MARINE ENGINEERS' BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION (AFL-CIO)
         "On Watch in Peace and War Since 1875"

MEBA TELEX TIMES       JULY 24, 2009

The Official Union Newsletter

NUMBER 30

In this issue...
Engineer positions with NOAA...HQ function for possible Abercrombie successor...Credential verification tool...Come enjoy the fruits of our labor in a Chiquita-style, potassium-rich edition with maritime news in "bunches." Don't monkey around and slip up on green weeklies that "Dole" out yellow journalism. Make a split as we peel back a carb-loaded, high-fiber issue that's ripe for the picking. The Telex Times is the top banana!

NOAA NEEDS ENGINEERS
NOAA is seeking licensed and unlicensed engineers to serve on its fleet of research vessels operating in the Continental U.S., Caribbean, Alaska and Hawaii. Positions in the engine department are available aboard ships homeported in Woods Hole, MA; Norfolk, VA; Charleston, SC; Pascagoula, MS; San Diego, CA; Honolulu, HI; Seattle, WA; and Ketchikan and Kodiak, AK. NOAA shipboard mariners have an excellent total compensation benefits package which includes paid vacation, shore and sick leave, employer supplemented medical coverage, paid training and overtime to supplement annual salaries. Full-time and part-time positions are available. Vessels range in horsepower from 800 to 6000, and NOAA is currently constructing new research and survey vessels. Salary will be determined by duty location and vessel clarification. Recruitment incentive is authorized at 10% of basic pay. Relocation incentive of 10% of basic pay may be authorized for Alaska and Hawaii duty locations only. Pay tables can be found at www.wfm.noaa.gov/policies/Pay-WageMarine.html.  To apply for a job, or for more information, visit www.shipjobs.noaa.gov.

HQ HOSTS "MEET & GREET" FOR MARITIME-FRIENDLY LEGISLATOR
The American Maritime Congress and M.E.B.A. played host for an up and coming political star who will likely make a Congressional run to represent Hawaii's 1st District. The "Meet & Greet" with maritime industry representatives was arranged at M.E.B.A. Headquarters for Colleen Hanabusa who will likely announce soon that she will run for the office currently held by Rep. Neil Abercrombie. Rep. Abercrombie, a great friend of the M.E.B.A. and industry, plans to run for Governor of the State.

Hanabusa is a practicing attorney who has been recognized as one of "the Best Lawyers in America" since 1995. 11 years ago she was elected State Senator and has served on numerous committees since then including Chair of the Water, Land & Hawaiian Affairs committee. In November 2006, she was elected President of the Senate, the first woman to lead either house in the Hawaii legislature. During the meeting at HQ, she expressed her strong support for the Jones Act and other maritime statutes. She will likely run in the Democratic Primary against Ed Case, a former Representative who is vehemently against the Jones Act.

M.E.B.A. PURSUES RESOLUTION OF EGREGIOUS NMC DELAYS
Following up on a recent Congressional hearing where maritime unions discussed the difficulties mariners have faced in renewing their Coast Guard License/Merchant Mariner Documents, M.E.B.A. is urging the Coast Guard to close out the most egregious cases as the agency seeks a way to iron out delays at the National Maritime Center. In joint comments presented to the House Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, the maritime officer unions had noted that "serious problems remain with the USCG medical review and credentialing processes that have negative impacts on our members. It is absolutely unacceptable that any mariner should be out of work due solely to the failure of the system to adequately anticipate and plan for the problems we have experienced."
               
This week, the Union presented a list - sent to the NMC/Coast Guard and relevant members of Congress including Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Ranking Member Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) - of some of the more outstanding recent cases that have still not been resolved.

A few months ago, the Telex Times asked for members who had faced unnecessary delays during the renewal process to forward their "horror stories" to Headquarters. Those examples were brought to the attention of high ranking Government officials best positioned to enact changes with the current broken system. M.E.B.A. urged them to immediately process the most pressing cases of our members who still haven't seen a resolution to their renewal applications.

