AMO versus MEBA

As reported on the AMO website:

Union workers honor picket line after Interlake fires MV Stewart J. Cort ship officers for refusing to switch unions

American Maritime Officers members are picketing the vessel MV Stewart J. Cort at the Clure Public Marine Terminal after the ship’s operating company, Interlake Leasing III, told the ship’s officers to join a different union (MEBA) and then terminated their employment for refusing to comply.



After the picketing began March 11, many of the shipyard workers who were performing maintenance and repair work onboard the MV Cort walked off the ship. The workers honoring the AMO picket line are represented by the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The MV Cort is currently at the Clure Public Marine Terminal of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority undergoing extensive maintenance and repair, and was scheduled to have resumed operation later this month.

Interlake Leasing III, Inc., operates the MV Cort for Mittal Steel USA. Interlake Leasing is a subsidiary of Interlake Steamship Company. The president of Interlake Steamship, James Barker, told ship’s officers last week in Florida that they would have to sever their ties with AMO and join a different union, the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (MEBA). The officers working aboard the MV Cort refused.

"Why would we take a pay cut working with MEBA but doing the same job?" said Dale Miller, the ship’s second assistant engineer.

The ship’s officers represented by AMO were supposed to have reported to work March 12 to prepare the ship for sailing March 23. After firing the ship’s officers, Interlake brought in ship engineers represented by MEBA to begin the fit-out work on the MV Cort.

The AMO officers picketing the ship were encouraged by the show of solidarity from the shipyard workers, who ceased working aboard the vessel when the picket began.

"We had electricians come in this morning and they stopped and said they weren’t crossing the picket line," said Kevin Wend, the ship’s third assistant engineer. "We stood with AMO on the first go-around with Interlake and we will stand with them this time."

AMO had been the exclusive collective bargaining agent for ship officers and stewards working aboard vessels operated by Interlake Steamship and its subsidiaries until 2003. At that time, Barker and the president of MEBA, Ron Davis, secretly signed a contract to replace officers represented by AMO with MEBA members and removed the captains and stewards from the collective bargaining agreement.

The Interlake Steamship contract with MEBA was signed before the company’s collective bargaining agreement with AMO had expired. The collusive Interlake-MEBA contract is now the subject of ongoing lawsuits in Ohio charging MEBA with tortious interference.

Separately, AMO and Interlake Leasing had recently reached an agreement on a contract covering the officers and stewards working aboard the MV Cort.

However, Interlake held a company meeting at a resort in Marco Island, Fla., last week and had some of the officers of the MV Cort and their families attend. During the company meeting, Barker told AMO officers they would have to join MEBA and offered them cash bonuses to break ties with AMO and join the rival union.

"They told us they were switching from AMO to MEBA," said Matt Williams. "They offered a $10,000 signing bonus and they gave us 24 hours to make a decision one way or another."

Williams has worked aboard the MV Cort for about eight years and was the relief chief engineer and first assistant engineer on the ship.

"They called us out. Jim Barker said they wouldn’t sign the contract with AMO--you have to go with MEBA," said Chief Engineer John Grard, who has worked regularly aboard the MV Cort since 1988.

"What really gets us--they flew us down there and they flew our families down there," Grard said. "Talk about the last supper. He has this big party down there in Marco Island and then he pulls this.

"I feel strongly that Jim Barker would never have taken this on if Mittal Steel didn’t give them backing," he said. "Mittal Steel has the ore contracts and there’s no way I can think of that Interlake can fulfill the contract and deliver the ore on time. It just isn’t going to happen.

"This is a test case," Grard said. "This is a point and we have to fight it. A lot of people are honoring the strike. The local unions are really helping us out."

AMO officers will picket the MV Cort for as long as it takes, said AMO National Representative Stan Barnes, who is on the line with the ship’s officers.

"AMO is here until the boat leaves and, if it does manage to get underway, there will be picket lines wherever it goes," Barnes said.