The following article was posted by the Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO. SIU President Michael Sacco also is president of the MTD.
The SIU submitted a letter to the White House on this same subject. A PDF copy is available HERE.
MTD, PORT COUNCILS SUPPORT BIDEN’S CALL FOR JONES ACT ON OFFSHORE WINDFARMS
The Maritime Trades Department and its Port Maritime Councils across the United States are sending letters to the White House in support of President Biden’s call for the Jones Act to oversee construction of offshore wind power.
The show of solidarity comes in response to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) letter ruling on March 25 that work on the pristine seabed of the Outer Continental Shelf is not covered under the Jones Act, the nation’s freight cabotage law.
The CBP issued its decision exactly two months to the day of the President’s “Buy American” executive order which specifically included the Jones Act for the future work of offshore renewable energy projects. The ruling also contradicts language in the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act – passed by Congress – calling for offshore windfarm development to be covered by the cabotage law.
In a letter dated April 27, MTD President Michael Sacco wrote Biden urging “your action to correct a March 25 letter ruling by [CBP] that would adversely affect thousands of future American jobs in the offshore windfarm industry.”
Sacco stated MTD convention delegates as far back as 2009 approved a resolution which called for American workers and companies to construct and service such facilities and “do everything within their power to ensure that the cabotage and other federal laws are applied to the development of offshore renewable energy in all respects.”
Joining the MTD in explaining how members from affiliated seafaring, shipbuilding and construction unions would be harmed by the CBP ruling are Port Councils from San Francisco to South Florida, from New Orleans to Cleveland, and ports in between.
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