America Strikes Back at Pirates … with Unions!!

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Remember how a union flight crew, union ferry crews, and union first-responders pulled off the incredible rescue back in January? Those union employees had gotten a lot of their safety training because of their union.

Well, those darn unions are at it with the heroics again. This time, it’s in vanquishing pirates.

American crew members aboard a U.S.-flagged ship have regained control of the vessel hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia Wednesday, FOX News confirms.

Defense Department officials confirmed that one pirate is in custody. A U.S. official said the status of the other pirates is unknown but they were reported to "be in the water."

"All the crew members are trained in security detail in how to deal with piracy," Maersk CEO John Reinhart told reporters. "As merchant vessels we do not carry arms. We have ways to push back, but we do not carry arms."

[snip]

At least 12 of the Americans aboard the Maersk Alabama are members of the Seafarers International Union, spokesman Jordan Biscardo said.

I had dinner one night last year with members of the SIU; they told me that ships sailing under US flags are the union crews. And as MoJo has confirmed, it appears that union membership is a big part of the reason these men were able to retake their ship.

And as I just heard on Fox News (and confirmed with the SIU), crew members of the Maersk Alabama received anti-piracy training from (where else?) their union.

If this serial heroism keeps up, businesses are going to be clamoring for unions to keep their operations safe. 

Typo fixed per wohjr.

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49 replies
    • klynn says:

      You are one silly man.

      EW,

      Thanks for sharing this news.

      Have unions been invited to the protests?

    • freepatriot says:

      I was wondering why the pirates ain’t forming their own union

      Arrrr there rules against it ???

      (sorry, had to do it)

  3. JimWhite says:

    If this serial heroism keeps up, businesses are going to be clambering for unions to keep their operations safe.

    Some day, maybe, just perhaps, businesses will learn that safety training contributes to the bottom line. Until they understand that, it will remain the province of the unions to do all of the safety training because they actually care about the safety of their members.

    Great story!

    • Cujo359 says:

      Too true. Modern American management generally excises anything that doesn’t directly and instantly contribute to profit, and they aren’t legally required to have. I doubt we’ll see them doing such training any time soon.

      • perris says:

        it’s the business model, they have to show a profit THIS quater, if they don’t they don’t get their bonus.

        someone needs to come up with a better business model to which mba’s can model their performance from

        the current model is destructive, irresponsible and needs to be changed pronto

  5. Loo Hoo. says:

    Wow!!

    What a fantastic story! Hope the Obamas plan some kind of HERO party. The Unions need to broadcast these stories far and wide.

  6. wohjr says:

    EW-

    Typo patrol… I’m not sure if “clambering” is the word you are looking for. Is that like clam-baking? Anyways, maybe you were going for was “clamoring”?

    Great work as always, ps

      • scribe says:

        errr – both spellings and meanings work.

        Corporate America will be clambering over each other to get to hire the short supply of Union workers.

        and

        Corporate America will be clamoring for Union workers.

        • MarkH says:

          Corporate America will be clam-baking for union workers!

          Works that way too except it creates a nasty after-image you really don’t want.

  8. Arbusto says:

    The shipping industry will point out that we stopped building ships in the 1950’s because we couldn’t compete with Japan, now Korea and China, and that Flag Lines can’t compete with foreign built and non union crews. I’d like to see how true that is because ship building would be a nice job generator.

  9. MaryCh says:

    Gar, ’tweren’t a fair fight don’t ya know! We pirates be independent contractors, with no health insurance, safety training, continuing plundering education…and don’t get me started on our industry’s resistin’ regulations!

  10. malcontent says:

    NPR Boston is reporting that 2 of the crew graduated from Mass. Maritime Academy and one in particular has a dad that teaches anti-piracy there.

  12. Kathryn in MA says:

    Another point – maybe pirates will avoid union ships under US flag….. wonder what ‘in the water’ means.
    Oh, and another point – don’t carry guns, but know their security stuff well enough to repel pirates. Huh.

  14. shekissesfrogs says:

    The is a happy story but it’s not all of it. Were you able to assess what the US ship was doing in somalian waters?

    This is the country where the CIA undermined the very popular Islamic Courts Union Government, and they were left with fuedalism in it’s place.(Scary Muslims) The water on the Somali coast has been overfished by agriprocessors, and used as a dumping ground for nuclear waste. Barrels of it washed upon the shore and no one knew what they were until people started getting sick and babies were born with birth defects.

    Those “pirates” are really fishermen who have had their livelihoods destroyed and can no longer provide for thier families. They are also protecting what belongs to them. They have no navy.
    -$
    Contrast it with France for1 instance: If you pull your yacht into a port it might cost you $5000-$10,000 in fees to dock there, sans the environmental destruction. These Somali “Pirates” are getting a bum wrap.

      • shekissesfrogs says:

        Thanks for the link!
        Jimhicks, I’ve discovered I’m a closet commie pinko too.

