Members can keep more of their hard-earned money now that Union officials sought and achieved the rescission of a mandatory contribution paid by members to help bolster the M.E.B.A. Medical Plan. M.E.B.A. President Don Keefe and Secretary-Treasurer Bill Van Loo negotiated with the employers present at April’s Trustees meeting and approved, through collective bargaining, to eliminate the 1% mandatory contribution currently paid by our members.

Four years ago, the Union agreed to have members contribute 1% of their gross wages and vacation pay to the M.E.B.A. Medical Plan – an action undertaken in conjunction with benefit plan reductions that Medical Plan Trustees had put in place. At that time, the 1% was implemented since Union and Employer Trustees were unsure that benefit reductions would be sufficient to keep the M.E.B.A. Medical Plan from becoming insolvent. The past four years have demonstrated that the benefit reductions alone would have been enough to bring the M.E.B.A. Medical Plan back from the brink. Now this defined contribution plan is currently running with a substantial surplus and continues to gain at an amount greater than the 1% represents.

As a result, Brothers Keefe and Van Loo sought the change and are pleased to announce that the savings to the members will take effect on the companies’ July 1, 2010 payroll period.

President Don Keefe accepted the Seafarers & International House "Outstanding Friend of Seafarers" award last night in New York City on behalf of the M.E.B.A. and our hardworking members. Many of our New York-based members were on hand in support of the honorees of this annual award that also included the President and CEO of M.E.B.A.-contracted Liberty Maritime Corporation, Phil Shapiro. The third SIH honoree of the evening was Fordham University School of Law Professor Joseph Sweeney who also serves as an appointed Emory S. Land Professor of Maritime Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and Distinguished Professor of Law at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. The award is offered to individuals whose accomplishment in the maritime community and whose commitment to the welfare of seafarers throughout the world is laudatory.

In his remarks, President Keefe reflected on his seafaring days and praised the valuable service the SIH supplies to seafarers worldwide – including M.E.B.A. members – who can take advantage of the relief and safe, clean lodgings that SIH provides. Keefe informed the large gathering at the New York Athletic Club that he is grateful to the M.E.B.A.membership for the continuing opportunity to serve the maritime community and the opportunity to make the lives of seafarers better on and offshore.

The Seafarers and International House began in 1873 as a charitable organization founded to provide seafarers and travelers with pastoral care, hospitality, social assistance and advocacy.

The six-person rank and file Financial Review Committee, elected by members at the April meetings, wrapped up three days of work at M.E.B.A. Headquarters on Wednesday. The Committee signed off on a report that will be sent to the Union halls and voted upon at the regular monthly membership meetings in May. In one of the Democratic safeguards adopted by the M.E.B.A. in the mid-1990s, an annual FRC gathers at Headquarters to review union finances from the previous year. This year, the committee consisted of Tom Bands (Baltimore), Tim Smith (Houston), John Hasson (New Orleans), Mike Morrissey (New York/New Jersey), Patrick Anderson (San Francisco/Oakland) and Bob Seidman (Seattle). Pat Anderson served as Committee Chairman while Tom Bands was randomly picked as the alternate. Tim Smith served as the Recording Secretary.

Legislation was introduced this week to ensure that crucial maintenance is performed on our nation’s ports so commerce can continue to flow unimpeded. If enacted, the legislation requires that money collected by the Harbor Maintenance Trust (HMT) Fund is used for costs to maintain and repair harbors and ports and not unrelated initiatives. The bill was introduced by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) but has broad bipartisan and multi-regional support, with four Democrats and four Republicans sponsoring the bill at the time of its introduction.

The HMT Fund was created in 1986 to provide a stable, long-term source of funding to pay for maintenance costs for federally maintained harbors. The concept was that taxes would be imposed on users of the system, particularly shippers of goods passing through those harbors. The revenues from users would be placed in the Fund, where it would be used promptly and exclusively for harbor maintenance. While HMT revenue has steadily increased, harbor maintenance appropriations since 2003 have stagnated, resulting in a growing backlog of critical harbor maintenance. Because the revenues and expenditures of the HMT Fund are part of the overall budget, if the trust fund does not spend all of its revenues, the "surplus" helps offset deficits in the rest of the general budget.

