By Paul Doell
National President

Here at headquarters, and in Toledo and Washington, AMO officials, representatives and support staff remain focused on practical, responsible and morally imperative priorities in response to the COVID-19 crisis and to the official state of emergency declared by the President.

We encourage all deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters AMO members to do everything necessary to prevent or at least limit contagion within our ranks at sea and ashore and within our AMO families. Official guidelines - self-isolation, masks, quarantine as required, no handshakes and six feet apart for any direct contact and conversation - can be frustrating, inconvenient and downright difficult, but these practices are known at this point to hinder the rapid rate of infection during this novel coronavirus pandemic.

We do what we can when we can to ease unforeseen financial hardship for AMO members. We have eased off on - but not eliminated - dues rules, and we have made April 2020 essentially a dues-free month - if you as an AMO member have paid dues through March, through the second quarter of 2020 or through the year 2020, you will get one month's credit toward your 2021 financial obligation to our union. The immediate intent here is to assist AMO members stranded at sea or ashore through no fault of their own, and who may need a bit more cash in the pocket - for personal use, or to help a suddenly unemployed family member pay the rent or the utility bills.

All day every day, AMO officials and representatives are working with all AMO employers to accommodate officer rotations in their fleets to the greatest extent possible. We want to allow relief officers to reach their vessels despite travel restrictions, port access considerations, credential and certification delays and other complications resulting from this crisis - snags no one in our industry had anticipated two months ago.

We are working closely with all AMO employers to ensure that the health screening of non-essential personnel boarding vessels is applied as conscientiously as it is to the officers and crews assigned to these vessels.

These priorities are linked by one more critically important objective - to keep all deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters vessels moving and all AMO members working for as long as possible under the circumstances. Inactive vessels mean the loss of jobs and the loss of employer contributions to AMO Plans, the benefit funds that serve all AMO members and their families.

Meanwhile, we track, distribute and post all advisories from federal regulatory agencies in Washington - the U.S. Coast Guard, Military Sealift Command, the Maritime Administration, U.S. Transportation Command. We confer with these agencies routinely for the benefit of the men and women we are privileged to represent.

On Capitol Hill, we sort through COVID-19 emergency relief legislation to determine which benefits may be available to U.S. merchant mariners, all of whom were deemed "essential" for U.S. economic services and for national security.

AMO is always on legislative and regulatory watch in the capital, but we are applying an appropriate strategic shift to reflect new challenges linked directly to this coronavirus outbreak:

• Powerful business and political interests and ideological think tanks will try to exploit this national health and economic emergency to win waivers of, exemptions from or the outright repeal of the Jones Act in this, the law's centennial year.


• Funding of the Maritime Security Program is an annual effort, and AMO and other U.S. maritime labor and industry interests have prevailed each year because of the proven budget value of the privately-owned MSP fleet and the civilian American merchant mariners aboard these ships. The MSP provides sealift services, cargo capacity and a worldwide intermodal network the Defense Department itself does not have.
  
  But MSP funding is not the COVID-19 complication here. Potentially slack demand for the roll-on/roll-off and container cargoes hauled through the MSP as a result of the pandemic could sideline some of these vessels in international trade. AMO is pressing Congress and MARAD to hold the annual MSP stipends in place and to keep the officers and crews at work aboard any and all MSP tonnage forced out of service temporarily so that we can make the most of the MSP as intended - ships available on demand to the Defense Department at all times, under any economic conditions.


• In conjunction with this Maritime Security Program strategy, AMO is promoting the increase of statutory U.S.-flag cargo preference levels from 50 percent to 100 percent of all imports and exports financed by the federal government - including PL-480 food-aid exports. We are promoting as well the airtight enforcement of the cargo preference laws. The ideal way to accomplish these long-overdue improvements would be through Executive Order.

Now at this point, AMO members are asking: What impact has COVID-19 had on AMO Plans?

With professional, dedicated staff working remotely, the AMO Medical Plan and the AMO Vacation Plan remain in service to all AMO families, processing benefit claims and fielding questions by phone and by email.

The AMO Safety and Education Plan's STAR Center remains closed for now, but the training center's administration, instructors and support staff will set yet another strong example of professionalism to meet the immediate training and certification needs of AMO members when classes resume.

Despite catastrophic record-breaking first-quarter investment market losses, the defined benefit AMO Pension Plan remains in the federal Pension Protection Act's "green zone," with a funded status of 85 percent. The AMO Pension Plan will continue to meet its obligations to current AMO retirees and their designated beneficiaries, and the January 1, 2020 10-percent increase in benefits calculated for vested AMO members still at work at sea remains in place.

The joint union-employer AMO Pension Plan trustees, AMO Plans administration and AMO Pension Plan personnel will work closely with the AMO Pension Plan investment managers, with counsel, with the certified public accountants and with the actuaries to keep the AMO Pension Plan safely in the green.

The virtual shutdown of Congressional offices in response to COVID-19 is complicating a separate AMO retirement security initiative - the proposed Internal Revenue Service rule exemption to allow AMO members with at least 20 years of service to collect their earned monthly AMO Pension Plan benefits for direct rollover to their Money Purchase Benefit or AMO Defined Contribution Plan account balances, where this money would grow through self-directed investment.

If approved administratively by the IRS or through legislation, this proposal will serve a legitimate and lasting national security purpose by easing a deepening shortage of U.S. merchant mariners qualified for defense shipping and other military support services. Once in place, this rule exemption will encourage sealift-ready AMO members to continue their seagoing careers and remain available to answer the call as our wartime "first responders" - manning Military Sealift Command's surge fleet and the Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Force fleet during mobilization in distant defense emergencies.

This proposal has enthusiastic, energetic bipartisan support where it matters in Congress. Once Washington is open again, this will get prominent priority position on our union's legislative agenda.

Meanwhile, four models of potential reform of the AMO Defined Contribution Plan by basing benefit calculations on length of service exclusively are on hold for now but are certainly not off the radar.

This is an unprecedented crisis that cannot be addressed in conventional ways. No one knows how far infection will spread or how quickly. No one knows when recovery will begin. But we - the AMO administration and the always-innovative seagoing AMO membership - know and understand that we are in this together. We will adapt. We will endure.

As always, I welcome your comments, your questions, your suggestions and your professional and personal perspectives.