Great Lakes-Seaway News

This first Monday in September many families will wind up their vacations. Millions will have one last seasonal fling around the barbecue and bid adieu to the end of a long, hot summer. Labor Day has come to be regarded as a great long weekend for North Americans before they buckle down to work after their summer break.

Great Lakes-Seaway News believes that it is important, from time to time to remeber the origins and true meanings of our holidays and so we take this opportunity to remind ourselves and our faithful readers of the how Labor Day in the United States and Labour Day in Canada came to be.

The origins of Labour Day in Canada actually pre-date the origins of Labor Day in the United States. Canada's workers holiday can be traced back to April 14, 1872 when a parade was staged in support of the Toronto Typographical Union's strike for a 58-hour work-week. The Toronto Trades Assembly (TTA) called its 27 unions together to demonstrate in solidarity with the Typographical Union which had been on strike since March 25.  George Brown, Canadian politician and editor of the Toronto Globe hit back at his striking employees, pressing police to hit the Typographical Union with a conspiracy charge..

At that time laws criminalizing organized labor union activity were still on books in Canada and police arrested 24 leaders of the Typographical Union. Undeterred, labour leaders decided to call another demonstration on September 3 to protest the arrests. Seven unions marched in Ottawa, prompting a promise by Canadian Prime Minister John A. MacDonald to repeal Canada's anti-union laws. Parliament passed the Trade Union Act on June 14 of the following year.

The Toronto Trades and Labour Council (successor to the TTA) held similar celebrations every spring. American Peter J. McGuire, a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, was asked to speak at a labour festival in Toronto, Canada on July 22, 1882. Upon his return to the United States, McGuire organized a similar parade based on the Canadian event on September 5, 1882 in New York City, the first such events in the U.S. 

On July 23, 1894, Canadian Prime Minister John Thompson and his government made Labour Day, to be held in September, an official holiday.

While Labour Day in Canada came about to celebrate a political victory for the organized labor movement, Labor Day in the United States was actually born out of tragedy. Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 largely due to the efforts of President Grover Cleveland to reach a reconciliation with the American Labor movement after a number of workers died or were injured at the hands of the and U.S. Marshals and troops used to put down famous Pullman Strike. That bloody incident led President Cleveland to that making amends with the labor movement should be his top political priority. Just six days after the end of the Pullman strike legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through the U.S. Congress unanimously and signed into law.

The form for the celebration of Labor Day was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday: A street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations," followed by a festival for the workers and their families. This became the pattern for Labor Day celebrations. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civil significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the American labor movement.

It is only appropriate that we too take a moment to celebrate the true meaning of our holiday to recognize the achievements and contributions of the organized labor movement in North America. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway maritime industry owe much to the contributions of the labor movements of the United States and Canada. From the longshoremen who load and unload the cargo on the ships to the captains and crews of the ships themselves, it's fair to say that the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System might not exist today without the hard work of the men and women of the organized labor movements of both nations. In fact, Great Lakes-Seaway News itself is made possible, in part, through the support of the Great Lakes District Council of the International Longshoremen's Association and the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association. 

Happy Labor Day and Thank You! 

It was announced yesterday afternoon that Richard Corfe, who has led the Canadian St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation (SLSMC) as President and Chief Executive Officer since 1993 will step down in this November. 

During his tenure, Corfe ably led the SLSMC through a period of change and challenge. Corfe spearheaded the modernization of the SLSMC's lock operations and developed plans to improve the Seaway's physical infrastructure. Corfe also made many significant efforts efforts to control SLSMC costs and to pass some of those savings along to Seaway users by freezing Seaway tools and offering toll incentives for new business.     

Corfe will be replaced by Terence F. Bowles, who previously served as President and CEO of the Iron Ore Company of Canada from 2001 until earlier this year. Prior to that, he worked in various capacities with QIT Fer et Titane du Quebec, including five years as President from 1996 to 2001.

“We are very pleased to have someone with Terry Bowles experience and background to succeed Dick Corfe”, commented SLSMC Board Chairman Ian MacGregor, “and I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Dick’s contribution in what have been challenging times for the Seaway.  He has agreed to make himself available to help his successor with the transition of responsibilities.”

Corfe's U.S. counterpart, Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation Administrator Collister "Terry" Johnson Jr. said, "Dick Corfe has been a great partner in leading the the St. Lawrence Seaway. We certainly wish him well and I'm very happy that he graciously agreed to stay fully engaged through the transition period. His successor, Terry Bowles, comes very highly recommended and I look forward to working with him in the future."

The change at the top of the SLSMC's management structure is just one of number of significant changes to the Canadian Seaway entity's decision making team in recent months.

MacGregor, who is a director of Seaway Marine Transport and is Chairman of Golden Star Resources Ltd., has only been serving as the Board Chair for the past two weeks.  On August 18, he replaced Guy Véronneau hwo left the SLSMC Board after serving as Chair for the past four years and previously  serving as the SLSMc's President and CEO. 

The SLSMC aslo took the opportunity yesterday to announce the appointment of Jonathan Bamberger who joined the Board of Directors on August 28th as the industry representative for the Corporation’s “other members”. Mr. Bamberger is the President of Toronto, ON-based Redpath Sugar Ltd. and is Vice President, Commodities, American Sugar Refining Inc.

Earlier this year David L. Muir, FCA joined the Board of Directors as the representative of the Federal Government. Mr. Muir is a Senior Vice President for Collins Barrow Ottawa Management Consultants Inc. 

The normally cool and calm waters of Lake Michigan have been turned into a boiling, roiling tempest in recent weeks by a federal grant application by the city of Ludington, MI which is seeking $14 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to replace the coal-burning powerplant of the S.S. Badger.

