AMO IS GETTING ALL THE JOBS

AMO REPORTING INCREASES IN SHIPBOARD JOBS

Latest updates from AMO regarding LNG, Patriot and other jobs that MEBA has let get away from them while we are in the court battle of our lives over the Contract that MEBA signed behind closed doors with the Inter Lake Steam Ship.



Ship acquisition means new jobs for AMO

Sealift Inc., which has collective bargaining agreements with American Maritime Officers, has acquired the tanker Overseas Harriet for service in PL-480 grain markets. The ship will be manned in all licensed positions by AMO upon its delivery in November 2006.

Sealift edged out a non-union ship operator for possession of the vessel, formerly operated by Maritime Overseas/OSG.

Sealift said successful PL-480 service by the Overseas Harriet could lead to the company’s acquisition of a second ship for the trade within a year.

“Our union welcomes the additional jobs represented by the Overseas Harriet,” said the national president of AMO. “We look forward to expanded participation in a critical program that is governed in part by U.S.-flag cargo preference requirements.”

A cargo preference law enacted as part of an agricultural funding measure in 1985 sets aside up to 75 percent of PL-480 exports and other food cargoes donated abroad by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for U.S.-flagged merchant vessels.

AMSEA wins LMSR court round

A federal judge has ruled that American Overseas Marine Corp., or AMSEA, can continue to operate nine large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off ships for Military Sealift Command. AMSEA employs American Maritime Officers in the licensed positions on the LMSRs.

Ruling on a complaint brought by Patriot Contract Services, the ships’ previous operator, Judge Robert J. Doumar of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk said Patriot’s lawsuit seeking to overturn the LMSR charter award to AMSEA had “no foundation in law or fact.” Patriot Contract Services has collective bargaining agreements with the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association and the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots.

Judge Doumar said AMSEA had not made misrepresentations in its LMSR operating proposal to MSC. “Patriot fails to offer any evidence from which a fact finder can conclude that AMSEA engaged in misconduct,” he said.

AMSEA was awarded the nine-ship LMSR charter in August 2004, but turnover from Patriot to AMSEA was delayed for more than a year by a protest filed by Patriot with the Government Accountability Office and by a requirement that the ships’ service during Operation Iraqi Freedom not be interrupted by a change in fleet management.

AMO returns to the LNG trades

American Maritime Officers has signed a collective bargaining agreement with Teekay Shipping, an international energy transportation company.

Teekay is a well-established operator of medium-sized tankers and provides LNG transportation services under long-term fixed-rate contracts to major energy and utility companies around the world.

Teekay currently has an active fleet of four LNG carriers and has nine more LNG carriers on order. The company has been seeking to integrate its LNG vessel operations with American officers licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard.

AMO members are the only U.S. licensed merchant marine officers with valid, recent LNG shipping experience and the union expects demand for their services to increase significantly as the international fleet of LNG carriers doubles--and the shortage of qualified LNG ship officers of every nationality deepens--by 2010.