Page 11: of Marine News Magazine (March 2021)

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Q&A economic and homeland security of the country. This is an important workforce that has an outsized impact.

Their living and working environment, second point.

You’re living and working in close quarters when you’re on board a vessel. Once you’re out there, if you have six, eight healthy people on a boat, you’re kind of your own self-con- tained bubble, and that’s a pretty good place to be. Com- panies are working very hard to make sure that folks are reporting to work healthy and that they’re keeping them healthy, but there’s a lot of COVID infection in communi- ties all around this country. And it’s really important that we get mariners vaccinated so they can safely come to work and operate in environments where you can’t always social distance because it’s close quarters.

The third thing is that there really is a need, and this goes a little bit to the how, in addition to the why. We need a national focus here, given the interstate nature of our workforce and their operations. As you know, a lot of the decisions about vaccination priority have been made by the states. They look to CDC guidance, and they’ve made their own decisions based on what’s going on in their states. This is really complicated when you’re talking about came into this job that I wanted to work with members to a mobile workforce where a mariner may live in State A, really make AWO into their indispensable organization that report to work in State B, get off the vessel in State C. is crucial to helping them survive, adapt and thrive in a con- It’s challenging to deal with a multiplicity of state by state stantly changing business and public policy environment. approaches. So we are urging that we look at the mariner

We sure saw constant and big change last year. But I workforce as a national asset, which in the grand scheme of think fast, big change on both the business front and on things is not that large but has an outsized importance on the public policy front are in some ways going to be the economy and security. These doses are out there, and we new normal. We’re not going to be dealing with a global need to establish a national track so that we can get them pandemic every year, but fast, big change. So AWO has to to mariners in a timely way.

be nimble, ? exible and adaptable and in close touch with members so that we can retool, recon? gure and evolve to

With the virus holding onto much of the meet those challenges.

world’s attention these days, how do you keep the balance to ensure other key issues

AWO has been advocating for prioritizing are not overlooked?

COVID-19 vaccinations for mariners. Why is

JC: The fundamentals are more important than ever. Those this important?

public policies that provide the foundation for our industry

JC: I would highlight three things. First, mariners, as we are especially important when you’re dealing with a crisis. The have seen over the last year and historically, are a key part Jones Act, ports and waterways infrastructure, the need for of the essential critical infrastructure workforce, as the De- rational, practical regulations, the importance of a focus on partment of Homeland Security recognized early last year. safety; those things are more important than ever so we don’t

They have played and continue to play a key role in keep- sink barges and block channels and shoot ourselves in the foot ing our supply chain moving and really in supporting the when we’re trying to keep the nation’s commerce moving.

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