Sunday, June 16, 2013

6/17/2013 Merchant Marine Interest:

AMERICAN ADMIRALTY BOOKS

BLOOD ON BROWN WATER, THE DRIVE CONTINUES
Alexander Von Humbolt II , Photo by Hans George Schroder

                Presents a Reprint of the Original Book Announcement for
                                   

               BLOOD ON BROWN WATER  

This was the original book announcement from the National Mariner's Association last summer. The announcement provides all the information needed to order a spiral bound soft cover copy. We produced the book in serial form in the blog space over the summer of 2012 and now have it available to read  in its entirety and in sequential order in our "Merchant Marine Interest Section. We are still making some editorial improvements in the series physical appearance, but it is all there, free of charge. We want our readers to read this work, even if we never sell a single copy, encourage others to read the work, and act on it! Congress did not stop its partisan bickering long enough the 2012 or so far in the 2013 sessions to even consider the NMA's Second request to Congress. NMA started lobbying again in the Spring for the occupational safety and health of our domestic fleet and Jones Act merchant mariners. But this year did not have the finances to launch representatives to visit the Hill in person.  BLOOD ON BROWN WATER is the TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST of the 21st Century.  We ask the public to please read it and communicate with your Congressman to ask them to sponsor and support the National Mariners Associations "Second Request to Congress". The NMA's Second Request has been hand delivered to the offices of every Key Congressmen for marine legislation and the request discussed with staff.  Lets not wait for the 22nd century to secure for our domestic merchant mariners the personal safety protections the Blue Water fleet has had since the late 19th century.          





NATIONAL MARINERS ASSOCIATION


                                  For Immediate Release

E-mail: info@nationalmariners.us
Asserting our right “…to petition the Government for redress of grievances.
Amendment 1, U.S. Constitution, Dec. 15, 1791

TO: NMA Members
FROM: Richard A. Block, Secretary, NMA

Our Association is working hard to put a complex message across to the Congress. While most of our individual “limited tonnage” mariners try to cope with day-to-day problems on the job, many are left to solve these problems on their own. Our Association deals with some of the broader problems that mariners put on our doorstep.

Recent History shows that any changes for the better for our 126,000 “limited tonnage” mariners will come by way of Congress only if they understand what is really going on and then press the Coast Guard to make any changes that are warranted. Unfortunately, it takes more than a written report to bring about change.
Recently, NMA Mariner #39 volunteered much of his own time and effort to walk the Halls of Congress on Capitol Hill and hand-deliver and discuss with Congressional staffers the contents of three NMA Publications, namely our reports on …

 Abuse of Mariners Under the Two-Watch System (NMA Report #R-370, Rev. 4)
 Deplorable Treatment of “Limited Tonnage” Mariners (NMA Report #R-202, Rev. 5).
 Mariner Indictment of Careless Personal Injury Reporting Practices (NMA Report #R-350-Y).

As a result, we have become much more visible to those Senators and Representatives that, through their committee assignments should be concerned with our mariners.
We are preparing one last effort in the new book listed below. This approach needs to have much wider distribution to other members of Congress who may not be those on the targeted committees and subcommittees – in other words, YOUR Representative or Senator!

We are out of money! We ask you to order one or more copies of our latest book BLOOD ON BROWN WATER and then do the following….

 First, read it yourself. Tell us what you think!
 Call the office of your U.S. Representative and/or one or both of your U.S. Senators (listed in the phone book), leave them a copy of the book, and ask for an appointment to discuss those areas that you are most familiar with.
 Call your local TV or Radio Station and do the same thing.
 Loan the book to and talk with other mariners. We need more members to support our efforts.
Our new book is…

BLOOD ON BROWN WATER”

Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1 America’s Invisible Merchant Marine Fleet
Chapter 2 Third World Work Hours and Life Expectancy in the Invisible Fleet
Chapter 3 The Industry Abandons Its Sick and Injured Mariners
Chapter 4 An Industry That Eats Its Young
Chapter 5 The Short Leash
Chapter 6 The Black List
Chapter 7 Foreign Seamen are Employed and Mistreated
Chapter 8 No Next Generation of Seamen
Chapter 9 If Injured Seamen Are Ruined
Chapter 10 A Danger to More Than Just Themselves
Chapter 11 You May Never Be Able to Go Home Again
Chapter 12 The Last Message From The Alamo
Chapter 13 How you Can help Our Mariners

Here is how one “blog” describes the book….

http://americanadmiraltybooks.blogspot.com/ 

MERCHANT MARINE INTEREST:

ANOTHER TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST?

