Statement from Dale M. Troll, President, Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO
The Metal Trades Department strongly objects to President Trump’s decision to extend the Jones Act waiver for another 90 days and opposes waivers of the Jones Act that allow American maritime work to be handed to foreign vessels and foreign crews.
At a time when our nation is spending billions of taxpayer dollars trying to rebuild American shipbuilding and restore our maritime industrial base, extending this waiver moves us in exactly the wrong direction.
The administration argues that the waiver will help address energy supply disruptions and control fuel costs. Yet industry experts have questioned whether it will have more than a minimal effect on prices. What the waiver unquestionably does is allow domestic cargo to be carried by foreign vessels rather than supporting American ships, American mariners and American maritime jobs.
We have already paid a steep price for allowing our maritime industrial capacity to decline. Shipyards closed, suppliers disappeared and skilled workforces dispersed. Today, the Navy faces rising costs, construction delays and insufficient capacity while the federal government spends billions trying to rebuild what our nation allowed to erode.
Industrial capacity is far easier to maintain than to recreate.
The Jones Act helps maintain that capacity by creating sustained demand for American-built, American-owned and American-crewed vessels. It supports our shipyards, mariners, suppliers and the skilled tradespeople who build and maintain our fleet.
The contradiction could not be clearer. The administration says it wants to rebuild American manufacturing and shipbuilding while simultaneously allowing American maritime work to go to foreign vessels. We cannot rebuild American shipbuilding with one hand while giving American maritime work away with the other.
This is also a matter of national security. America cannot assume foreign ships, foreign crews and foreign shipyards will be available when we need them. The shipyards, suppliers, mariners and skilled workers we sustain in peacetime are the same industrial base our nation will depend upon in a crisis.
The administration’s decision to narrow this extension and consult with the U.S. Maritime Administration before individual voyages does not change our position. A more limited waiver is still a waiver.
The answer to insufficient American maritime capacity is not greater reliance on foreign vessels. It is investing in the American ships, shipyards, mariners and skilled workers necessary to meet our own needs.
The Metal Trades Department urges the administration to make this the last Jones Act waiver and recommit to strengthening the American maritime industry our economy and national security depend upon.
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