In this issue...
OSG announces plans for additional newbuilds...Armada needs port engineer...Employee Free choice act moves...MMD Consolidation update...Operators are standing by! In a wireless, long distance edition, we let you off the hook and drop you a line with a perfect connection of hands-free industry items on hold. Don't make a bad call and get hung-up on wrong-number, rotary newsletters that "phone it in." Hello? Let your fingers do the walking and dial up the toll-free Telex Times for the maritime 4-1-1. Now you're talking!

OSG ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR UP TO SIX ADDITIONAL JONES ACT TANKERS
President Ron Davis announced that M.E.B.A. members will be crewing a slew of newbuild tankers newly ordered by Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. OSG reached an agreement in principle, this week, in which Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, subsidiary of Aker American Shipping ASA, will construct up to six Veteran Class MT-46 Jones Act product tankers (three fixed plus three options). These ships are in addition to the OSG 10-tanker order announced in April 2005 that Aker will complete by 2010.

“This is great news for M.E.B.A. members who will ship out on these world-class vessels of the future,” said MEBA President Ron Davis.

The first of the class in the original ten-ship order, the recently-completed OVERSEAS HOUSTON, is already crewed with M.E.B.A. officers. That ship is scheduled for delivery to Shell and should begin service by the end of the month. The second ship in that series will be completed by mid-2007. Work has already commenced on the third vessel.

The new agreement for the additional six vessels is subject to approval by the Boards of Directors of OSG and Aker American Shipping. Upon completion, the vessels would be transferred to American Shipping Corporation, which would bareboat charter them to subsidiaries of OSG for initial terms of 10-15 years.

In addition, OSG has also announced that a time charter agreement has been signed between OSG and BP for one or more of the 46,000 dwt Jones Act commercial product tankers being built at Aker. To date, nine of the initial ten vessels have signed time charters in place.

PETER FINNERTY, SHANNON WALL, DEAD
Peter Finnerty, a maritime industry presence for years and former Sea-Land executive died yesterday at his home in Florida yesterday. Also, crossing the final bar was 87-year old Shannon Wall, former president of the National Maritime Union. Finnerty was the former vice-president of Sea-Land Service and of late was President of American Ocean Enterprises, Inc. and American International Car Carrier, Inc. with over forty years of experience in the maritime industry. He was once the president of the National Propeller Club. He died of a massive heart attack.

Shannon Wall died at his home in Sequim, WA from natural causes on Feb. 2. He was president of the maritime union from 1973 to 1990.

ARMADA SEEKS M.E.B.A. PORT ENGINEER
Armada Companies, LLC is seeking to place a Port Engineer (Technical Superintendent) with a cruise ship operator based in Miami, Florida. The ideal candidate would have a Chief Engineers’ License with passenger/cruise ship experience. Port Engineer experience is a plus. Other qualifications will also be considered.

The individual would be an employee of M.E.B.A.-contracted Armada Companies and work as a contract employee for the cruise ship operator. Full M.E.B.A. benefits and plan coverage are provided through Armada’s collective bargaining agreement with the Union. The length of assignment is “full-time permanent.”

For further information and to submit a résumé contact James Freeman at (707) 762-7455 or james.freeman@armadacompanies.com.

CONGRESS GETS EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT MOVING
The labor–friendly “Employee Free Choice Act” got plenty of support from unions in the last session of Congress but made little headway with a Republican controlled legislative agenda. This week, the bill was reintroduced and a House subcommittee staged a hearing on the measure on Thursday. H.R. 800, also referred to as the “Card Check Bill” has been placed as a priority in this Democrat-led Congress.

The bill has 230 co-sponsors attached to it – all but two are Democrats. The Employee Free Choice Act seeks to level the playing field for workers by establishing stronger penalties for violations of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations; Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes, and allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.

According to National Labor Relations Board figures, last year 70,000 workers tried to form unions unsuccessfully.

The House Education and Labor Committee's Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions heard from a variety of witnesses on Thursday regarding the bill. Workers told the Subcommittee about their personal stories of the serious abuses committed against them by their employers when they attempted, along with their co-workers, to form a union to bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

They said companies routinely harass, coerce and threaten workers to keep them from forming unions, and the law is helpless to stop it. One out of five union activists are likely to be fired when they try to form unions, according to a new study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

At a Capitol Hill news conference, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney stated, “The benefits of workers uniting to bargain for a better life are clear – that’s why more than half of workers -- 60 million -- who don’t already have a union say they would join one today if given the chance,” Sweeney said. “Yet far too few working people ever get that chance. The current system for forming unions and bargaining is badly broken.”

