Us Department Of Labor News

A 77-year-old fish factory vessel with a checkered history is reportedly leaking ammonia in Tacoma, Wash.The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday it is responding to the incident on board the U.S.-registered Pacific Producer, a 169-foot-long seafood processing vessel with a long string of health, safety and labor violations.Coast Guard and Washington Department of Ecology crews in HAZMAT suits are currently working to locate leak. The vessel poses no immediate threat to the public…

Maersk Line Limited has been ordered to pay more than $700,000 and reinstate a seafarer it fired for reporting safety concerns about a company vessel to the U.S. Coast Guard.A federal whistleblower investigation determined that the company—a U.S. subsidiary of Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller - Maersk—illegally suspended and terminated a seafarer who reported safety concerns about the U.S.-flagged containership Safmarine Mafadi to the Coast Guard in December 2020.Among the safety concerns, the seaman reported a gear used to release lifeboats did not work properly; rusted, corroded and broken deck sockets; and two leaks in the starboard tunnel and the bilge system caused flooding in cargo holds.

On August 11, 2022, a federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned an indictment charging seven defendants with running a criminal enterprise dedicated to extorting and misleading shipping companies into paying fees for the loading and unloading of cargo at the Port of San Juan—Piers 9, 10, and 11—under the threat of strikes and blockades on the part of union members of the ILA-1740 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO (ILA) and under false representations…

Marcus Jadotte has joined Crowley as senior vice president of government relations, leading the company’s advocacy activities across all its businesses.Jadotte will spearhead the company’s continuing advocacy for laws and regulations that support the domestic maritime industry, while expanding awareness of Crowley’s growing defense and civilian government services among federal, state and local officials. He will be based in Washington, D.C.Jadotte comes to Crowley after his tenure as vice president of federal government relations at Raytheon Technologies.

PACCAR Winch has been recognized locally and nationally for their ongoing commitment to providing an outstanding work environment for veterans. From community outreach to employee programs, the company is dedicated to recruiting, developing, and celebrating veterans.On November 10, PACCAR Winch was recognized as a recipient of the 2021 HIRE Vets Gold Medallion Award for the third year in a row from the U.S. Department of Labor. The Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing…

Naval shipyards and industry partners see business growing, but finding enough trained and qualified workers is a challenge.General Dynamics Electric Boat will invest $1.7 billion to modernize and upgrade its Quonset, R.I. and Groton, Conn., facilities over the next ten years,” said Sean Davies , vice president for EB’s Quonset Point Operations. “Here at Quonset, we are investing $700 million that will increase our outfitting space by 13 acres, to support work on the Virginia and Columbia class of submarines.

Bouchard Transportation Co. Inc. and three former and current management officials from the Long Island-based petroleum barge company have paid $375,000 in restitution to the brother of one of two seamen killed in a 2017 barge explosion off Port Aransas, Texas.The seaman alleged the company fired him for cooperating with investigators and reporting safety concerns to the U.S. Coast Guard following the deadly blast on board Buster Bouchard/B. No. 255. The National Transportation…

Halter Marine unveiled its new PythonX plasma cutter as the Pascagoula, Miss. shipbuilder adds new equipment to gear up for construction of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutter (PSC).The newly acquired Lincoln Electric PythonX will allow for steel parts to be cut via computerized numeric control (CNC) driven by the yard's 3D production design models, taking the place of the traditional hand-cut method. Previously, cuts were made manually by shipbuilders with acetylene torches.Bringing in high-tech tools such as the new plasma cutter…

Please describe your professional background and what attracted you to your current position.In June 2020, I was named president and chief executive officer of Halter Marine. I had been retired around six years. My wife and I bought a piece of property outside of Brookhaven, Miss., and we were enjoying retired life split between our country property and our home in Gautier, Miss. Earlier this year, I was asked if I would consider a consulting role for Halter Marine, which led…

Pascagoula, Miss. shipbuilder Halter Marine is creating jobs, and through its partnership with Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (MGCCC), training the apprentices to fill them. The recently launched apprenticeship program is designed in three components: on-the-job training, classroom training and a progressive wage increase as participants reach set milestones. It offers training in the craft labor fields of welding, ship fitting, pipe fitting, pipe welding and electrical.

Ammonia, the same pungent solution used in fertilizers and cleaning agents, may one day be the key to transporting renewable energy around the world. There are currently a number of government and corporate projects assessing the feasibility of converting excess renewable energy from sources like wind, solar, tidal and nuclear into ammonia and then back into usable energy.In its purist form, ammonia or NH3 is composed of one nitrogen and three hydrogen atoms making it an ideal candidate to chemically bind excess renewable energy. Like several other chemical compounds, ammonia can be transported by chemical tanker in liquid form to end-users. Based on its near ambient liquification point, it may be more appealing to transport ammonia over longer distances than hydrogen.

