Statement of T&I Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar
Mr. Chairman, thank you for scheduling today’s hearing on Mariner Education and Workforce. Although vast bodies of water surround the U.S., the general public has little knowledge of maritime transportation and the role it plays on commerce. Americans should be aware of how retail stores get their goods, how foreign cars reach the car lots or how containers on 18 wheelers are transported by sea, rail and truck. The public should have a positive view of the maritime industry and its value to America’s economic health.
Vessels are primarily used to transport cargo, whether hazardous, dry bulk, liquids, rocks or people. These goods can be transported across the ocean, along our seaboard or through our rivers. Transporting goods by water is a highly effective method of moving large quantities of non-perishable goods and is significantly less costly than transportation by air for trans-continental shipping.
The Coast Guard’s Marine Transportation System study predicts maritime trade to double or triple by 2020. The study also highlights the current downward trend of available mariners, domestic and international, which if it continues, the nation’s future shipping demand will not be met. With this trend, I am concerned that the U.S. will not be positioned to handle the increase in maritime trade. Although there may not be a current shortage of mariners, the statistics of mariner’s age and the difficulty of recruiting and retaining the mariners will eventually create a shortage. As 30 percent of inland mariners are eligible to retire in the next seven years, and the average age of a merchant mariner with a Master’s license being over the age of 50, there is a foreseeable problem in the near future.
I would like to hear workable solutions to resolve this possible shortage before it becomes critical. Based on witness testimony, we will hear about the effects of the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping requirements, which are known as STCW. These requirements mandated additional safety training for most mariners. Statistics show that 80 percent of all casualties are caused by human element failure. By improving the human element performance, 80 percent of the casualties can possibly be prevented. There is a place for safety requirements in the maritime industry, but I’m interested in hearing how these standards are being implemented and how they are affecting the mariner workforce.
With regard to mariner education, training lets the mariners know that they are important to the industry. In Houston, Kirby Corporation has a training facility staffed with 18 full-time instructors. They teach everything from Coast Guard approved classes for greenhorns to wheelhouse training and tanker man certifications. The company chooses about ten out of 100 interviewees to attend its 12 day, 120 hour basic deckhand training. Kirby has a 95 percent retention rate of recruits that come through their training center. They believe there is a cost advantage of growing your own. That’s an example of a company that has succeeded in retaining its personnel by ensuring their training needs are met. Kirby’s employees are advancing in the company through the hawsepipe, while meeting the STCW requirements. Employer paid training is an incentive for prospective mariners.
I am looking forward to the testimony of our third panel who will discuss solutions, recommendations and best practices. Today I hope to learn about the issues that pertain to mariner education and identify areas that are affecting the recruitment and retention of ocean, offshore, coastal and inland mariners. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses today and to working with the ranking members Mica and LaTourette as we explore the needs for additional mariners to accommodate the requirements of our marine transportation system.
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Statement of The Honorable Elijah Cummings, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
Today, our Subcommittee convenes to consider two inter-related topics that are of great importance to the future success of the maritime industry. Specifically, we will examine the nature, causes, and forecasts of labor shortages in the industry, and we will examine trends and innovations in maritime education.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, ports are the gateways through which 80 percent of our nation’s foreign trade enters our country. Commerce in our nation’s maritime sector accounts for approximately $750 billion of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. Waterborne trade, which totaled 2.3 billion metric tons in 2005, is increasing at a startling rate, and the growth in imported cargo, combined with our own domestic production, is creating freight volumes that are straining our transportation networks.
At the same time, significant changes continue to transform the experience of working in the maritime industry. No longer is the sailor’s life necessarily one of adventure offering a young person the chance both to learn about sailing through on-the-job experiences at sea while occasionally spending weeks exploring port cities around the world. Deadlines and cost margins are tight and ships sail with the fewest possible number of crew members, who are expected to fulfill multiple duties while keeping regular watches, and who usually spend no more than a few hours in any port.
The significant changes occurring in the maritime industry appear to be contributing to labor shortages that, in turn, threaten to further strain the industry. The nature and extent of the shortages is not well-quantified and they appear to vary by type of mariner and type of vessel. An important part of our job today is to understand these shortages and to project their potential impact on the various segments of the U.S. maritime industry.
