ORLANDO, FL—Transportation unions vowed to protect and create U.S. maritime jobs by strengthening enforcement of cargo preference laws and reversing recent congressional action that undermined these longstanding requirements.
Meeting this week, the Executive Committee of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD) criticized legislation adopted in 2012, as part of an 11th hour deal on a surface transportation reauthorization bill, that lowered the percentage of U.S. international food aid shipments required to be transported on American ships.
“This language was inserted in the dead of the night,” the Executive Committee pointed out, “without consulting maritime labor or the U.S. maritime industry, and without even a single congressional hearing on the subject.”
“The U.S. maritime industry is a critical element of our nation’s transportation system and vital to our economic and national security,” said TTD President Edward Wytkind. “We must reverse last year’s congressional action to weaken cargo preference laws as well as strengthen the enforcement of these statutory requirements across every agency of our government.”
CONTACT: Jennifer Michels, Jmichels@ttd.org, 202.628.9262, 703.395-2195