Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10), questioned maritime leaders about the need to expand workforce development and educational opportunities to attract and prepare the next generation of workers. Strickland’s remarks are transcribed below, and can be viewed here:
Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland: Thank you, Chairman Ezell and Ranking Member Carbajal.
I have the privilege of representing the South Puget Sound in Washington state. We have lots of ports there, and I appreciate all of your testimony today. You’ve talked about a lot of things, the need for more shipbuilding—but I would say more importantly, the workforce development part of this, and they’re all connected to each other.
In every industry, or every panel I’m on, I always hear a conversation about worker shortage. I’m going to quote Mr. Rella, who said, “Get them while they’re young.” I think that’s a really smart strategy.
Could you talk a bit, Mr. Schoeneman, about what concrete steps, we at the federal government can take to make the Merchant Marine and maritime supporting skilled trades a more viable career path for younger people? When I host my Academy Night, there are students who show up that don’t even know what the Merchant Marine Academy is or that it exists. So just some ideas about what you think we can do better to reach out to younger generations?
Brian Schoeneman, Seafarers International Union Political and Legislative Director: I think, obviously, number one is to make sure they know what it is. And I think, when it comes to Kings Point, Kings Point is the diamond in the rough. People just don’t realize it. They think about the service academies, they think about Annapolis and Colorado Springs, they think about West Point, but they don’t think about Kings Point.
It’s one of these things where I told my son, “You’re looking for colleges? I know one that’s pretty good. How about you check over here?” When it comes to what Congress can do, I think obviously making sure that we have the ships, the cargo, and the long-term jobs—that’s the number one thing. Nobody wants to get started in an industry that people think is dying.
Joe talked about it, when you have series construction in the shipyard, that means you got work for a long time. People are going to want to do those jobs. The Merchant Marine is the same way. My guys want to know that that ship is going to be moving, that it’s going to have cargo, and that those routes are going to exist. If they get started, they’re not going to end up spending 10 years and then have to transition into another job.
So from our perspective, anything Congress does that supports the Maritime Security Program, that supports the Tanker Program, increased funding for those programs, getting the funding so that it’s done properly every year—that keeps those jobs in existence and that makes it possible for us to go out and recruit.
The same thing for the recruitment thing. I’ve been mentioning this over and over again—we’ve got to get that stood up so that we’re telling people, “Hey, this is a viable career, and you should try it out.” I think once we do that and put the money that we need into our training, into the service academies, and the state academies, I think we’ll be in a much better position than we are right now.
Strickland: So what I just heard you say is, investing in our maritime manufacturing industrial base so there’s certainty, and also, I would say, good trade policy to make sure that we know commerce is going to be there. Mr. Reynolds, did you want to add something, sir?
Tom Reynolds, Seasats Chief Strategy Officer: Yes, ma’am. I spent a couple of weeks this past—well, about a year ago—at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy working with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and actually bringing unmanned systems to that campus.
I want to point out that when we talk about unmanned systems, the first thing I suggest we think about is that they’re not in lieu of manned systems. I’m not trying to threaten my friend here to my left, one bit, but they’re very complementary. Unmanned systems can go where we already don’t send people, and they can provide some of the—it’s the dull, dirty, dangerous tasks.
I also believe that young people are interested and attracted to flying an unmanned aerial vehicle to inspect aids to navigation, operating unmanned underwater vehicles to do surveys around wind farms or subsea infrastructure. I just wanted to add, one, we’re not trying to replace people, we think we can augment the maritime industry, including at these Merchant Marine academies or in education. I think that would attract a younger generation.
Strickland: Absolutely. We have a younger generation that is very tech-savvy. To your point, it’s not meant to supplant; it’s meant to supplement and make us more effective.
I just want to do one plug in, if I may, to you, Mr. Rella. In Tacoma, Washington, where I’m from and I’m the former mayor, I did a lot of work with the ports. Tacoma Public Schools and the Port of Tacoma are partnering to create a maritime skill center, Maritime 253.
I say this because I hear rumblings about this administration trying to eliminate the Department of Education. The Department of Education provides a lot of funding to our public school system. So if we’re talking about supplementing and enhancing programs that help us solve these problems as well, we have to think about the Department of Education, local school districts, and how our ports—which are local taxing districts—all need to work together.
Joe Rella, President St. Johns Ship Building: Sure. We talked about the maritime academies—they certainly are a pipeline for leaders in the maritime industry. But then you have needs, say, for example, in a shipyard, the skilled trades you need to build ships.
When I ran Alabama Shipyard, we had 700 employees at the time. When I left, we had 2,500 in five years. We had a really great state support and local government support. They helped fund a lot of our training programs, they put up a maritime training center right next to the shipyard.
Having federal-state partnerships in maritime with incentives for the state to help support maritime industry growth and training growth is key. I speak for Alabama because I spent a lot of time there, though I live in Florida now. The Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT) program trained folks to our procedures, to the shipyard’s procedures. They had to qualify, and then we made the hiring decision. It was all free of charge to the potential employee.
Those sorts of things are really how you can build a workforce quickly. It comes from different angles: the state, the county, the city, and the federal government participating together to build that workforce.
Strickland: Yes, and in public schools. Thank you all for your testimony. Again, we have to let more young people know this is even a career option because it’s such a vast industry.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back.
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