The Somali Pirates told the truth

The New York Times is now reporting the Somali Pirates were telling the truth about tanks which were destined for Southern Sudan onboard the MV/Faina which they hijacked.

This from my blog in Feb. 2009

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Pirates release M/V Faina

Finally, after 5 months, the ship carrying tanks and arms will be released.
Kenya says the cargo is theirs. I am sure there will be intense interest as to where this armament ends up.

And this from the New York Times, Dec. 8, 2010

KHARTOUM, Sudan — It was September 2008 and a band of Somali pirates made a startling discovery.

Kenyan security officers guarded T-72 tanks that were offloaded in Mombasa from the Faina. The ship was also found to be carrying 150 grenade launchers and 6 antiaircraft guns.

The Ukrainian freighter they had just commandeered in the Gulf of Aden was packed with weapons, including 32 Soviet-era battle tanks, and the entire arsenal was headed for the regional government in southern Sudan. The Ukrainian and Kenyan governments vigorously denied that, insisting that the tanks were intended for the Kenyan military.

But it turns out the pirates were telling the truth — and the Kenyans and Ukrainians were not, at least publicly. According to several secret State Department cables made public by WikiLeaks, the tanks not only were headed to southern Sudan, but they were the latest installment of several underground arms shipments. By the time the freighter was seized, 67 T-72 tanks had already been delivered to bolster southern Sudan’s armed forces against the government in Khartoum, an international pariah for its human rights abuses in Darfur.

Hapag-Lloyd plans to sell stock

Hapag-Lloyd has contacted some investment banks, with the idea to do an IPO (Initial Public Offering) to sell stock.

At the moment it is owned by TUI (which is involved primarily in group travel), and after the financial problems last year, Klaus-Michael Kuehne, the principal of Kuehne & Nagel, took a major financial stake in Hapag-Lloyd, as part of an investor group.

From The Journal of Commerce

TUI has repeatedly said it wants to dispose of its stake in Hapag-Lloyd to focus on tourism. The company, based in Hanover, Germany, hasn’t been able to find a buyer. The increase of its stake is the result of the conversion of a hybrid loan for Hapag-Lloyd into equity, according to the company’s statement in September.

A spokesman for TUI didn’t immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment.

A Hamburg-based investor group, including German billionaire Klaus Michael Keuhne, M.M. Warburg, HSH Nordbank and Hamburg’s state government, bought a majority stake in Hapag-Lloyd.

click here for link to article

ILA admits Mob still a problem on NY/NJ docks

From the Journal of Commerce, who has covered the Waterfront Commission hearings.

Mob ‘Schemes’ Persist on Docks, Monitor Says
Joseph Bonney | Dec 2, 2010 10:24PM GMT

............

“The schemes are still there. … If you eliminate that, you’re going to bring the costs down,” said Robert C. Stewart, deputy administrator of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1588, which has been under a court-appointed monitor since 2003.

Stewart testified in the last of six hearings the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor held to highlight no-show jobs and other practices it says drive up costs and invite Mafia influence at the port.

I guess the Waterfront commission hearings are over. This is how it wrapped up.

The hearings ended with the display of several complex charts detailing family and other connections between Genovese crime family members and ILA officials and members that Commissioner Ron Goldstock said included a “privileged few” who received high pay for relatively little work.

Stewart testified that the court-appointed administrators at Local 1588 struggled to break a “culture of corruption” reinforced by decades of Genovese crime family control. He said the mob used its influence over company hiring agents to demand payoffs for jobs and training and relief assignments that led to higher-paying jobs.

He said Local 1588 members used to have to buy tickets to an annual Christmas party of Nicholas Furina, a hiring agent who was banned from the docks after pleading guilty to extorting union members for jobs. He said that practice was banned after the monitors took over.

“People think that if there’s not gunplay down on the piers and people getting beat up and thrown in the river, things must be OK. That’s not the case,” Stewart said.

So, it's improved a little from the days of "On The Waterfront", but not by much.


click here for link to article

Need a job? Apply to be an independent inspector

The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor (as they call themselves) is taking applications for;

"expressions of interest and statements of qualifications in being considered for appointment as independent private sectors inspector general"

click here for link to explanation and application form

Deadline is Dec. 31, 2010

I suppose that should be enough time for any established company to apply.

