| Print | Close Window | AMO Currents - Posted: November 8, 2013 |
AMO's future: charting the path forward
National President
Many of you may be aware of some of the initiatives AMO has been implementing, and is currently advancing, in order to increase recruitment, as well as to streamline the process for earning the Tankerman Person-in-Charge Endorsement without compromising the knowledge and experience officers earn in the process under existing U.S. Coast Guard regulations.
These initiatives include The Engineering Candidate Hawsepipe (TECH) Program, a stipend program for maritime academy cadets, AMO's targeted military recruiting program and the abbreviated 30-day Tankerman PIC program.
As we all know, seagoing labor is a vital asset to our national security, an integral part of the nation's defense planning and sealift strategies, and crucial to American commerce. With each passing year, the effects of the worldwide shortage of merchant marine officers become more apparent throughout the industry, and our union cannot be content with allowing the shortage to compound and crisis to engulf the U.S.-flag fleet.
Working proactively, AMO has fostered these initiatives as practical and promising solutions to ensure the manpower needs of our contracted operating companies will be met going forward. I'm pleased to report our plans are now coming to fruition.
Providing proper context for our union's initiatives requires a description of the manpower survey we have completed, as well as a bit of recent history.
In 2008, the National Maritime Center began consolidating the databases of the 17 U.S. Coast Guard regional examination centers in order to facilitate the consolidation of mariner credentialing and documentation at the NMC. By late 2009, the consolidated database was mature enough to begin mining data. This was done by the Maritime Administration, which contracted with an outside vendor. By the beginning of 2011, some meaningful information became available.
All U.S. seagoing unions were offered this information, but only American Maritime Officers and the Seafarers International Union employed it to develop strategies for the future. AMO began this process by applying the NMC's data to our own member database.
The data showed some disturbing trends that, left unchecked, would begin affecting AMO within five to 10 years, including:
- An age demographic that placed the majority of the AMO membership in the range of 42 to 62 years old. Nearly all senior officers were in this group.
- The age distribution showed a "gap" in the 32-year-old to 42-year-old range.
- AMO has been successfully recruiting new officers from the academies, but we are not retaining them for the long-term. We are suffering a loss of more than 50 percent of the cadets we are recruiting within the seven-to-ten-year window.
- On a positive note, long-term retention of hawsepipe officers, particularly engineers, is above 85 percent.
The initiatives in which we are engaged are the outcome of these proposals and discussions. Collectively, they are designed to ensure a stable flow of officers from all pathways.
The Engineering Candidate Hawsepipe (TECH) Program
In 2010, AMO - working in coordination with the SIU and the safety and education plans of both unions - began development of an engineering program that would be capable of advancing a vetted high school graduate to an original third assistant engineer's license in a period of about 30 months.
The program's regimen alternates between coursework at Piney Point and STAR Center interspersed with more than 400 days aboard ship in the engine room. It took three years of collaboration and course development to obtain Coast Guard approval of the program.
The TECH Program has been well received by our contracted operating companies and we are in the process of signing the first memorandum of understanding for training billets. We finished testing, screening and interviewing the first candidates for the TECH Program in October, and the first installment of the program will begin in January. A formal announcement will be issued when recruiting for the next class begins.
Maritime academy Stipend Program
The Stipend Program provides for three students at each maritime academy to receive a monthly stipend beginning at the end of their second year of school. The cadets selected will receive $150 per month during their junior year and $200 per month during their senior year.
One element of this program includes training at STAR Center during two summer breaks to provide courses the cadets will need in order to be immediately employable upon graduation. Each cadet must commit to a minimum of three years in a regular sailing rotation as a member of AMO.
The stipend program was more than 18 months in the making due to the coordination required between AMO and all of the maritime academy administrations, as well as MARAD's legal counsel.
The first cadets will be enrolled in April and May of 2014 - in time for their summer break and first battery of training at STAR Center. This program has also been well received by our contracted operating companies, and one company has already committed to paying for another six students to be added to the program.
Military targeted recruiting program
This AMO recruiting program targets veterans who are retiring or leaving military service - specifically those with engineering experience and training. We anticipate military mariners recruited through this program will help fill the demographic "gap" in our membership. Among our recruiting programs, this has been the most difficult to get started due to regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. While we continue to identify candidates at job fairs for veterans, as well as at military-sponsored retirement events, we have had to pursue legislative solutions to correct specific regulations in order to allow the program to become as successful as we would like.
Manpower survey
Due to a number of developments in Congress, we recently undertook with the other seagoing unions a survey of all unlimited deep-sea officers, as well as unlicensed merchant mariners.
The coordinated survey included all of the U.S. seagoing unions, involved the participation of the Maritime Administration, and provided several insights. The most significant of the survey's findings were:
- There are only about 4,200 deep-sea STCW qualified licensed merchant marine officers, and only approximately 7,600 STCW qualified unlicensed merchant mariners.
- AMO represents about 2,400 of these officers.
- The age demographic for the AMO membership corresponds with that of the industry as a whole.
- Over the past five years, our captains and chief engineers have been retiring at an average age of 53.
In addition to the survey, AMO has completed a strategic review of our position in the industry. As part of this strategic review, we examined our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Among other things, the review revealed AMO is the only U.S. officers' union with a significant base of experienced deck officers who hold the Tankerman PIC certification. The review also made apparent a need to expand our base of PIC-certified officers. AMO-contracted companies have as many as 25 new ships scheduled for delivery over the next four to five years, and 20 of those ships are tankers.
Using the information from both the manpower survey and our strategic review, we approached Crowley, which will be operating as many as 16 of the new vessels. We presented the company with a two-year plan aimed at ensuring there will be an abundance of PIC-certified officers to man the new ships as they enter service.
As part of this plan, AMO and STAR Center sent a letter to U.S. Coast Guard headquarters proposing a new regimen for earning the Tankerman PIC certification. Specifically, a candidate would attend the two-week Tankerman PIC simulator course at STAR Center, through which they would receive classroom training and credit for two of the five required cargo transfers on the simulator. A candidate would then complete 30 days of sea time as a supernumerary in order to obtain the three remaining loads and discharges under supervision. The onboard experience would also require completion of a sea project, which would be evaluated by STAR Center. The current Coast Guard requirements to earn the Tankerman PIC endorsement include 90 days of sea time.
The Coast Guard's response to our proposal was positive and we were encouraged to submit the details of our proposed program to the National Maritime Center, where it is now undergoing review for certification by the Coast Guard.
AMO officers are known throughout our industry for their professionalism, skill and dedication. Combined with the premier training provided by STAR Center and the large and diverse job base covered by AMO contracts, I am confident these initiatives will contribute to sustaining AMO's status for years to come as the largest U.S. union of its kind and the leading source for highly-qualified U.S. Coast Guard licensed merchant marine officers in all departments and in all trades.
As always, I welcome your comments and questions. Please feel free to call me on my cell phone at (202) 251-0349.
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