From Portland, Ore. to Piraeus, seamen last week staged a four-day international boycott against ships flying the flags of Panama, Liberia, Honduras and Costa Rica, which, taken together, form the world’s fastest-growing merchant fleet (717 in 1951, 1,695 today). The boycott, sponsored by the International Transport Workers’ Federation, which claims 200 affiliates in 62 nations with 7,000,000 members, was the start of a campaign to harass owners of “convenience” or “runaway” flag vessels, so called because the PanLibHonCo nations levy negligible taxes, have lower labor and safety standards than the U.S. and other leading maritime nations. An estimated 45% of all the convenience-flag vessels are controlled by U.S. citizens, 45% by Greeks, 10% by other nationals.
In all parts of the world, except the U.S. and Canada, the boycott turned out to be little more than a token effort to dramatize how the convenience-flag vessels have cost seamen in seafaring countries thousands of jobs. While the I.T.F. estimated that around 200 vessels were hit by the boycott, the number was lower; about 125 ships were affected in the U.S., eight in Canada, 30 in Europe and the rest of the world.
High Wages. Even so, the boycott was more of a success than a failure. In the U.S. 16 unions, including the National Maritime Union, the Seafarers’ International Union and James R. Hoffa’s Teamsters, banded together to tie up PanLibHonCo ships, primarily in East Coast and Southern ports.
U.S. owners say that they would like nothing better than to run their ships under the U.S. flag and manned by U.S. seamen. But they claim that high U.S. wages and taxes force them to fly foreign flags to compete in the international market. It costs $44,000 per month to run a U.S.-flag Liberty ship, $19,000 per month for a Liberian-flag Liberty ship. U.S. tax law requires a vessel to be amortized over 20 years, whereas convenience-flag ships usually do it in ten. The U.S. Maritime Administration recognizes these economic facts of life, tacitly encourages U.S. owners to build and operate ships under foreign flags, since they would be available to the U.S. in war.
Legal Tangles. At week’s end, partially as a result of the attacks on the PanLibHonCo nations. Costa Rica canceled the registration of 128 foreign-owned ships in arrears on tax payments, said it would go ahead with plans to abandon all convenience-flag registration at the end of this month. Greek shipowners agreed to negotiate with the Greek seamen’s union for more jobs; U.S. unions said that they will continue to boycott.
This raises the prospect of involved legal tangles in U.S. courts. Last week, when American and Greek owners of foreign-flag vessels sought injunctions to halt picketing, judges differed on what rights they were entitled to. Wrote London’s Financial Times: “The international labour boycott is a dangerous and, in principle, undesirable practise; on the other hand, these shipowners have deliberately put themselves outside national loyalties and cannot claim their protection. They cannot ask for the benefit of responsibilities they do not accept, or of taxes they do not pay.”
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