Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 1984)

AWO (continued from page 29) of the ripple effect on steel produc- ers, equipment suppliers and var- ious other service industries, it has provided additional employ- ment opportunities for 175,000 people. Every legislative or regu- latory attempt to admit foreign built vessels in contravention to the Jones Act, does nothing but weaken the Act's principles and eventually could cause its demise.

The AWSC and its member com- panies are supportive and depend- ent on the integrity of the Act, and will continue to vigorously defend it.

On another issue, reform of the

Longshoremen's Act may become a reality in 1984. Both the Senate and the House have passed ver- sions of the Longshore Reform

Bill, and the differences must now go to Conference Committee. House and Senate staffers are diligently trying to arrive at reasonable com- promises. There are, however, many areas where the bills agree and which go to the heart of the economic problems caused by the 1972 amendments to the Act. Areas of agreement include: a) 5% cap on the annual benefit escalator; b)

Repeal of the unrelated death ben- efit provision; c) A cap on death benefits at 200% of the national average weekly wage conforming it to disability benefits; d) Codifi- cation of the Supreme Court's Hil- lyer decision, precluding fringe benefits from wages in calculating an employee's average weekly wage; e) Imposes an offset for any other worker's compensation or

Jones Act benefits received; f) De- barment of medical providers and claim representatives for fraud, raises the penalty for misrepresen- tation from a misdemeanor to a fe- lony, requires semi-annual reports of outside earnings, and author- izes for filing a fradulent claim; g)

Preventing deputy commissioners from speculating on future losses of wage earning capacity; h) Ex- pediting settlements allowing au- tomatic approval of settlement agreements within 30 days where the employee is represented by counsel; i) Prohibiting employees in shipyards from suing their em- ployers in court on some dual ca- pacity theory; j) Excluding cleri- cal, secretarial, data processing and security personnel from the

Acts' coverage.

The two most important differ- ences between the House and Sen- ate bills involve jurisdiction and occupational disease. The AWSC has long fought for excluding small shipyards from Longshore Act cov- erage. The second tier shipyards are not able to use their facilities for non-maritime construction be- cause the high rates of the Long- shore Act make them non-compet- itive with other steel fabricators.

Highway and bridge construction have increased over 70% in the last year, since the 59c fuel tax came into effect. However small shipyards have not been able to participate in that business or in many other non-maritime steel fabrication jobs because of the Act.

In addition, many shipyards could also become steel service centers if they were not burdened by the

Act. Progress is being made prior to conference to find a way to ex- clude the shops and building areas in shipyards from maritime cover- age so that the facilities can be more fully utilized. In addition, progress is also being made on re- solving the occupational disease issues. With the difficult issues out of the way, it is hoped that a bill will be passed before Congress adjourns in October 1984.

Longshore Reform will provide shipyards with greater cost control and more flexibility to use their facilities.

Progress is also being made on the development of a vertical standard for the shipbuilding in- dustry. Two years ago Phase I of the project was completed when

OSHA consolidated the three ship- yards standards—ship building, shiprepairing, and shipbreaking— into one single standard. The sec- ond phase is nearly complete where the appropriate general industry standards will be combined with the shipyard standards thereby producing a vertical standard which contains all the regulations that a shipyard must comply with. Fi- nally, the third and most difficult phase is the revision of the verti- cal standard so that all regula- tions will be appropriate for the shipyard environment. This will be undertaken on a section-by-sec- tion basis under a review schedule established by OSHA.

In 1980, the AWSC was the re- cipient of an OSHA New Direc- tions grant. In 1981, the AWSC published the new Employees

Safety Training Program, a slide cassette presentation. The funds raised through the sale of the

Safety Training Program have en- abled the AWSC to become finan- cially self-sufficient to produce ad- ditional programs. The AWSC

Shipyard Safety Committee will soon embark on the development of a Supervisors Safety Training

Program. These programs are wise investments that anticipate recov- ery in the shipyard industry, and that will be in place once the re- covery occurs.

The American Waterways Oper- ators, Inc., and the AWSC, repre- sent a rare alliance for an indus- try trade association because it combines both the manufacturers and the operators of the equip- ment. This coalition reflects the true nature of the maritime indus- try which is an integrated system composed of several distinct and essential parts: vessel operators, ports and terminals and shipyards.

Farrell Comments On

Rail-Barge Merger

Joseph Farrell, president of the American Waterways Opera- tors, Inc., reacted strongly to the

July 24, 1984 Interstate Com- merce Commission's 4 to 0 vote to allow CSX, the nation's second largest railroad to acquire Ameri- can Commercial Barge Lines, one of the nation's largest barge lines. "By permitting the dominant rail carrier in the east to swallow up the largest inland barge car- rier—thereby disrupting and in the long term severely damaging the all-important intermodal bal- ance which ensures competition, efficiency, and lower costs—the

ICC is sanctioning an extremely dangerous precedent," Mr. Farrell said. "There can be no more impor- tant public interest issue than the preservation of competition," Mr.

Farrell said. "From vigorous com- petition flows lower rates, innova- tive services, ample supply of equipment, and all the many ben- efits that result from management striving for improved efficiency so that it may prevail in the market- place. The reduction in competi- tion that this merger allows will bring inefficiency and higher con- sumer prices. "The paramount issue here is protection of American consumer, who will be the ultimate loser in a marketplace of rail monopoly and reduced competition." "This fight is not over," Mr. Far- rell said. "We're confident we'll be successful on appeal."

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