One member's official notification of an address change with Coast Guard was never properly processed by the agency and his numerous repeat notifications of the change with NMC never registered resulting in an almost six-month delay. Many others experienced shoddy NMC reviews and mistakes that created additional months of delays and other holdups that were never explained. For many, communication at the NMC was sadly lacking and others were strung along until after their documents expired. Some still are unable to work because of the problems at NMC.

If you are experiencing difficulties in the renewal process, please drop us an e-mail, fax or letter explaining your negative NMC experience - making sure to detail specifics. Include your name and contact information while referencing ?License Renewal Problems.? Either e-mail it to mebahq@mebaunion.org, fax it to (202) 638-5369 or mail it to Headquarters at 444 North Capitol Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington D.C. 20001.

COAST GUARD LAUNCHES WEB-BASED, MARINER CREDENTIAL VERIFICATION TOOL
The U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday the launch of a new, Web-based tool to provide information on the validity of merchant mariner credentials. The Merchant Mariner Credential Verification tool was created following Operation Big Tow, a marine safety operation focused on ensuring uninspected towing vessels are being operated by properly licensed individuals. The operation identified the need for an open and rapid means of verifying the validity of merchant mariner credentials. The Merchant Mariner Credential Verification tool provides marine employers the means to ensure they are hiring mariners with valid credentials. It also allows Port State Control officers in foreign ports a real-time capability to verify U.S. mariners' credentials.

?Since Operation Big Tow launched, the National Maritime Center has received many calls from marine employers wanting to verify the validity of their employees credentials or the credential of mariners they are considering hiring," said Capt. David Stalfort, the commanding officer of the National Maritime Center. "Our goal with this tool is to offer better customer service to these employers."

There are three ways to verify the validity of an MMC: Credential type and serial number; Mariner Reference number; or Last name, date of birth and last four digits of the mariner's social security number. For more information about the National Maritime Center's Mariner Licensing and Documentation program visit http://www.uscg.mil/nmc or the Homeport site at http://homeport.uscg.mil and then select Merchant Mariners.

SENATE COMMITTEE FORWARDS GRANT PROGRAM FOR SHORT SEA SHIPPING
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee recently approved legislation sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) to reduce congestion on the nation's roads by encouraging freight to be carried by ships. The measure would create a grant program for America's Marine Highways to encourage shipping by sea or inland waterway and establish a new program to modernize port facilities to make efficiently transport freight. The bill would also establish a Port Infrastructure Development Program to improve the capabilities of port facilities to move freight.

Sen. Lautenberg's bill, the Maritime Administration Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2010, would create a grant program to establish America's Marine Highway as an extension of the surface transportation system. A single sea vessel can take more than 450 trucks off the nation's roads. The typical barge or ship can move one ton of cargo 576 miles on one gallon of fuel, whereas a truck would move that same cargo only 155 miles. America's seaports are the critical link between all modes of transportation and the ability to move freight throughout the country, as ships carry more than 95 percent of the nation's non-North American trade by weight and 75 percent by value. Approximately three-quarters of international shipments to and from the United States, measured in weight, arrive or depart by ship.

PRISON SENTENCE FOR COSCO BUSAN PILOT
John Joseph Cota, pilot of the COSCO BUSAN which collided with the San Francisco Bay Bridge resulting in a discharge of 53,000 gallons of oil into the Bay, was sentenced to serve 10 months in federal prison this week. The 65,131-ton Hong Kong-registered ship collided with the bridge on Nov. 7, 2007. Cota was sentenced according to an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to negligently causing discharge of a harmful quantity of oil in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA), as amended by the Oil Spill Act of 1990 and to violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, by causing the death of protected species of migratory birds. In papers filed in court, prosecutors told the judge that Captain Cota should receive a sentence of incarceration because he was "guilty of far more than a mere slip-up or an otherwise innocuous mistake that yielded unforeseeably grave damage. Rather, he made a series of intentional and negligent acts and omissions, both before and leading up to the incident that produced a disaster that, as widespread as it was, could have had even worse consequences."

