Bush Administration Exports More Homeland Security

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/09/04/bush-administration-exports-more-homeland-security/

Economy, Bush & Co.

Sep 4

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Bush Administration Exports More Homeland Security

Looks like Homeland Security doesn’t include job security. The U.S. Coast Guard, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has given a Philadelphia shipbuilder the green light to outsource U.S. jobs.

In a post at Daily Kos, Paul Pimentel, director of research and communications at the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), explains that federal law—the Jones Act—requires ships used in U.S. port-to-port trade—in contrast to those used in international shipping—be made in U.S. shipyards.

Yet the Coast Guard has given Aker Philadelphia Shipyard Inc. permission to import large parts, equipment, bows, propellers, even ready-made crew quarters, from Korean manufacturer Hyundai. Aker is building 10 huge tankers for the U.S. trade in its Philadelphia shipyard.

The U.S. workers building these ships will no longer create them from stem to stern—they only are welding together the imported parts, which takes far fewer shipyard workers, likely creating job losses at U.S. firms that manufacturer the same type of foreign-made parts.

The outsourcing leaves a particularly bitter taste for shipyard workers, says Pimentel:

Several unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department even were coaxed into providing a billion and a half dollars worth of concessions to Aker after 7,000 workers were laid off from the Philadelphia shipyard, just to get Aker to build its ships in Philadelphia.

On top of that, many of the parts pose an environmental threat.

Pumps, pipes, valves, hatches and other systems that are built for these ships must meet durability and performance standards that are far superior to those specified by the European Union and other governmental entities. These new regulations were put in place for a reason, they were instituted after the Exxon Valdez disaster to ensure that one does not happen again.

Read Pimentel’s full post here and the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department’s take on the outsourcing decision.

by Mike Hall

3 links at original story link above.