        And who would have guessed? More CIA private security services, renditions

        The PIS has secretive ties to Western intelligence agencies, especially the American CIA, with widespread reports indicating that PIS soldiers are paid, trained and equipped by the CIA.

        18 members of the US-financed and masterminded Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS), established as a rather independent security outfit during the reign of former Puntland President Adde Musse, who holds a Canadian passport, were seriously injured by attacking al-Shabab fighters at Lanta Hawada in the separated north-eastern Somali region. Local witnesses reported that a US-helicopter made two flights to evacuate the wounded officers and also took one wounded al-Shabab fighter. The PIS had recently arrested over 15 foreign insurgents from Syria, Irak and other Muslim countries operating with al-Shabab. Allegedly, the captured foreigners had been handed over to US forces and their whereabouts are unknown.

        According to local reports the vast majority of Puntlanders opposes the ungoverned activities of the PIS men in the region….

        President Farole, who became Puntland president in January, has spoken strongly against the independent role of the PIS and has demanded that the agency’s policy and operations come directly under the authority of the Puntland presidency.

    • jimhicks3 says:

      Thanks for the link – I usually root for the pirates but I usually blame it on being a pinko but I like the confirmation that my prejudices are justified.
      jh3

    • Hmmm says:

      These Somali “Pirates” are getting a bum wrap.

      I have sympathy with your point, so when I say that this rather unfortunate misspelling (”bum rap” is what I think you were going for) makes it sound like they’re off somewhere enjoying some new and exotic day-spa treatment… well, just please don’t hate me for it, is all.

  15. laborite57 says:

    Let’s not get too carried away on the theme of the union membership of the crew of Maersk Alabama. The Seafarers International Union school offers small arms training to union members because the military has some requirements that crew members receive such training before they can when work on ships that carry military supplies into the war zones. The military recognizes that U.S.-flagged civilian vessels carrying government cargo are a potential target for terrorists and others.

  16. shekissesfrogs says:

    Sorry for hijacking the direction of your thread.

    Unsustainable exploitation of marine resources in Africa´s oceans is occurring on a massive scale, causing the collapse of fisheries, the loss of critical ecosystems and the extinction of marine wildlife. A large part of the problem is unreported and illegal fishing by foreign fishing companies. It has been estimated that the market value of fish caught illegally in Africa by commercial fishing companies could be as much as $1 billion every year. Due to this gross over fishing, small scale fishing is under sever strain. The economic and social consequences for coastal communities is a major concern throughout the continent.

    The boats being hijacked are the agriprocessors boats. Are they still heroes and pirates? IMHO, not so much.

  17. earlofhuntingdon says:

    You go in the water. Shark’s in the water. Our shark.

    “Farewell and adieu you fair Spanish ladies….”

    Goes with the territory. But pirates are the spear point. Who holds the shaft?

  18. cinnamonape says:

    OT – But EW and all of us may be interested in what the Judge in the Stevens case has just announced regarding another case before him,,,that of the Yemeni Dr. Bartofi who has been held by the Army for 7 years as an “enemy combatant” but, after being comeplled to release the medical records of a key witness, has now entered another limbo:

    “charges dropped- to be released to a third country”.

    The judge is not all that pleased with this change, viewing it as a decisive violation of habeas corpus, as well as withholding key evidence from the Court and the defense!

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/65608.html

  20. perris says:

    I had dinner one night last year with members of the SIU; they told me that ships sailing under US flags are the union crews. And as MoJo has confirmed, it appears that union membership is a big part of the reason these men were able to retake their ship.

    let me say this again;

    union membership needs to be the default and the labor force of a particular company can opt to vote the union out, not the other way around

    does anyone know what union membership averaged in america before reagan?

    now a union member is hard to find

  21. lokywoky says:

    perris @ 31 (my reply button doesn’t seem to be working!)

    Union membership peaked shortly before Reagan took office at around 34% of all workers.

    Recently it has been as low as 11.4% but unions have been growing in strength in the last two-three years and they are at about 12.5% now.

  22. Margaret says:

    “If this serial heroism keeps up, businesses are going to be clamoring for unions to keep their operations safe.”

    They’ll also be clamoring for them to take a pay cut, give up their retirement and pay more for health care.

  24. diogenes says:

    And on 9/11, it was union firemen. EMT’s and LEO’s that ran into the buildings.

    And union flight attendants that let the outside world know about the hijackings in real time.

    And union machinists that build the “arsenal of democracy”.

    Compare and contrast organized labor’s contribution to the commonweal this past decade vs. the MOU’s.

    Not even close.

