In this issue...
Credentials Committee report released...HORIZON FALCON in rescue...CG Commandant addresses discussions on agency split... ATC record safety continues...Watch your language! Using a little English, we Thai up a linguistic edition that accents the latest M.E.B.A. lingo. Don't play Russian roulette with gibberish-speaking, Bohemian newsletters that just don't translate -- they're all Greek to me! Pardon my French - the Telex Times is fluent in the maritime mother-tongue!

CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE COMPLETES REPORT; CANDIDATES ANNOUNCED
A Credentials Committee has produced a report following its scrutiny of nominations for elected positions in the 2007 District No. 1-PCD, MEBA elections. 58 members are vying for 26 positions.

The rank and file Committee, composed of five members elected at the July membership meetings, processed each of the nominations. The Committee consisted of Kevin Nichols (Chairman), Ed Lee, Greg Mansell, Carol Curtiss and Dominic Walsh.

Found qualified to stand for election as President were Ron Davis, Bill Hall, Mike Jewell and Don Keefe. For Secretary-Treasurer, the Committee qualified Thomas A. Cassidy, Paul Krupa, Joseph A. Martucci III and Bill Van Loo. For Branch Agent of New York (Atlantic Coast V.P.) nominees include Kevin Bailey, Bill Campbell, Bill McHugh and Bob Pearl. The list of members vying for Branch Agent of New Orleans (Gulf Coast V.P.) include Dan "The Maverick" Barrett, John Haarmann, Jeff Hauck, Marc Huber and John McCurdy. Found qualified to stand for election for Branch Agent of San Francisco (Executive V.P.) are Mike Blevins, Edward F. MacCormack and Dave Seltzer. Certified to run for Branch Agent of Baltimore are William P. Doyle, Tom "Jake" Jacobs, Bruce Kirkland, Richard E. Mathews, Bryan L. Rusk and Tom Suneson "Sunny." The Credentials Committee validated the following to run for Branch Agent in Houston: Jerry Danneker, M.I. "Moose" Mallini, Donn Reamer and Dana Woodruff. Nominations approved for Branch Agent of Los Angeles are Jim Anderson and Mike Nizetich. Seattle Branch Agent nominees include Claudia G. Cimini, Karol Kingery, Courtney G. Lamm, Mark J. Lund and Bob Seidman.

The two candidates for New York Patrolman are Erik Barton and Chris Guerra. For New Orleans Patrolman, nominations were approved for Wilfred "Wil" Jones, Robert Lee Martin and Joe Spell, II. Patrick D. Anderson and Jim Staats are seeking the position of San Francisco Patrolman. Qualified candidates to run for Houston Patrolman include B.M. "Mike" Dunklin, Greg Fauntleroy, "Scary" Larry Pitts and Jeff Robert. Larry Young is running unopposed for the Los Angeles Patrolman position. Similarly, in Seattle Jim McCrary is uncontested for the Patrolman position in that port.

Those winning office in each of the five District Executive Committee positions (President, Secretary-Treasurer, Atlantic Coast V.P., Gulf Coast V.P. and Executive V.P.) and the Branch Agents in Baltimore, Houston, L.A. and Seattle in the 2007 election will also serve as representatives to the National M.E.B.A. Convention that will take place in March 2008. The other 11 Delegates to the Convention will be selected out of the following list of qualified nominees: Patrick D. Anderson, Erik Barton, Allan Bell, B.M. "Mike" Dunklin, Mark S. Gallagher, Chris Guerra, M. Garrett Harrington, Robert Lee Martin, Jim McCrary, Tom Monahan, Alana Newman, Jeff Robert, Joe Spell, II, Jim Staats, Ray Twitty, Richard Wagner and Patrick M. Wright.

The Credentials Committee pored over the nominations during two full and busy days. With a copy of the M.E.B.A. By-Laws and Constitution, the conscientious committee was very thorough in its assessments. Six members who filed paperwork with the Committee for various offices were found not to be qualified to run for office. Those disqualified failed to meet Article Ten section 1(c) 5 of the M.E.B.A. By-Laws relating to employment time or Article Ten Section 1(e) concerning timely mailings of nominations.

The complete report of the Committee has been sent to each of the Union halls and is available for review. Their report will also be included in a special election edition of the Marine Officer which will be mailed out to members, applicants and retirees in late August. That issue will also contain statements of the candidates as well as other key information relevant to the election. Ballots will be mailed to the membership on September 1 and members will have until late November to fill them out and mail them into a depository in Washington D.C. where they will be collected by an Impartial Administrator and an elected Tally committee on December 3, 2007.

