|
Dear Mr. President: Being a Canadian sailor, I’m very concerned what effect the Maritime Provisions of the Canada-Europe Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will have on Employment Contract offers being voted on at Algoma Central Marine and elsewhere by unlicensed seafarers this year and subsequently. Since you’ve worked for years at Moeller/Maersk you will be at ease with most crew members on a ship being Flag of Convenience foreign seafarers and your experience with a group representing passenger liners in Brussels will have provided you experience in dealing with European Union and European Commission functionaries, particularly in regard to applying CETA’s Maritime Provisions to Algoma’s advantage. Having learned that Kirk Jones, Acting President of the Canadian Shipowners Association (of which Algoma Central Marine was a Member prior to the former being amalgamated into the Chamber of Marine Commerce on 28/9/17, a month before CETA was signed in Brussels) said in testimony on 6/4/17 before the Canadian Senate-Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, enquiring into Bill C-30 and CETA: 1.”… the C.S.A. Understands that the negotiated outcomes of the CETA are a done deal and that they will be implemented.” 2. “…the amendments to the Coasting Trade Act in Bill C-30, as they are currently drafted… These provisions do not need to be changed or amended at this stage.” Since the Association and its’ successor represent Algoma Central Marine, this suggests that: 1. Algoma Central Marine accepts that Chapter 14, Article 3, Section 2 of CETA grants Maritime Cabotage Rights to European registered ships, which mostly operate with low wage Flag of Convenience crews, to all Canadian ports in competition with Canadian ships and their Canadian crews which would shortly disappear as well as thousands of Canadian seafaring jobs once implemented. 2. Algoma Central Marine accepts Reservation II-C-14, which only temporarily suspends most of these Rights, except for the Halifax-Montreal Corridor and a few others, and can be used to extract large wage, benefit and other concessions from Canadian seafarers and their Unions through the possibility of removal of the Reservation which would restore Rights granted to European Shipowners in Article 14-3.2 to all Canadian ports without further permission required from the Parliament of Canada. Sailors of the Seafarers International Union of Canada have been warned by their leaders (“Cuts. More cuts. Deep cuts.”: James Givens, President of the S.I.U. of Canada, World Weekly Maritime News, Paragraph 1, 16/5/16.) for over a year of coming wage and benefit cuts, not only from one Maritime Transport company, but generally all of them. Since these advantages ( Article 14-3.2 in CETA and Reservation II-C-14, among others) granted to Algoma and other Canadian Shipowners in CETA’s Maritime Provisions are known publicly to favour them and that Algoma’s seafarers are learning of it, should you make use of these advantages in employment contract negotiations: • Are these apparently built-in advantages to Canadian Shipowners in CETA (including those that may permit the reflagging of Marine passenger ferries and perhaps Coast-Guard ships by European Interests who are permitted to bid on the provision of government services to Canadians) the reason Canadian seafarers were warned to expect adverse long term employment contract offers from employers? • Have you considered all the consequences that pressing these advantages will have on Algoma’s seafarers, their families, other Canadian sailors, as well as Algoma Central Marine itself, other Canadian Shipowners and the rest of the Canadian Maritime Transport Industry? Sincerely, Marc de Villers, |
Stop CETA from sinking Canadian Ships