  27. Sara says:

    It works like this…

    While each congress there are major efforts on the part of lobbies to change the law, part of Public Law 480 requires that food relief from US Agricultural surpluses, be carried in “American Bottoms” — and US Flagged and owned ships, all have union crews. This ship is owned by Moller/Maersk, which is a vast international Danish Company, but which bought an American Shipping Company, and thus is a bi-national corporation. When it carries American Humanitarian Relief Supplies, they must use a ship chartered in the US, US Flagged, and American Crew. Moller/Maersk is perfectly capable of changing the charter, flag, and crew if it is hired to deliver a non-restricted cargo. For instance, this is the Danish Shipping Company that “sold” Ollie North his ship for shipping the anti-tank weapons to Iran back in the middle of Iran Contra — the ship he took back to Denmark and parked once the story broke, and left the crew without paying their wages. Not covered in the US Press at all — the Danes had a nice little trial in a public court on the Island of Fyn, and took public testimony of all the seamen (all Danes) who were unpaid, and out spilled all the cargo’s they had hauled, and all their ports of Call. Not sure whether North ever paid his fines and got right with the Danish Seaman’s court. Moller/Maersk also was the primary contractor hauling arms to Central America back in the Reagan Days. They’ve done covert stuff for CIA for years.

    (Why keep up with a story like this — well back in my days of being an Exchange Student in Denmark, I acquired a Danish Boyfriend, who over the years worked his way up the ladder in the Seaman’s Union. — I have vaguely followed his career as a political odd-ball and “pound the table” sort of Union Officer. Ollie North drove him to distraction — and he would not let the story go, giving radio talks and having TV appearances and all that back in the late 80’s. Friends made some audio cassettes of his stuff and sent them to me, clipped the papers and all — and I tried to interest reporters following some of the going’s on in Central America in it — to no avail. Anyhow, he won the Seaman’s lawsuit.)

    And Oh yea — why are we sending food relief to Kenya? Two reasons. Some of it is for the Somali in refugee camps in the north of Kenya, but some may be because of a new Wheat Fungi that has appeared in Kenya, and is spreading North and South in Africa, and has recently appeared in the Middle East — working its way toward Pakistan and India. The US and India have a huge project underway to breed around the Fungi — they even brought 94 year old Norman Borlag out of retirement to work on the effort. The Indian Press has been reporting this — US Press not at all. But it could be a huge crisis if the Iranian, Pakistani and North Indian Wheat Crops were to fail, and when the fungi infests, it destroys entire fields in a matter of days. Anyhow, I assume relief wheat from the US could be the cargo here, as a significant part of Kenya’s Wheat Crop went down this year.

    • bmaz says:

      Wonderful story Sara, thanks.

      Borlag huh? Fantastic. That guy is a gift that keeps on giving, a true hero that ought to be much more well known.

    • laborite57 says:

      Maersk has deep connections with the military. It seems to be the favored contractor for the Navy’s Military Sealift Command, the agency in charge of shipping military cargo around the world.

      The favoritism shown Maersk has engendered deep resentment among some genuinely American shipping companies. A couple of years back, Maersk was lambasted by a congressman (I can’t remember the name) for having shipped Soviet arms to North Korea for use in killing American soldiers. Reaching even further back, I have heard grumbling that Maersk was never held accountable for its collaboration with the Nazis during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II.

      • laborite57 says:

        Ooops, I meant to say that Maersk was criticized in Congress for shipping arms to North Vietnam, not Korea. If it makes any difference, it is my recollection that the criticism came from one of the Republican wingnut congressmen from Southern California.

  28. Leen says:

    “pirates” just sounds too damn romantic or something. Where is that term “terrorist”?

    Unions were responsible for creating a large middle class (especially those without college educations). that is why the rich fat cats generally don’t like unions. Unions gave the peasants a voice…and that’s against the power elites rules.

  29. Oval12345678akaJamesKSayre says:

    There are many unanswered questions about the problem of Somali piracy increasing in the last ten years or so? This notion that somehow, European toxic waste being dumped in the waters, along with the story that these same waters are being heavily fished by Europeans does not quite add up.

    1. Q: how do poor Somali fishermen suddenly acquire million-dollar speedboats? Did their Bank of America VISA credit cards suddenly have their limits greatly increased? The US Congress needs to investigate into the funding and the operation of the Somali pirates.

    2. Cargo ships, container ships and freighters need to have small arms aboard so that the crew can defend themselves against pirates. If the UN law of the sea rules currently forbid ships from defending themselves against pirates, then the UN law of the sea rules need to be modified. Situations change, and so people have to change their responses to new situations. Ships can put away their arms once they have passed through piracy danger zones, currently, the Gulf of Arabia, the ocean around the Horn of Africa and parts of the South Asian waters east of India.

    Ships with some small arms for self-protection will not pose a threat to seaports anywhere in the world. They may have two hundred years ago, but it is a different world now… Armored trucks with armed guards do not present a threat to citizens of cities across the world.

    The US needs to get out of Afghanistan and Iraq now. All nations need to arm their cargo vessels as protection against piracy on the high seas.

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