FLASH! This Isn’t Your Grandfather’s NMA REPORT #R-370, Rev. 4.
You must read “BLOOD ON BROWN WATER”

We’ve been following this for a while and have reported on it in these pages three times. It’s worth saying again. As you read this, approximately 126,000 of America’s 210,000 plus merchant seamen are working under third world conditions. On March 28, 2012 we described how the National Mariner’s Association (NMA) had described these conditions in great detail in their new report to Congress Report No. 370, Rev. 4 that deals with working conditions in parts of the inland towing and off shore work boat industries where the “Two Watch System” prevails. Crew members on such vessels work at a minimum under present rules, 12 hours per day for officers, and 15 hours per day for men.

What’s sad is that these excessively long work days were intended by Congress to be maximum working hours, not minimum; but lax regulatory enforcement and profit motives by shipping management have combined to make these horrific hours floors and not ceilings on long work days. NMA Report 370, Rev. 4 describes the working hours and other abuses in detail, outlines the status of the existing laws and regulations, and provides graphic details on examples of particular abusive practices. This report has been circulating through the halls of Congress since late March. On April 16, 2012 we described in full the resulting “Second Request to Congress” ‘by the NMA where in the NMA proposed specific legislative actions for the relief of these seamen. Back in March we asked in our blog if it wasn’t time for another Richard Henry Dana whose nineteenth century book TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST launched decades of reform of working conditions in America’s deep sea fleets. We have long felt that the long suffering segments of America’s Jones Act fleets needed a book that appealed to the general public and clearly described the working conditions in the unreformed fleets

It happened! Capt. Richard Block, the Secretary of the National Mariner’s Association and author/editor of NMA Report R-370, Rev. 4 has made his appeal in print to the general public with the publication of his BLOOD ON BROWN WATER. The reader who wonders just how such primitive and unhealthful working conditions could survive in twenty first century America need no longer wade through the grim but dry statistics of an NMA report, or skim over legal citations. BLOOD ON BROWN WATER is the agony, and the injustice, the courage, and the pain of the real world on the wet side of the levee and beyond the beach line without submitting the reader to the dry text of an OSHA report. We urge the general public to read this and then call your congressmen and senators. For information on how to obtain a copy of BLOOD ON BROWN WATER contact the National Mariner’s Association at www.nationalmariners.us or Marine Education textbooks at: http://marineeducationtextbooks.com/





 Cut here and mail in.

ORDER FORM

Ship To:
National Mariners Association
124 N Van Ave
Houma, LA 70363-5895
(985) 879-3866
(985) 879-3911
Name:
Address:
City:
State
Zip:
Phone:
Fax:

NMA Books for Sale

QTY

TITLE

Price Each
Amount

Abuse of Mariners Under the Two-Watch System
28.96


Blood on Brown Water
12.64


Deplorable Treatment of "Limited Tonnage" Mariners
11.36


Mariners Indictment of Careless Personal Injury Reporting Practices
44.64






Prices listed include a 20% discount for members only.










SHIPPING METHOD (CHECK ONE)
Shipping & Handling: $12.00 for the first item, +$1.00 for each additional book.
£ UPS ground (Residential delivery + $3.00) £ FEDEX ground (Add $3.00)
£ Media Mail
Ù Call for quote on Special Handling
Subtotal
La State Tax 4%
Shipping & Handling
TOTAL



Make check payable to National Mariners Association.

No comments:

Post a Comment