With the onset of the election, the Telex Times will adhere to M.E.B.A. election season rules. The newsletter will refer to candidates for M.E.B.A. office only by position and not by name until the ballots have been tabulated. This policy exceeds regulations laid down by Section 401(g) of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 ("Landrum-Griffin"), 29 U.S.C. 481(g).

HORIZON FALCON HELPS RESCUE SUNKEN SHIP SURVIVORS NEAR GUAM
M.E.B.A. members aboard the HORIZON FALCON, a newbuild vessel operated by our contracted-company Horizon Lines, helped whisk survivors off a sunken ship near Guam to safety this week.

The Motor Vessel HAI TONG #7 had begun broadcasting a distress signal at about 11 a.m. on July 10 about 375 miles northwest of Guam. About 20 minutes later the emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) signal ceased broadcasting. The Coast Guard issued an urgent marine broadcast asking mariners in the area to assist.

The FALCON had just sailed from Guam on its way to Yantian, China when they got a call to divert from their course to join the search. When they arrived on scene, the master on the FALCON reported an oil slick and debris in the position last broadcast by the emergency beacon.

The HAI TONG #7 was a 420-foot Chinese-flagged, bulk log-carrier, owned by Fuzhou Haijing Shipping, en route to China from Papua-New Guinea. Survivors reported that the cargo began shifting as the vessel made way through 70-mph winds and 24-foot seas.

Other responders included the motor vessel IKAN BILIS, several U.S. Navy and Coast Guard planes and a Coast Guard cutter. The Navy P-3 airplane crew arrived on scene at the emergency beacon's location and began searching for survivors. They spotted several persons wearing orange life jackets or survival suits floating among debris in the water and directed the FALCON and the IKAN BILIS to their position.

Ten survivors were located and scooped up by the ships. Twelve remain missing as Coast Guard, Navy and "Good Samaritan" ships, which include the Matson Navigation vessel R.J. PFEIFFER, continue to search the Pacific.

"The immediate response by so many mariners is impressive," said Cmdr. Frank Genco, chief of the Coast Guard's search and rescue branch in Honolulu. "Mariners truly understand the importance of helping out their fellow sailors. The Coast Guard may be farther way and mariners have to rely on each other to help out times like these."

Chief Engineer Pete Strachota heads up the engine room aboard the HORIZON FALCON. He noted, "the efforts of the engineering department on this vessel was above and beyond the call of duty. The whole crew did an excellent job..." Members on the FALCON also include 1st A/E Ross Wilkinson, 2nd A/E Dan Maves, and 3rd A/E Al Berhe. MM&P represents the licensed deck officers aboard the ship.

AHL JONES ACT SHIPS
Congratulations to the MM&P on the news that American Heavy Lift, an MM&P contracted company in both deck and engine positions, has committed to build three new tankers for long-term charter by Shell Trading.

M.E.B.A. has a pass-through agreement with MM&P that puts M.E.B.A. engineers onboard the AHL vessels as needed. That arrangement will continue when the three shallow-draft, 49,000-deadweight-ton tankers are delivered.

The new vessels will be the first of this size to be built in the U.S. using modular construction and will go on long-term time charter to Shell Trading by late 2009 or early 2010. Shell Trading said it plans to use the vessels to transport crude oil, chemicals and products within its domestic U.S. trade lanes. Each vessel will have a cargo capacity of 330,000 barrels. Hull construction and final assembly of the vessels will be conducted at Atlantic Marine Alabama LLC in Mobile, with several other shipyards and specialty companies under contract with AHL also participating.

COAST GUARD COMMANDANT VOICES OPPOSITION TO POTENTIAL LEGISLATION THAT WOULD SPLIT UP THE AGENCY
Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen has issued a response to reports that Congress is considering a bill to shift some of Coast Guard's duties to another department. Several publications have written about discussions by Members of Congress to consider spinning off some of the Coast Guard's maritime regulatory duties to a new government department or transfer them to an existing agency such as the Maritime Administration. No such legislation has yet been introduced.

Allen issued a statement saying that any such plan "is not in the best interest of the Coast Guard or the nation." Continuing, he said, "I am committed to preserving our longstanding role as the world's leader in maritime safety and am working with Congress to ensure we maintain our current maritime safety duties and authorities. One of our greatest strengths is our multimission character which provides the best value to the American public. While I'm confident others will see it this way as well, I also realize that we need to be open to critiques of the service that we provide to the nation and our professional mariners.