Companies with workers repairing and refurbishing ship components utilizing sand blasting have become the subject of a new U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard.All employers and employees in the maritime industry need to be aware of the new requirements as OSHA continues efforts to protect workers from the hazards of exposure to breathable silica dust. The new application of the "Respirable Crystalline Silica" standards requires…

Foss Maritime announced today a partnership to establish the curriculum for a new marine engineering apprenticeship program, and to sponsor several applicants each year. Seattle Central College, Seattle Maritime Academy, the Maritime Institute of Technology & Graduate Studies-Pacific Maritime Institute and the Workboat Academy have received a $5 million American Apprenticeship Innovation Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to help build a new apprenticeship program. Through the grant, more 150 engineers will be trained over the next five years, both in Seattle and Baltimore. The engineering program will mirror Workboat Academy's deck apprenticeship, now in its 10th year.

Austal’s U.S. operation consists of more than 4,000 employees supporting the design, construction and sustainment of two U.S. Navy programs, the 127-meter, trimaran Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and the 103-meter, catamaran high-speed troop and equipment transport known as the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV). Austal has block-buy contracts in place for both programs totaling over $5 billion. In the past year, it has  delivered the Jackson (LCS 6), USNS Fall River (JHSV 4) and USNS Trenton (JHSV 5).

In 2012, U.S. The U.S. ocean economy outpaced the domestic economy between 2011 and 2012, with an increase of $22 billion in gross domestic product, from $321 billion to $343 billion, according to a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) analysis. Adjusting the figures to remove the effects of inflation, this increase equates to a 10.5 percent rate of growth—more than four times as fast as the U.S. economy as a whole. The report is based on 2012 U.S. national economic statistics released in August 2014.

More than 100 city officials, educators, community members, and representatives from the river industry attended West Kentucky Community and Technical College’s open house and ribbon cutting for its Inland Logistics and Marine Institute (ILMI) August 10. Visitors toured the recently renovated 8,000 square-foot facility located at 631 Marine Way between local river businesses and Paducah's downtown. The building includes classrooms, a state-of-the-art radar lab, diesel lab, video lab and five offices. “WKCTC’s Inland Logistics and Marine Institute will allow students the opportunity to train using the latest technology as well as providing a training venue to serve the local maritime and transportation industry,” said Troy Courtney, WKCTC’s ILMI director.

A union caucus representing dockworkers at West Coast ports voted to recommend to its members a labor contract deal reached over months of negotiations that led to major disruptions to trans-Pacific trade, the U.S. Department of Labor said on Friday. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union reached a tentative five-year agreement with the Pacific Maritime Association, representing a group of shippers, on Feb. 20 with the help of a federal mediator and intervention by U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. "With their vote to recommend ratification of the contract between shippers and dockworkers at the West Coast ports, leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have taken an important step toward finalizing the agreement," Perez said in a statement on Friday.

Austal USA combined two classes to graduate a total of 48 members of Austal’s cutting-edge four-year apprenticeship program yesterday at a formal ceremony held at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center. The graduates received their certificates of completion and designation as Department of Labor Class A Journeymen. The graduates consisted of 22 electrical journeymen, 9 pipe fitting journeymen, 4 fitout journeymen, and 13 fabrication journeymen. Of the 48 graduating apprentices, 18 have already been promoted to leadership positions. Austal is proud to say that the retention numbers for these apprenticeship classes were above regional averages for other apprenticeship programs in our area.

The use of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as a transportation fuel for ships, barges and ferries has surged in recent months. This surge is due, in large part, to the boon in the production of natural gas in the U.S.; new low sulfur rules for the North American Emission Control Area (ECA), which go into effect on January 1, 2015; and new technologies for the construction of engines capable of running on LNG. Regulatory regimes both in the U.S. and worldwide are struggling to keep pace with the tremendous growth of LNG as a fuel.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently cited a shipyard for 61 alleged violations of workplace safety and health standards. Faced with $293,450 in proposed fines, the shipyard’s alleged violations include electrical hazards, such as failure to guard lights from damage, failure to provide effective electrical grounding for equipment, failure to provide covers on electrical box openings, and failure to ensure wiring was protected from abrasion and strain.

We in the passenger vessel industry strongly believe in safety. We want our operations to be safe to ensure the well-being of our crew and passengers and the protection of our assets. We work hard to establish appropriate safety policies and programs and we train and drill crew to ensure that we are all aware of the need to be safe and to appropriately respond when an accident does occur. But as we do these things, do we go far enough? Have we taken the steps necessary to develop an actual culture of safety within our organizations? We in the passenger vessel industry have vigorously embraced safety for many decades. We believe in the value of safety and we work to establish a culture of safety throughout our organizations.

Approval clears way to create nation’s largest deepwater containerized cargo transfer terminal, enhancing U.S. competitiveness as Panama Canal expands. Transshipment facility off Louisiana coast intended to improve America’s strained shipping infrastructure, streamline international trade flow and create long-term jobs in 32 states. Louisiana State Senator A.G. Crowe’s vision of making America more competitive and capitalizing on the Gulf of Mexico’s deep-water resources has taken…

Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens, the Bronx), Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, announced that he, along with 25 bipartisan members of Congress, sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Office of Management and Budget urging the agencies to develop and support a plan to design and replace the ships used by the United State’s six State Maritime Academies (SMAs). “The maritime industry continues to be a key part of our nation’s economy,” said Rep. Crowley. In the letter, the lawmakers expressed concern over the aging multi-mission vessels being used to train future generations of maritime workers and 70 percent of new U.S. Coast Guard licensed officers each year.