What's New?
4/30/08
Protectionist Legislation,
The Jones Act
By Ron Ault, President
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
Sometime I feel like Don Quixote, tilting at windmills. Fighting against the U.S. federal government, the combined might of four giant, multi-national corporations, the Maritime Labor Organizations, the U.S. Ship owners and a lot of heavy political hitters in the Philadelphia region could make you feel slightly paranoid. My wife tells me she wants me to increase my life insurance policy…such was the case last Thursday, April 17, 2008, when we appeared in Philadelphia federal district court in our lawsuit (PMTC v. Allen, et al.) against the U.S. Coast Guard whacky interpretation of the Jones Act that reverses the original intent of Congress and is plainly at odds with the requirements of the law. This is our third consecutive federal lawsuit against the Bush Administration on behalf of America’s workers.
4/30/08
Federal Court Rebukes Coast Guard In Case Challenging Jones Act Rights Seabulk Trader Was Refitted in China
A U.S. District Court Judge in Alexandria, VA, has found the Coast Guard failed to properly enforce the Jones Act when it granted coastwise trade authorization for a tanker vessel owned and operated by Seabulk systems because the ship had been refitted with an inner hull and new ballast tanks in China. “This decision is a powerful precedent in support of our position in the Metal Trades case challenging kit ships that the Coast Guard authorized at Aker’s Philadelphia Shipyard,” declared Metal Trades Department President Ron Ault. Ault pointed out that the Coast Guard used some of the same “circular logic and unsubstantiated claims to justify its actions in the Aker decision.”
- See the Court Decision (pdf)
3/28/08
“A Job No American Will Do”
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
Employers justify hiring immigrant workers by saying it is a job no American will do….
On March 27th, more than 100 Indian H-2B visa immigration workers staged a press conference at DuPont Circle in Washington, D.C. to draw attention to their claims of exploitation by Signal International, a Mississippi based Shipyard Corporation. The following day they staged a protest at the White House.
3/3/08
Let Freedom Ring
On March 1, 2008, the U.S.S. New York, LPD-21, will be commissioned in an elaborate, traditional Naval ceremony capped by a bottle of champagne breaking across her expansive bow at Northrop Grumman Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans, Louisiana. 7.5 tons of steel taken from the World Trade Center wreckage is cast into her majestic bow. The image of that cowardly terrorist attack is forever superimposed into the American psyche. It is poetic justice that an avenging United States Naval warship should contain as part of its soul, a portion of the destroyed World Trade Center structure that took more than 3,000 innocent lives. READ ON >
2/14/08
“Pop A Top Again”
“Pop a top again
I just got time for one more round
Sit em up my friends
Then I'll be gone
Then you can let some other fool sit down”
Country/Western artist Alan Jackson sings a song about drinking….pretty much a standard C & W signature theme…why is this a topic I am writing about? Let me ask you an important question. Would you give an alcoholic another drink to help his recovery from alcoholism? That is exactly the solution President Bush has proposed for the ailing economy and is pushing through Congress…and not one member of Congress has the guts to stand up and say no to serving this drink to some estimated 200,000,000 voting alcoholics in an election year. What member of Congress wants to be the one that takes the blame for taking away your $600.00 tax rebate?
Metal Trades Department Jobs Line
2/13/08
The Metal Trades Department has added new listings to the Jobs Line for Pascagoula, Avondale, Gulfport and Tallulah.
Washington Is Broken
Ron Ault, President
Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
Like most Americans, I am paying attention to the Presidential candidates’ debates and press conferences. Unlike many Americans I have already made up my mind who I will vote for this election. But back to the point. I saw Mitt Romney on TV standing before a big banner that proclaimed “Washington Is Broken.” Wow! How refreshing. A Republican running for President who is going to tell it like it is, I thought. That is, until he started speaking.