Prosecutors provided the court with a list of Cota?s errors that included the following:

- Captain Cota left in extreme fog that was so thick that the bow of the vessel was not visible from the bridge. Captain Cota made the decision to leave in the fog while the pilots of six other large commercial vessels decided not to depart in the heavy fog which was less than 0.5 nautical miles.
- Having made the decision to leave port in impenetrable fog, Captain Cota took no action to assure the fortification of the bridge or bow watch or review the passage plan with the master and crew of the COSCO BUSAN. In particular, Cota failed to have a master-pilot exchange to review the transit plan.
- Captain Cota has subsequently claimed that he found both radar unreliable, but he did not notify the master or the Coast Guard that a required piece of equipment needed to safely navigate the ship had failed. Meanwhile, the captured images of the radar retained on the ship's computer show that the radar was fully operational.
- The tape recorded conversations from the ship?s bridge show that Captain Cota was confused regarding the operation of the electronic chart system upon which he chose to rely including the meaning of 2 red triangles that marked buoys marking the tower of the bridge that he eventually hit.
- At no time during the voyage after leaving the berth at 8:07 a.m. and prior to 8:30 a.m. did Captain Cota, or any of the ship's crew, consult the ship's official paper navigational chart or take a single positional fix. Captain Cota did not ask any crew member to take any fixes or verify the ship's position despite the lack of visibility. After the incident, Cota told the Coast Guard he did not request fixes because it is like "driving your car out of a driveway."

REPORT SAYS CBP SCANS 98% OF INBOUND CARGO FOR RADIATION
The Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection successfully scans 98% of inbound cargo for radiation, a newly released report reveals. The DHS report was undertaken to learn how well the Department has implemented recommendations following September 11, 2001 to better protect transportation and other assets from terrorism.

According to the report, the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has deployed more than 1,200 Radiation Portal Monitors and other radiation detection technologies to seaports, land border ports, and mail facilities. These systems scan 98% of all cargo arriving in the U.S., including 100% of vehicles arriving through our southern border ports, 98% of arriving sea containers, 98% of trucks and 96% of personal vehicles arriving at northern border ports. Last year Congress passed a law to implement 9/11 Commission recommendations including 100% scanning of U.S.-bound cargo by 2012. DHS officials have told Congress they cannot achieve that goal by have not projected when the full 100% scanning will become reality.

The report also touts two other DHS programs that are ensuring the safety at U.S. ports including the Container Security Initiative. This program has been implemented at 58 foreign ports to ensure that all U.S.-bound maritime containers that pose a potential risk are identified and inspected before they are placed on vessels destined for the U.S. Another program, the Secure Freight Initiative was implemented in five locations to scan U.S.-bound maritime containers for nuclear material overseas.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano noted that the Department has met security challenges "by building an agency far better equipped to combat terrorism, and we will continue to expand these capabilities as we move forward in our mission to keep America safe and secure."

MAERSK ALABAMA LIFEBOAT TO BE DISPLAYED AT NORFOLK?S NAUTICUS
The orange lifeboat that became the focus of a 3 ½ day drama during April's attempted hijacking of the MAERSK ALABAMA will go on display in Norfolk, Virginia's Nauticus maritime museum. The ship's Captain was held aboard the lifeboat by four armed pirates until Navy sharpshooters freed him by raining down bullets on his captors. Nauticus deputy director Rolf Johnson pointed out that it was a no-brainer to add the MAERSK ALABAMA story to an upcoming exhibit that had been planned for the museum entitled "Real Pirates." Museum officials negotiated with Norfolk-based Maersk Line to make it a reality - perhaps helped by the fact that Maersk president and CEO John Reinhart happens to sit on the Nauticus Board of Directors. The encapsulated lifeboat, however, already has a permanent home - at the National Navy-UDT-SEAL Museum in Florida. Nauticus will display the lifeboat for a year and will return the boat after the exhibit is over. "Real Pirates" will open up at Nauticus on November 21, Johnson said, "complete with bullet holes and other remnants of the attack."

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

--------FINISHED WITH ENGINES---------