Based on data from the United States Maritime Administration, however, we know that the average age of a mariner with a Master’s license is 51, while the average age of a Chief Engineer is 50. Figures also suggest that nearly 30 percent of inland mariners will be eligible to retire in the near future. There are likely many factors that can contribute to a labor shortage in the maritime industry, and just as the extent of the shortages is not known, the impact of each factor is difficult to assess.
Certainly the lifestyle associated with the maritime industry presents unique challenges. While the lure of the sea has been a siren song to many throughout the ages, many people are also lured by the call of home, and they may prefer to relax with their families at the end of the day rather than retire to a small cabin at the end of a hard shift. Wage differentials between jobs at sea and jobs on land may contribute to shortages, particularly when combined with the lifestyle challenges of life on the water.
Further, significant new standards for training and continuing education have been applied to mariners through the 1995 amendments to the Convention on the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping. These standards serve the critical goal of improving safety in the maritime industry and reducing human factors as the causes of maritime accidents, but they have also had the effect of imposing expensive and time-consuming training requirements on mariners, particularly on unlicensed mariners seeking to climb their way up the “hawse pipe” to command a ship.
There are certainly outstanding facilities in the United States that help train individuals to enter the maritime industry and to advance in their careers, such as the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training in Piney Point, Maryland, run by the Seafarers International Union, which I have had the honor of visiting, and the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies associated with the Masters, Mates, and Pilots Union, which I have also had the honor of visiting. However, attendance at such facilities can be expensive and require a significant commitment of time that maritime schedules may not allow a mariner to easily make. Further, we need to assess whether current maritime education programs have the capacity to meet the demand of those who are just now entering the maritime industry.
In short, our hearing today is intended to enable us to draw a comprehensive picture of the personnel situation of the U.S. maritime industry. Our examination will inform the future development of policies needed to ensure that our nation has the labor we need to keep maritime commerce flowing, and to ensure that those contemplating working on the water will have the chance to advance along a career path that brings them to new opportunities.
Before I recognize the ranking member, I also want to discuss for a moment a trend in maritime education that is of significant personal interest to me, and that is the growth or, I might say, re-growth of maritime-themed high schools across the nation.
In his written testimony, Captain Art Sulzer, who will appear on our third panel, has presented a very comprehensive discussion of the past history of high school-level maritime education, as well as the successes of and challenges faced by the new maritime-themed high schools being created today.
Shortly after becoming Chair of this Subcommittee, I learned that my own city of Baltimore had established a maritime-themed high school several years ago. After visiting the school, I learned that it had been achieving impressive test results and graduation rates, but the school system had not made the investments necessary to ensure that the school was truly offering a maritime education that could prepare students for work in the maritime industry.
Over the past summer, I have been working closely with a very dedicated group of individuals from the Baltimore maritime community, including former Congresswoman Helen Bentley, to ensure that the promise inherent in the school’s name, Maritime Industries Academy, was fulfilled and that students could receive a maritime education. We have succeeded in revitalizing the school’s Junior Naval ROTC program and have introduced a guest lecture series to bring the maritime community into the school. We are poised to achieve even greater results with the creation of a new advisory board that will guide the school through the process of applying for a charter, which will hopefully give the school the flexibility it needs to support an expansive maritime curriculum.
I want to briefly acknowledge the significant contributions that many of those who are joining us today are making to the development of this project, including: Administrator Connaughton and his staff members, Sharon LeGrand, Shannon Russell, and Richard Corley, who continue to bring the resources of the federal government to support this school. MARAD also put us in touch with Captain Sulzer, who has been a key advisor. I also thank Mr. Mike Rodriguez, Walt Megonigal, and the Master’s/Mates/and Pilots Union and its MITAGS institution; Augustin Tellez and the Seafarers International Union; and, Admiral Craine, the President of the New York Maritime Academy, which is creating a new partnership for maritime high schools in which I look forward to having Baltimore Maritime Industries Academy participate.
Every time I visit the school, whose advancement has become a top priority for me, I see first-hand the challenges and the possibilities of maritime education, and I gain the kind of insights into the maritime industry that I frankly have not received from any other source. My experience with this school also makes the subject of today’s hearing very personal to me.
I am truly hopeful that school districts around the country can benefit from the lessons that those who are testifying today are learning regarding how best to support the development of maritime schools to open such schools in their local communities.
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