John Brandon Waldrip

Docket Management Facility (M–30), U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590–0001. Subject: Docket No. USCG–2010–0797 Gentlemen: This letter is to serve as comment to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking titled Recognition of Foreign Certificates Under the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as Amended, Regulation I/10 I wish to file my objection to the proposed rulemaking based on these two paragraphs found within it: “Given this need, the Coast Guard is developing a policy to start establishing a process for the United States’ recognition of foreign certificates held by foreign officers who may be employed on some United States flag vessels.” and “The proposed policy could also offer guidance for mariners and/or vessel operators/employers with regard to applying for and obtaining a United States-issued endorsement of their foreign certificates.” Both paragraphs clearly indicate that the proposed rulemaking will facilitate the employment of foreign national mariners on all types of US flagged vessels by omitting to add any provisions whatsoever to protect for US citizen mariners their legal rights to man US flagged ships. By changing the current policy and to begin recognizing the STCW certificates of foreign seafarers and then to issue them endorsements of their foreign issued licenses, US flagged vessel shipowners will be given incentive to find avenues to cease employing US mariners and begin to engage foreign seafarers due to cost differentials and other issues such as US citizen seafarer civil protections. There is no language in this proposed rulemaking to prevent this from occurring and if implemented, it WILL occur. There is already significant evidence that certain shipowners are circumventing regulations in 33CFR141.5 by engaging foreign mariners in positions reserved for US seafarers on vessels owned by US corporations working in the oil and mineral industry in the Gulf of Mexico. They are using a very similar provision to 46 U.S.C. 8103(b)(3)(C) which is referenced in the rulemaking. The provision used instead is found in 33CFR141.20(a)(2) which states “When there is not a sufficient number of citizens of the United States or resident aliens qualified and available for the work.” Hmm, sounds familiar doesn't it? This is a patent falsehood which is being abused by these particular shipowners and the USCG Office of Foreign & Offshore Vessel Compliance Division is being made aware of these abuses. Yet, even though the USCG might know of this occurring, the standard for these shipowners to prove “none available” is an easy one because the USCG and Department of Labor do not have statutory authority nor budget to investigate the claims of these vessel owners that there are no available qualified US citizen mariners. The USCG and DoL are placed in a position where they must accept “de facto” the claims by the owners and as a result there are at least ten vessels of significant tonnage operating on the US Outer Continental Shelf with all or mostly all foreign mariners with the loss of well in excess of 200 total jobs to US citizen licensed officers and certified seamen. These mariners are from nations such as Norway, the UK, Canada, Poland and the Philippines. The vessels they serve aboard are dive support, ROV support, pipelay and, in one case at least, a mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU). The jobs to US mariners in the offshore oil service vessel industry in the US Gulf of Mexico are particularly vulnerable to being lost to foreign officers and seamen since they are singled out in 46 U.S.C. 8103(b)(3)(B). Where there is a way to cut costs, the vessel owners will take it and American mariners will be the losers and who knows how many American families will suffer financial hardship as a result? This must not be allowed to happen to our US citizen seafarers! If this rulemaking goes into effect, the number of jobs lost to American seafarers will increase dramatically since history bears out that US business invariably will seek the lowest cost legal and "questionably legal" alternative regardless of the price paid by the Nation and its society. To open the door to intrusions of foreign mariners onto US flagged ships will very significantly undermine the position of the US citizen mariner who has for many decades been required to fill 100% of officer's and 75% of seamen's berths on US flagged vessels. If this proposed rulemaking is placed in effect, the result will be to seriously disenfranchise US citizen mariners, cause them significant financial harm by forcing wages down due to the specter of foreign competition, the reduction of employment opportunities to US mariners will itself reduce the pool of certified citizen mariners critical to the manning of US Ready Reserve Force merchant ships in wartime and potentially create the opportunity to a person or persons disposed against the US the ability to cause harm to our Nation! Any such rulemaking recognizing the STCW certificates of foreign seafarers MUST also include language which would strongly protect the US citizen mariner from being denied employment on US flagged vessels however this proposed rulemaking does no such thing and in fact strengthens the positions of foreign mariners. It also opens the door still wider to unscrupulous shipowners to engage foreign seafarers at the expense of their American counterparts. As a US citizen merchant marine officer, I cannot urge more strongly that the US Coast Guard to NOT implement this rulemaking at the present time. Thank you for your kind consideration. Respectfully submitted John B. Waldrip