The new legislation includes a guarantee that requires that the total amount appropriated from the HMT Fund each year be equal to the trust fund receipts plus interest as estimated by the President’s budget for that year. If an appropriations bill spending Fund revenue that does not meet this requirement is brought to the House or Senate, any member would be able to make a point of order against it and the bill would not be allowed to be considered in that form without an overriding vote on specifically spending less than the projected annual HMT Fund revenue and interest.

The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) received a U.S. Coast Guard Partner in Search and Rescue award during a ceremony in Juneau this week. Coast Guard Capt. Melissa Bert, along with Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho, presented the award to Jim Beedle, Deputy Commissioner of Marine Operations, Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. The award cited the AMHS, teeming with M.E.B.A. members, for its professionalism and stewardship while assisting those in need during critical missions involving search and rescue.

According to the Coast Guard, AMHS has - on countless occasions - proved to be vital in locating vessels reported overdue by promptly responding to Coast Guard Urgent Marine Information Broadcasts and rescuing mariners in distress.

NOAA has awarded a $73.6 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contract to Marinette Marine Corporation located in Marinette, Wis., for the construction of a new fisheries survey vessel, which will dramatically improve NOAA’s ability to conduct surveys for fish, marine mammals and turtles off the U.S. West Coast and in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

The vessel will be the fifth in a series of state-of-the-art Oscar Dyson-class ships built for the agency. Expert M.E.B.A. officers keep the NOAA fleet running smoothly. The ship will be equipped with a full suite of modern instrumentation for fisheries and oceanographic research, including advanced navigation systems, acoustic sensors, scientific sampling gear and extensive laboratories. The high-tech ship will also produce much less noise than other survey vessels, allowing scientists to study fish populations and collect oceanographic data with fewer effects on fish and marine mammal behavior.

Somali pirates were responsible for 35 of the 67 piracy incidents reported worldwide during the first quarter of the year, the International Maritime Bureau has reported. The number of incidents represents a sharp drop from the 102 attacks reported during the first quarter of last year. "This marked reduction can be attributed to the continued presence and success of the navies in the Gulf of Aden along with the robust anti piracy measures adopted by the merchant navy fleet," the report said. Twenty-six vessels were boarded during the first quarter of 2010, with 18 ships fired upon, 12 suffering from attempted attacks, and 11 vessels hijacked. A total of 194 crew members were taken hostage, 12 of whom were injured.

A top Navy commander suggested this week that commercial vessels should arm themselves when traveling through pirate-infested waters off the Somali coast. Navy Adm. Mark P. Fitzgerald, commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe and Africa and of NATO’s Allied Joint Task Force Command Naples, told Pentagon reporters that the scope of the piracy problem is too great to be policed by military vessels alone.

"We could put a World War II fleet of ships out there," Fitzgerald said, referring to the Gulf of Aden and the Mozambique Channel off the Indian coast, "and we still wouldn’t be able to cover the whole ocean."

"Catch and release is not a very good option," Fitzgerald said. "How do we deal with this? We've got to come to some kind of solution." Somali-based piracy, the admiral said, will not go away until a government in Mogadishu is stable enough to confront the problem within its borders. "Right now, we’re trying to shoot the arrow instead of the archer," Fitzgerald said. He acknowledged that the prospect of a stable Somali government is unlikely in the near future. However, in the short-term, Fitzgerald said, it is "incumbent upon the vessels which are sailing the high seas to either protect themselves or accept the dangers." Asked if he would recommend that commercial ships arm themselves, Fitzgerald said: "I think they should…Commercial ships should take appropriate protections," he added, "because we cannot offer 100-percent guarantees of protection as the ships go through." Fitzgerald also recommended tracking the spoils of successful piracy operations. "I think we'd be able to trace the financiers [and] the middlemen," he said.

Liberty Maritime is seeking résumés from Chief Engineers interested in sailing for the company. Interested individuals should send their particulars including a résumé via e-mail to personnel@libertymar.com.  You may also contact Nina Timonina at (516) 488-8800 with any specific questions about these opportunities.

Monday, May 3 – Boston; Jacksonville; Seattle;
Tuesday, May 4 – Baltimore/Calhoon School@CMES, Houston, San Francisco (Oakland);
Wednesday, May 5 – Charleston, New Orleans;
Thursday, May 6 – L.A. (Wilmington), New York (New Jersey), Norfolk, Tampa;
Friday, May 7 – Honolulu.