MSP, P.L. 480 BUDGET REQUEST NEWS
On February 6, 2007, President Bush sent his budget request to Congress for Fiscal Year 2008. His request includes a number of items that affect that maritime industry, with two items in particular requiring M.E.B.A. attention: the Maritime Security Program appropriation and the monetization of 25% of the P.L. 480 Title II Food for Peace Program.

As part of an overall strategy to reduce the cost of his budget, the MSP fell victim to a 1% cut that affected an assortment of different programs throughout the budget. When Congress reauthorized the MSP in 2003, the stipend per ship increased to $2.6 million and the size of the fleet increased to 60 vessels. Full funding for the program is $156 million. However, the President’s budget request asks for $154.45 million for the program for FY 2008. M.E.B.A. will work with our friends in Congress to ensure that MSP is fully funded when the House and Senate agree on final appropriations.

The President has requested that a quarter of the P.L. 480 Title II Food for Peace program funding be given directly to designated countries in the form of cash payments, rather than actual food grown in the United States and carried on U.S.-flag vessels. Thanks to the hard work of a broad coalition that included maritime, agriculture and the private voluntary organizations that administer food programs across the world, M.E.B.A. has been able to stop similar efforts in the past, and we expect to defeat this proposal again this time.

COAST GUARD AMENDS MERCHANT MARINER DOCUMENT CONSOLIDATION PROPOSAL
The Coast Guard recently issued a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRM) that outlines changes made to an original proposal to consolidate the current system of merchant mariner documents into a single merchant mariner credential. The changes in the SNPRM include a number of suggestions made by M.E.B.A. and others in maritime labor.

Briefly, the original proposal was to consolidate all of the current merchant mariner documents – namely the Merchant Mariner Document (Z-card), License, STCW endorsement and Certificate of Registry – into a single document that would be used in conjunction with the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC). The supplemental proposal continues that plan, and resolves a number of concerns with the original proposal. Neither of these proposals have been adopted yet and are still subject to change. Some of the changes under the SNPRM include:

• TWIC will be a prerequisite for the issuance of the MMC – In order to qualify for the MMC, you must first be qualified for the TWIC under the proposed rule.

• Coast Guard and TSA will share responsibility for mariner vetting – Under the current system, the Coast Guard handles security and identity vetting for all merchant mariners. Under the proposed rule, the Coast Guard will be responsible for ensuring safety and mariner qualifications, and the TSA will handle security and identity vetting through the TWIC process. The Coast Guard and TSA will work in conjunction to complete background checks for all merchant mariners.

• Mariners no longer need to appear at an REC to obtain their Merchant Mariner Credential – Under the current system, each mariner must visit a Coast Guard REC in order to be fingerprinted. Under the proposed rule, MMCs may be completed by mail. However, a mariner will be required to visit a TSA TWIC enrollment center in order to obtain their TWIC. There are currently 125 TWIC locations planned, as opposed to the 17 RECs.

• Overall number of fees reduced and credit cards accepted – With the consolidation of all of the various credentials combined into one, this will reduce the overall number of fees for qualification documents. Further, the Coast Guard will now be accepting credit cards as an acceptable form of payment for credentials.

• TWIC and MMC applications will be processed simultaneously – This provision was included in the 2006 SAFE Ports Act, and was promoted by maritime labor. This ensure that while the TWIC is a prerequisite, there will not be a large time lag between the processing of a TWIC and the processing of an MMC that would preclude the mariner from working.

• All expiration dates will be consolidated into one overall date – With the consolidation of the various documents, the new MMC will have a single expiration date.

• Removes the one year limitation on renewals – This will allow a mariner to begin the renewal process earlier.

Overall, the bulk of these changes were suggested in whole or part by maritime labor and others in the maritime industry. There are also a number of issues that have not yet been resolved concerning the consolidated MMC including the format of the document, its compliance with ILO-185 and license creep among others. M.E.B.A. and the rest of maritime labor will be working with both the Coast Guard and TSA as both the TWIC and MMC process continue. If the proposed changes in the SNPRM are finalized, they are expected to enter into full force around August 2008. It is expected that the overall consolidation will take 5 years, as current merchant mariner documents will continue to be accepted until they expire.