The Badger has come under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scrutiny in recent years particularly for the ships practice of dumping coal ash into Lake Michigan. The EPA has given the owners of the Badger, privately-held Lake Michigan Carferry, until the end of the 2012 sailing season to halt the practice of dumping coal ash and the carcinogens and trace heavy metals associated with it into the lake.

The S.S. Badger has been burning coal and dumping the residual ash into Lake Michigan for the last 57 years. During the course of the nearly 500 Lake Michigan crossings the coal-burner makes during its May-October navigation season, the 1953-built S.S. Badger consumes an estimated 70 tons of bituminous coal per day. From this coal-burning, the ship is left with roughly 7-10 tons of coal ash per day which is mixed with water and pumped directly into Lake Michigan. Since the SS Badger sails approximately 150 days per year, the resulting coal ash dumping into the lake can be conservatively estimated at more than 1,000 tons per year.

In order to comply with the 2012 ash-dumping deadline imposed by the EPA, the owners of Lake Michigan Carferry have turned to the taxpayers, local government officials and Washington, DC-based lobbyists for help.

According to Wisconsin-based opponents of the plan, they've developed a scheme to take federal tax dollars, appropriated by the Congress and originally intended for economic stimulus spending on transportation infrastructure projects, to use the local government as a pass-through for that money to end up in the private corporate hands of the Lake Michigan Carferry. Under this plan Lake Michigan Carferry would only have to come up with $2 million in matching funds with the taxpayers footing the remaining $14 million of the total bill.

“We feel pretty confident about it,” Ludington City Manager John Shay told The Muskegon Chronicle regarding the receipt of the government funds.

But while Ludington city spokesmen have expressed confidence that their plan for the Badger will be funded, other Great Lakes communities, notably Muskegon, MI and Milwaukee, WI where the Lake Express high-speed ferry operates are fighting the Ludington grant application.

 “We respectfully oppose the use of public grant money ...being used to directly subsidize a company ... due to the market-altering precedent it would set,” Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce Government Affairs Director Steve Baas wrote to federal transportation officials.

Muskegon Mayor Steve Warmington has also written letters to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) and Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Carl Levin (D-MI) opposing the federal tax money grant for the Badger.

For his part, Rep. Hoekstra, who is leaving the Congress after losing a primary held several weeks ago for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, says he has taken no position on the Ludington stimulus grant for the Badger.

Usually the support of the local congressman is critical to the success of federal grant applications. Taking into account the absence of Rep. Hoekstra's strong support, the active opposition of officials in Milwaukee and Muskegon, the prevailing political current in the country which is running toward fiscal restraint and against additional government stimulus spending and corporate bailout programs and the growing outrage on the part of environmental groups about programs that reward corporate polluters with federal tax dollars, it would appear that this battle is far from being over.

The newly-formed Great Lakes-Seaway Coalition will hold its third meeting at the Port of Milwaukee September 9-10. The Coalition, composed of government, industry and labor leaders involved in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway maritime industry,  came together earlier this summer at the invitation of the Great Lakes District Council of the International Longshoremen's Association to develop a pro-active agenda and strategies to advance the interests of the broader Great Lakes-Seaway  shipping industry.

The group's two earlier meetings, held in Cleveland, OH resulted in a seven point action agenda as follows:

1. The Great Lakes-Seaway Coalition (GLSC) urges the U.S. Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation and the Canadian St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation to jointly explore the means and methods necessary to harmonize the opening and closing dates of the St. Lawrence Seaway with those of the Soo Locks operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

2. The GLSC urges the US Congress to reform the Harbor Maintenance Tax to eliminate legislative and regulatory barriers to Short Sea Shipping and therefore supports the passage of HR 3486.

3. The GLSC urges the adoption of measures to assure that the dredging of Great Lakes harbors and navigation channels are fully authorized, adequately funded and performed in a timely manner and that money collected through the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund be used solely for the purpose of dredging and the performance of services associated with dredging activities and to fund the activities of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

4. The GLSC urges the establishment of Great Lakes cargo development and new vessel development efforts to support system-growth and competitiveness.

5. The GLSC urges the reform of 1) the St. Lawrence Seaway Tariff of Tolls charged by the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation (SLSMC) and 2) the US and Canadian Great Lakes pilotage rate structures to assure that vessels of less than Seaway-maximum size are not put at an unfair cost disadvantage vis-à-vis other ships.

6. The GLSC urges that state and local governments defer to the federal governments regarding all policies and regulations relating to navigation and commercial shipping on and within the Great Lakes with noted emphasis on issues of ballast water management and air emissions standards.

7. The GLSC urges Marine Delivers to expeditiously research, produce and aggressively disseminate a clear statement of the environmental and cost advantages of waterborne commerce.

The upcoming meeting to be held in Milwaukee next week will feature a discussion of the binational International Joint Commission's (IJC) role in regulating water levels on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, the IJC's role in environmental protection of the Great Lakes watershed,  and a discussion about ways the coalition might work with the IJC to prevent and resolve disputes relating to the uses of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System.   

The Coalition will also discuss various legislative and adminsitrative policy initiatives which may have an impact on Great Lakes-Seaway commerce such as the recently introduced FREIGHT Act recently introduced in the U.S. Congress and a New York State ballast water regulation which threatens commerce in and out of and through the waters of that state potentially harming commerce in the Great Lakes and setting off a major dispute between the U.S. and Canada.

The Coalition is also likely to discuss the impact of the 2010 U.S. congressional elections on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway maritime industry going forward.  

U.S. wheat exports are already running well ahead of last year's pace but U.S. corn and soybean exports are running well behind last year's levels at this time even though near record crops are expected for both of those commodities. Given these facts we ask the following: