Liberty Maritime Creates Labor Battle and Delays Important Cargo

Local American mariners found themselves without jobs last weekend when they were locked out of the ships they sailed for with the Liberty Maritime Corporation.

Members of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (M.E.B.A.) union began peacefully protesting on Saturday, October 1 at 12:01 a.m. after Liberty locked them out. Since the company’s inception, M.E.B.A. engineers and deck officers have operated Liberty’s vessels and transported humanitarian and important cargo to third world countries in need of assistance.

The dispute started over contract negotiations that began several months ago. Despite months of negotiations and the fact that the M.E.B.A. agreed in principle to the terms of a new contract, Liberty signed a collective bargaining agreement with the American Maritime Officers (AMO) union. As soon as the M.E.B.A. employees were locked out from the ships, picket lines were set-up at the ports of Galveston and Beaumont in Texas and New Orleans, LA, where the Liberty bulk cargo carriers were docked. Members of the AMO crossed the picket line and boarded the ships that M.E.B.A. members had exclusively manned for 23 years.

“M.E.B.A. listened to Liberty and took all their economic and government affairs arguments into consideration. We agreed that now is not the time for a labor dispute and accepted Liberty’s final economic proposal,” said M.E.B.A. President Mike Jewell from the picket line in Louisiana. "When we conveyed this acceptance to Liberty the silence on the other end of the phone from CEO Philip Shapiro was deafening. We later learned that Liberty had signed a contract with the AMO.”

Liberty’s own Philip J. Shapiro, President and CEO of Liberty Maritime, disagreed stating “We worked many months with the M.E.B.A. to try to reach a new agreement, and as late as three days before the prior agreement was due to expire, the M.E.B.A. called to say the Union was not interested in our proposal.” But Jewell maintains the M.E.B.A. accepted Liberty’s offers on the very day that Shapiro referenced.

PHOTO: M/V Liberty Spirit

Other M.E.B.A. members chimed in from the picket line saying they would have worked with the company to take reductions in this economy. “In the life of our relationship with Liberty, the union has agreed to wage reductions,” said Jim Lipinski, an M.E.B.A. member who sailed as a third mate on the Liberty Eagle. “The union reluctantly agreed to it, and we took the cuts out of necessity.”

Lipinski sailed with the company since its inception. He now has to worry about finding a new position and supporting his family. “It will be difficult to continue to ship,” he said.

Bart Troxell, an M.E.B.A. member who sailed as a chief engineer aboard the Liberty Sun for over five years agrees. “I have money put away to not go hungry for six months but that’s not enough to live off of,” said Troxell. “The wife is nervous about this, but I’ve tried to tell her it will be alright. It’s just hard with the way the economy is now. I have two teenagers, one who just started college. I’m not going to have enough money to pay for that.”

Since 1988, M.E.B.A. officers have worked aboard Liberty vessels supporting humanitarian efforts and U.S. economic and national security goals by carrying important agriculture cargo. This cargo may now fall behind its delivery schedule as the current AMO crews had trouble starting the main engines on the ships docked in Louisiana and Texas, according to a “lock out update” posted on www.mebaunion.org on October 3, 2011. The update also states that M.E.B.A. believes that if “Liberty hadn’t created this dispute that cargo would have been loaded and been moving across the ocean.”

Despite the loss of jobs on the Liberty Maritime ships, the M.E.B.A. still maintains that it has and will keep a clear and positive record when it comes to national, economic and humanitarian security.  Jewell, a Captain in the U.S. Navy, is dedicated to supporting the U.S. government when it comes to national security, humanitarian aid and economic stimulation. He maintains that current and past M.E.B.A. administrations have always supported Liberty’s political and legislative positions, and helped promote the importance of altruistic aid such as agriculture cargo.

Not everyone believes that the change in unions has been disastrous. AMO President Tom Bethel wrote in a letter to Jewell that he supports his own membership filling jobs on the Liberty Maritime ships. The letter also stated M.E.B.A. should not be picketing Liberty Maritime Corporation because the M.E.B.A. collective bargaining agreement had expired and M.E.B.A. members were no longer legally assured of jobs.

However, the AMO faced a similar situation when its collective bargaining agreement with American Steamship Company (ASC) expired this summer, at midnight on July 31, 2011. The AMO and ASC were not able to reach an agreement before the labor contract deadline. On August 1, 2011, the AMO responded to the ASC by going on strike. During this time no other maritime labor union (including the M.E.B.A.) interfered in any way with AMO's negotiations or the picket line that AMO established. Eventually the AMO was able to negotiate an extension of the contract with ASC after its initial expiration and after the ASC ships were idled for several days due to the AMO strike.

No matter what Shapiro and Bethel currently claim, M.E.B.A. members are still disappointed in Liberty. “The company had this planned before negotiations began. They started laying up the ships beforehand,” said Troxell. “Now they’ve just made it look like it was a failure on the union. They are making it look like the union didn’t play ball.”

Despite the spin Liberty and the AMO have tried to place on the situation, there are Liberty Maritime employees and U.S. merchant mariners that are not on board with the new contract. On September 30 in the Port of Galveston, a Liberty Maritime Corporation management official walked off a Liberty vessel and drove over to the information booth being set up by the M.E.B.A. in preparation for a protest. According to an M.E.B.A. press release, the official said, “I just spoke with Liberty in New York, and told them I am not going to be part of this. I respect what you folks have to do, good luck.”

Then, on October 1, two U.S. merchant mariners walked off the vessel in Galveston with their sea bags packed and draped over their shoulders. They had not even been on the vessel for 24 hours. The next morning, another U.S. merchant mariner walked off the vessel with his sea bag packed and draped over his shoulder. He exited the gate with a nod to the picketers.

It is not known how long the M.E.B.A. will continue to picket Liberty’s ships, but members in Texas and Louisiana are prepared to keep protesting in order to highlight this injustice.

 

MarEx does not necessarily endorse any opinions herein.  This article has been provided by outside sources is not written by MarEx staff.