He said that the maritime transportation system is the engine that drives our nation's economy and that the Coast Guard should engage industry leaders and listen to them. "In some instances," he noted, "minor changes in the way we approach our duties, which in no way compromise our safety, security, or stewardship duties, can have significant benefits in generating goodwill while reinforcing partnerships that are so key to achieving our mutual objectives."

MAKE SURE YOU UPDATE YOUR INFO WITH HQ
Be sure to inform Headquarters if you recently changed your contact information. We have placed an address change form on our website to help expedite the process. Address changes now require a signature for validation along with your new information. You can get the form in either a .pdf or a Word document from www.meba.us. Once there, click on the "Members Only" tab and toggle "Address Changes." The form can be printed out by the member or retiree, filled out completely with a signature and faxed or mailed to Headquarters. Those of you with scanners can complete the document with your signature then scan and e-mail it back to us.

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.

ATC CONTINUES AMAZING SAFETY RECORD
M.E.B.A.-contracted Alaska Tanker Company President & CEO Anil Mathur has announced that the men and women of ATC have now completed eleven million man-hours without a Lost Time Injury (LTI). The last LTI was in December of 2001. "As far as I can tell," he noted, "no other tanker company in the world currently matches, or has ever matched this record." He mentioned that the company's Restricted Work Injury rate of zero and a Total Recordable Injury rate of 0.4 make ATC's personal safety record among the best in any industrial setting in the world. "Others want to reproduce our results and mimic our actions, but the underlying drivers of our success do not lend themselves to formulaic implementation," he said.

Though basking in the glow of his company's latest achievement, Mathur remains grounded: "Despite our achievements we could be just one bad slip away from remaining perched on this pedestal in terms of personal safety statistics. To complicate matters our natural hazards are undiminished. We deal with harsh arctic winters, merciless winds and rain. We work long hours and have interrupted sleep patterns, and we are away from home and loved ones for months at a time. In this environment, in the moment we execute tasks, it is easy for us to forget who we are and what we are capable of achieving. Our success is grounded in our firm belief that only action produces results. Our actions stem from a deep and detailed understanding of our tasks and their underlying hazards. We are relentless in our pursuit of flawless operations. We increasingly use the insights of our entire work force in diagnosing problems and implementing solutions in a collaborative team environment."

Concluding he noted, "Our goal is an entire generation of seafarers spending our entire working lives without injury, whilst earning a decent living for ourselves and our loved ones. And with eleven million man hours and over five years without an LTI, we're off to a good start in realizing this goal."

HELP GULF COAST PORTS HONOR AL CASTRO
The Houston and New Orleans Union halls passed the hat at the July membership meetings to help honor the memory of Al Castro, our former Representative in Corpus Christi who died recently. They hope to collect enough to buy a bench in honor of Al at the Merchant Marine Memorial on Calhoon School grounds. In order to meet that goal, they ask that members and retirees aid their effort. Al was a longtime member before he put in many years serving as an official. You can contact our Dispatcher at the Houston Hall, Erin Bertram, to help out on this tribute.

PURCHASE BENCHES & BRICKS FOR MEMORIAL PARK AT SCHOOL
The M.E.B.A. Merchant Marine Memorial Foundation (4MF) is looking for those people who would like to provide a suitable tribute for departed mariners at the Memorial Park located at the Calhoon M.E.B.A. Engineering School. A memorial bench would be a lasting honor and a wonderful mark of respect to a loved one. A bench is a perfect vantage point to gaze around the park and reflect upon the contributions of mariners who have sailed into the sunset. Memorial bricks are also available. Engraved with the names of mariners, they are part of the retreat at the Park. The next order of bricks will be placed on August 20, 2007. Anyone wishing to purchase a brick must complete and return a donation form and monies prior to this date. You can purchase yours by contacting Jessica Milligan at (410) 822-9600 ext. 306. The e-mail address is memorial@mebaschool.org.  You can also get a donation form from the School's website located at www.mebaschool.org and by clicking on "What's New."

NEXT REGULAR MONTHLY MEETINGS
Monday August 6 - Boston, Seattle;
Tuesday, August 7 - Baltimore, Houston, Jacksonville, San Francisco;
Wednesday, August 8 - Calhoon School, Charleston, New Orleans, Portland;
Thursday, August 9 - L.A., New York, Norfolk, Tampa;
Friday, August 10 - Honolulu.