These "independent inspectors" will be hired by a stevedore company, who has in the past, had some "questionable" owners. It's the Waterfront Commissions idea of the way to keep organized crime off the Waterfront. Apparently all of the stevedores companies currently licensed are operating under temporary licenses. (as mentioned in my post of Nov. 15

all (stevedoring) companies doing business in the Port were operating on short-term temporary licenses, which were intended to be used only in special circumstances.

I just don't know any companies who would really be in this business, but maybe there are some law firms who might be interested.

I especially like the list of "area of expertise" one can choose from.

Here's the first few

-Accounting/Audits/Financial Review

-Shipping

-Organized Crime

-Unions

-Construction


I guess they listed them in order of most important. I'm not sure.

Don't believe everything you hear

I don't known what to say. The Transpacific Rate Agreement has told it's members how much they should increase their rates. All this does is give ammunition to all the carriers to say " look, I will give you less than the other guys".

Moeller Maersk A/S, the world’s largest container line, and 14 other shipping companies agreed to seek rate increases of $400 per 40-foot box on Asia-U.S. west coast routes next year as the rebounding global economy revives cargo demand.

The planned increase is part of voluntarily guidelines covering talks for contracts generally starting around May 1, the Transpacific Stabililzation Agreement said in a statement on its website yesterday. The shipping group, which has limited antitrust immunity, also recommended a peak-season surcharge of $400 per box.

from bloomberg

Waterfront Commission Hearings Continue

The hearings held by the Waterfront Commission continue.

The Journal of Commerce is reporting. I haven't yet found another source.

Here is what the JOC reports occurred today.

International Longshoremen’s Association official Harold Daggett said there’s nothing wrong with off-contract deals that the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor says provide favored dockworkers with high pay for relatively little work as ILA shop stewards and timekeepers.

“I wish all the members earned more than $400,000,” Daggett testified in a Waterfront Commission hearing. “These guys work their asses off out there.”

Ok, so I think "well, he's just blowing smoke, wanting to look like he is speaking up for the Union workers.

But then there is this.....

At the start of Thursday’s hearing, Daggett insisted on reading a 10-minute statement criticizing the agency, created in 1954 to combat waterfront crime. “The Waterfront Commission treats us all like we are criminals,” he said. “Their main focus is on harassing our membership and beefing up their numbers. … This is the closest thing to communism that you will see in the United States of America.” At another point he likened commission practices to “McCarthyism or SS all over again.”

Commissioner Ron Goldstock said previous hearings documented non-contract pay agreements that “funnel huge amounts of money to a privileged few and as a consequence adversely affect the ability of the port to be competitive.” Goldstock noted that about a dozen relatives of the late Genovese crime boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante hold lucrative jobs on the waterfront, including ILA shop steward positions at the port’s three largest terminals.

Daggett defended Ralph Gigante, a nephew of the late crime boss. Ralph Gigante, a Local 1804-1 shop steward at Port Newark Maintenance & Repair, testified at a previous hearing that he is paid for 168 hours a week, mostly at overtime rates, and expects to collect about $400,000 this year.

So, I don't know if this guy was drunk, or smokin' something, or maybe just not taking his meds. But, it certainly appears he is livin' in a fantasy world.

click here for link to article

No Stevedore Company in NY/NJ properly licensed

A year later, the Waterfront Commission is getting around to addressing problems outlined in a report by the New York State Inspector General Joseph Fisch, issued in August 2009. Click here for link to the report.

In the letter dated Sept. 29, 2010 from the Waterfront Commission (their letterhead says of New York Harbor, LOL, considering the majority of the terminals are in New Jersey), they mention the little problem with the Stevedore Companies.

all (stevedoring) companies doing business in the Port were operating on short-term temporary licenses, which were intended to be used only in special circumstances.

I'm not really clear on how they will handle this. It appears that initially they thought they would start running the necessary background checks to get the stevedores properly licensed.

Then, it appears (although this is not clear), that they found out there are too many who won't pass the test.

So now it looks like they will maybe let the stevedore companies who have problems which would keep them from passing the background check, you know, things like "exhibited criminal influence, improper accounting and/or hiring practices," they would let these companies hire IPSIG (Independent Private Sector Inspector General).

Oh my. Has no one learned a thing?

But, I can see the problem. Who are you going to get to act as a Stevedore?

I think the Port is taking applications.

Maybe someone reading this will put together a company and apply.