SYSTEM FOR ADDRESS CHANGES ONLINE REVISED
M.E.B.A. has revised its system for accepting address changes online to make it more secure. Because we are now requiring a signature for validation along with address change info, the webform previously available online has been removed. In its place we have provided a copy of the actual address change form, in either a .pdf or a Word document, that can be printed out by the member or retiree, filled out completely with a signature and returned to Headquarters.

The forms can be mailed or faxed. Those of you with scanners can complete the document add your signature then scan it and e-mail it back to us.

From the main M.E.B.A. webpage (www.meba.us) go to the “Members Only” tab and scroll down to “Address Change.” That will take you to another page with instructions and the link to the actual form.

Those active and retired members who have not received mailings from Headquarters such as the Marine Officer or other important information may want to log onto our website to clarify their address. Because the M.E.B.A. Plans office in Baltimore and Headquarters databases are NOT linked you must also forward a signed change of address form to the Plans Office if you wish to update your information with them.

M.E.B.A. SHIP RECEIVES BRAVO ZULU FROM U.S. NAVY
The crew of a Military Sealift Command oceanographic vessel that located the black box of a downed Indonesian aircraft was recognized by the Navy for an efficient mission. The Horizon-managed vessel USNS MARY SEARS is crewed with M.E.B.A. officers in the engine room and MM&P deck officers. The unlicensed crew is represented by SIU. The Telex Times of January 19th reported the story while the search was ongoing and followed it up in the January 26th edition.

A Boeing 737, operated by Indonesia’s budget airline Adam Air, disappeared from radar screens on New Year’s Day after taking off from the city of Surabaya on Indonesia’s central Java Island. The aircraft ran into bad weather and changed course twice before disappearing from radar screens. The pilot, however, did not issue a distress call. Flight 574, with 102 passengers and crew aboard, had been destined for the city of Manado in Indonesia’s northern Sulawesi Island. Indonesian authorities launched a massive search and rescue operation on both land and sea covering an area the size of South Carolina.

The Indonesian led search effort located no wreckage on land. The government of Indonesia then requested assistance from the United States which led to the reassignment of the Oceanographic Survey Ship USNS MARY SEARS to assist in the search.

On arrival in the search area, the ship used her hull-mounted equipment to search the bottom. Due to water depths in excess of a mile, this equipment was not sensitive enough to distinguish details. The vessel entered a local port and loaded more specialized equipment. USNS MARY SEARS, along with five other T-AGS 60 class vessels in the fleet were designed to be easily and quickly altered to meet the demands of varying mission profiles. Two days after departing with the additional search equipment, the signals from the black boxes were located.

Bravo Zulu is a navy term applied to the message saying “Well Done.” Rear Admiral Burke sent Bravo Zulu for the well-coordinated and executed plan of attack in locating both black boxes from Adam Air flight 574. The crew of MARY SEARS’ ability to quickly and flawlessly shift missions was a direct reflection of its readiness and training. The vessel was recognized for the superb efforts and professionalism of everyone involved.

FOR VALENTINE’S DAY – GET YOUR SWEETIE A BRICK
Could there be a better present for your loved one than a memorial brick on Valentine’s Day? No…there really couldn’t. Even those with no one to love can purchase a brick that will be part of the beautiful new memorial located on Calhoon School grounds in Easton, MD.

M.E.B.A. Merchant Marine Memorial Foundation will be placing the next order for memorial bricks on February 16, 2007. Anyone interested must complete and return a donation form and monies prior to this date. Please place your order now – donations are greatly needed for the maintenance of the park!!

For more information and to obtain the form please visit the School’s website: www.mebaschool.org  and click on “What’s New” or contact Jessica Milligan at (410) 822-9600 ext. 306. The e-mail address is memorial@mebaschool.org.

NEXT REGULAR MONTHLY MEETINGS
Monday March 5 – Boston, Seattle;
Tuesday, March 6 – Baltimore, Houston, Jacksonville, San Francisco;
Wednesday, March 7 - Calhoon M.E.B.A. School, Charleston, New Orleans, Portland;
Thursday, March 8 - Los Angeles, New York, Norfolk, Tampa;
Friday, March 9 - Honolulu.