Maritime Unions Back Crackdown on jones Act Waiver Abuses

The M.E.B.A. and eight other maritime labor organizations have voiced support for the efforts of Reps. Salud Carbajal and Rick Larsen as the lawmakers seek accountability over compliance with transparency and reporting requirements governing the ongoing Jones Act waiver.

As reported in last week’s Telex Times, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee’s Ranking Member, Rep. Carbajal whisked off an October 16 letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin demanding answers about the Department’s oversight of ongoing Jones Act waivers. Since March 17, when the Administration issued the first of three Jones Act waivers, the welcome mat has been rolled out for foreign-flag operators to grab American shipping work at the expense of U.S. mariners. The latest waiver is set to expire on November 15.

Now, in an Oct. 27 letter, the nine organizations representing U.S.-flag maritime labor thanked the two lawmakers for pressing both the Administration and the foreign-flag waiver recipients to comply with safeguards established by Congress. The signatories echoed concerns that required disclosures have been incomplete or late, with some foreign vessel operators providing boilerplate explanations - or no meaningful justification at all - for their domestic voyages. M.E.B.A. signed onto the letter sent by maritime and transportation leaders that also included the heads of TTD, MTD, AMO, MM&P, SIU, MFOW, SUP and ARA. The leaders lauded the two lawmakers saying, “we particularly appreciate your commitment to ensuring that these extraordinary waivers are totally consistent with the national defense purposes for which they were intended and are not used to disadvantage American mariners and other American workers.”

The letter also questions whether the waivers meet the legal standard of addressing an immediate adverse effect on military operations, as required under the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. The Administration justified the issuance of the waivers on national security grounds. “Instead,” the maritime leaders noted, “the program appears to have enabled hundreds of domestic voyages by foreign vessels crewed by foreign mariners operating under exemptions from laws that Congress never intended to set aside. In several cases, waiver authority has reportedly been used by COSCO, a Chinese state-owned shipping enterprise that media reports allege are conducting espionage operations near U.S. coastlines. In another case, a foreign vessel was operated in U.S. domestic trade by Russian mariners.”  

The signatories warned that foreign mariners operating under Jones Act waivers may not be complying with U.S. wage-and-hour, employment, tax and immigration laws, giving them an unfair advantage over American mariners, who must meet extensive legal, licensing and security requirements. They specifically questioned the use of foreign crewmembers whose D-1 visas prohibit domestic commerce and raised concerns about tax obligations and whether foreign crews undergo comparable security vetting and credentialing.

The letter calls for rigorous congressional oversight and enforcement of existing law. The organizations stressed that American mariners stand ready to support the nation’s transportation, energy and defense needs, and that Jones Act waivers should remain the rare exception that Congress intended.

You can view the letter here.

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