Former MarAd chief counsel calls out agency on shipbreaking

   K. Denise Rucker Krepp, former chief counsel for the U.S. Maritime Administration, has called for MarAd to stop the outsourcing of ship recycling jobs and for Congress to enact legislation regarding ship recycling, if needed.
   In an open letter published in The Advocate, she said ship recycling is part of MarAd’s mission to support the maritime industry in America. Outsourcing this job to “the beaches of Asia” is not only against the agency’s goals, but encourages the act of shipbreaking without regard to environmental or other protocols.  
   “Halfway across the world, shipbreakers, operating without regulation on tidal beaches, force their workers to take apart the ships, including those from the United States, by hand,” she wrote in. “The workers are treated like chattel, denied safety equipment or specialized training, and paid negligible wages. Since the beginning of the year, dozens of workers have died, and yet, the U.S. government is allowing U.S. ships to be scrapped in conditions that would never be acceptable in our country.”
   She added that these jobs used to be carried out by workers in the Gulf Coast, but that these jobs have been shipped overseas. These highly regulated jobs had provided an employment boost to an area of the country hit hard by the recession, she said.
   “As the former MarAd chief counsel, I am extremely puzzled by the agency’s refusal to support Gulf Coast jobs. Why is the government spending millions to educate workers if not to find jobs?” she asked. “Similarly, why is it supporting human rights and environmental abuses overseas instead of a capable domestic industry that feeds the domestic steel industry?”