As reported by Kirstin Downey for Honolulu Civil Beat
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic and as news reports describe the plight of foreign seamen marooned aboard abandoned ships elsewhere in the world, the Jones Act has given Hawaii extra insulation.
Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, said railroads cut 20% of their workforces between 2014 and 2019 and reduced their fleet of locomotives to save money, leaving themselves without adequate capacity or enough workers to convey goods smoothly when business rebounded. Trucking companies replaced union drivers with independent contractors, he said, and many of those workers dropped out when bottlenecks at the ports made their work unprofitable.
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