Romney is running as a Washington outsider and a reformer who will bring change. He essentially blames all our woes on the Democrats, ignoring the facts that the Republican Party had total control of every facet of our federal government from the 2000 general election until the 2006 mid term election. And since 2006, the Republican Senators have stood solidly with President Bush blocking every Democratic initiative passed by the House. Not once did Mitt Romney say that George W. Bush was wrong, had made any mistakes or that his Republican Party had any responsibility for the mess we find today. He never said a word about the corruption scandals of Republican Congressmen Tom DeLay or Duke Cunningham; or the hypocrisy of gay-basher Republican Mark Foley; or the cynicism of the “family values” platform Republican Senator David Vitter in the Washington Madam prostitution scandal; or Republican Senator Larry Craig’s guilty plea over an incident in an airport bathroom. Romney offers no explanation for the out of control spending under “compassionate conservative” George W. Bush. The ”charge and spend” philosophy of the Bush-led Republican majority doesn’t seem to bother Romney. Our national debt has ballooned out of control on his watch. And Bush sees nothing wrong with deficit spending. His Platinum plastic credit card has no spending limits.
Made me ask a few questions…
Mitt, how did Washington get broken?
Q- What did a gallon of regular gasoline cost when Bush took office? A.- $1.59 per gallon, according to the Department of Energy. Today it is over $3.00 per gallon.
Q.- What shape was our economy in when Bush took office? A.- At the end of the 1990s, the stock market was surging , and
Q.- What was our government spending when Bush took office? A.- President Clinton left office with a $1 trillion surplus. President Bush, who is now claiming he will veto any legislation that does not balance income and expenditures, reversed that surplus to a $1 trillion deficit in the space of one year in office.
Q.- What were home values when Bush took office? A.- The cost of a median price house remained at around $125,000 from 1990 through 2001; rising to more than $230,000 before the current drastic drop.
Q.- What shape was our military in when Bush took office? A.- Undisputed the best in the world with adequate funding, manpower, equipment and supplies. Today, in the words of Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the House Committee on Defense Appropriations, our military is “broken.”
Q.- What was our relationship with other nations when Bush took office? A.- Good, with respectful and candid dialogue with allies and potential foes alike.
Q.- And finally, the old President Reagan question… Are you better off today than you were when Bush took office? A.- I’ll let you fill in that answer…
Humm…This is a lot simpler than the politicians want it to be…this election isn’t about Gay Marriage, Abortion or Swift Boat attack ads…or any other phony Karl Rove divide-and-conquer, wedge issue…
Think of it this way: The Republicans didn’t “fix” Roe v. Wade or Gay Marriage issues even though they had the Presidency, House, Senate and control of the appointments of judges to all the federal courts. Even after stacking the Supreme Court with a bunch of radical right wing judges…The reason? They don’t really want to. They have to keep these issues alive as way to energize their base and keep voters distracted. If not for wedge issues, what could Republicans offer “John Q. American Citizens” for their vote? Membership in their Country Clubs? Tax breaks for millionaires? A weekend in the Hamptons? Membership on the Board of Directors of Halliburton? Free flights on corporate jets with lobbyists paying the bill? Privatizing Social Security? Higher prescription drug costs? Close public schools and issue vouchers? Higher fuel and energy costs so energy companies can make even bigger profits? Reduce Veterans Benefits? Higher College Loans? I don’t think so!
Think of these simple facts-
Republican President George H. Bush- “read my lips”-bad economy and a recession…
Democratic President Bill Clinton- 8 years of a good economy- booming recovery…
Republican President George W. Bush…8 years of just total disaster…
Think of Hurricane Katrina. Why was there no planning, no government coordination. Why wasn’t it a federal government priority to save American lives? Did it make you angry and ashamed that Americans were still dying days after the storm had passed while foreign countries were sending aid to our Gulf Coast?
I watched day after day on TV as tens of thousands of storm survivors were left to fend for themselves in the Super Dome and Convention Center, on rooftops and bridges without water, food or medicine. As these Americans died from neglect, it was left up to bystanders and other victims to cover them in their wheelchairs with a blanket or pull their bodies out of filthy water. The TV crews and reporters had no problems getting into the area to film this disaster, but somehow rescuers couldn’t get in.
Katrina exposed how the billions of dollars of federal emergency response money was squandered by George Bush’s administration following 9/11. Katrina made it obvious that America was not ready for a terrorist attack or the more likely natural disasters that occur with regularity—the floods, earthquakes, fires, tornados and hurricanes. What are we getting our tax dollars? Color-coded alerts. Today is a code Orange terror alert.
Makes my decision really easy….any “D” who gets nominated and is on the ballot gets my vote.
“Washington isn’t Broken”- for eight years it has been under the control of the wrong administration that has worked for business and against its citizens. We get a chance to fix that in November.
