (b) that it establish uniform requirements and conditions for Seafarers, whether based in the U.S. or Canada; (c) that it impose fair and reasonable requirements on Seafarers who seek to obtain the identity document in question; (d) that the document respect, to the extent consistent with security needs, the fundamental rights, liberties and privacy of the holders of such identity document; and (e) that the document in question ensure the freedom of movement, including complete shore leave access to those Seafarers who obtain the documentation in question.
“RESOLVES to undertake all actions consistent with the law, to ensure that the maritime union movement takes its proper and essential role in the protection of transport security worldwide and participates fully, together with government and industry in the war on terrorism.”
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