Seafarers Log
Ongoing Relief Efforts As our relief efforts for Puerto Rico continue, I thank every individual and every organization that has stepped up. While the earthquake-induced damage in the territory is extensive, so too are the collective responses of labor and management. We’re committed to helping, as much as possible for…
Seafarers Log
Last year, the percentage of wage and salary workers who were members of unions in the United States – the union membership rate – was 10.3 percent, down by 0.2 percentage point from 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Jan. 22 in its 2019 Union Members Summary.…
Seafarers Log
An international team of maritime heavyweights recently travelled to Australia and urged the government to save its shipping industry through sound, time-tested policy. SIU Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel was one of six panelists who testified Feb. 6 before the Australian Senate’s Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee. Heindel also…
Seafarers Log
Trumka: ‘A Win for Workers Everywhere’ AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called it “the most significant step Congress has taken to strengthen labor laws in the United States in 85 years and a win for workers everywhere.” The U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 6 passed the Protecting the Right to…
Seafarers Log
The SIU is mourning the passing of retired Port Agent Ed Kelly, who died of natural causes Feb. 3 in Houston. He was 78. Kelly, who came from a long line of Seafarers (including his father and five uncles, one of whom was a charter member), began working for the…
Seafarers Log
Laura Paulina Vega, daughter of Cook/ Baker Robin Palmer and Retired Electrician David Vega, recently completed her education with the help of a Seafarers Health and Benefits Plan (SHBP) scholarship awarded to her in 2014. Vega recently sent a letter of thanks to SIU headquarters. “Many students do not get…
Seafarers Log
The SIU and numerous allies have stepped up in a big way to help people in Puerto Rico who are recovering from a series of earthquakes that struck the territory beginning late last year. The union has facilitated collection, transportation and delivery of donated relief items as small as handheld…