Captain Phillips praises the unions
(In the above video, Capt. Richard Phillips was interviewed by Matt Lauer yesterday about his capture by Somalian pirates.)
My father was in the Merchant Marines in WWII. He won a medal almost 50 years later and that is something he's very proud of. Capt. Phillips makes sure to give big props to all the union members. This is via a press release form the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations:
I want to thank the management of Maersk and Waterman Steamship Corp. who handled the situation, the crew and our families with great care and concern. And equally important, I want to publicly commend all the officers and crew aboard the Maersk Alabama who responded with their typical professionalism in response to this incident.
The Licensed Deck Officers who are members of the Masters, Mates & Pilots Union, the Licensed Deck Officer and Licensed Engineers who are members of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, and the unlicensed crew who belong to the Seafarers International Union are dedicated merchant mariners, typical of America’s merchant seamen who are well-trained and who are ready and able to respond when necessary to protect the interests of our country. I am honored to come before this Committee today to discuss my views on making commercial shipping safer, and worldwide sea lanes more secure from the threat of piracy
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When you listen to the Fox freak shows, all you hear is union bashing. So that may explain why Phillips hasn't appeared on Fox yet ...
"Reality has a liberal bias"
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
He'd better watch it. The liverlips over at FoxSpews will try to have him and his crew blacklisted for this. To them there's no such thing as a good union member. Watch O'Reilley and Hannity start foaming at the mouth for this blasphemy.
Even Obama and the dmeocrats are now helping this Global Empire to purge the union from our soil..
None
That explains it all! The UNIONS are responsible for the murders of the 3 Somali "Volunteer Coast Guard" members Rush Limpdick was defending.......
......right after he bashed Obama for not doing anything..
We all know what cowards Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc., etc., are. They would be too scared to have an honest and brave person on their shows. They couldn't tolerate someone who wouldn't take their crap.
What a good, brave man. Think of what he had to go through in that ordeal. And think of his shipmate who called Limbaugh's comments racist and "disgusting". These are good guys, and I only hope their comments about the value of people working together- as in, "union"- would make an impact somehow.
Here's an honest-to-God hero speaking of the values of unions, powerfully, and the mainstream media ignores this. Not just FOX, this part is just ignored. Corporate media won't have it.
What brave, valiant guys- I thank them for speaking out, how their teamwork and UNIONS- saved this from being a tragedy. How shameful our media is to suppress this aspect of a hero's story of survival after a harrowing ordeal. Bless you, Captain Philips. And thank you.
One does not win a medal. Ribbons and medals are earned. If it was awarded later in life, bestowed or presented might be a better term. Our military personnel are earning them.
"So that may explain why Phillips hasn't appeared on Fox yet ..."
Yes, I'd say that might be it. Anyone notice that shortly after the pirate hijacking was over, FOX News repeatedly played the comments of First Mate, Shane Murphy, imploring Obama to do something about the pirate attacks.
But once Murphy called out Rush Limpdick for turning the issue into something racist, Murphy hasn't been mentioned again on FOX News. Pro-Union talk and anti-Rush talk are big no-no's for FOX News.
slams sen kerry (since stmt was to his committee) [via media matters]
http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200905010009
O'Mousedick is not going to put up with this. He will put a stop to it RIGHT NOW!! Damn it.
his little bootlick producer out to stalk, no wait... interview (yeah that's it) him, just you wait and see! That'll show him!!
I think this is a guy I would like to know.
To all of the Union and socialist workers out there.
And Thank You Capn Phillips for bringing this up, it needs to be said more often. It makes me proud to be a Union member.
Faux News or any of the Fox channels because he'd have to have a frontal lobotomy to do so... isn't that the price of admission?! I think it is based on the idiots who work there as talking bobble heads...
yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir... Bend over?! Sure!!! syncophants with no self respect or idea of what integrity is.
The "Unions" didn't do any work...the men and women who work their jobs and belong to the unions did the job. Why would he "praise" the unions?
The men and women who do their jobs ARE the Union, it's not some kind of separate entity from the workers, geez
because the unions represent the working man and women and we are the union! As a proud union man i can say: do not fuck with the union or sabot cat is going to scratch your face off. Oh, happy workers day ya'll ;)
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
"Bless me father for i have sinned. Those crimes that i committed, well, i did 'em again. Empty my soul to empower yours. Lead me blind down the path to salvation's doors."
Right?
you won't see and/or hear about this story on cNBC. they have been totally anti-union and anti-obama.
Mebbe your dad was on his crew. That would be funny.
me-oww!
Don't turn this moment into a platform of debate regarding Union's, it has no place here. The Navy Seal's did their job, and the people on the ship did their jobs and it should be left to just that. There are good people in and out of unions who their best every day.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
That was the intent of Captain Phillips statement, to praise the unions for the training and solidarity they provided that helped Phillips and his crew get through this incident. Unions like the ones Phillipss referenced, along with trade unions like the Plumbers, Pipefitters, Operating Engineers, Steelworkers, Electrical Workers, and Aircraft Mechanics all require their members to complete minimum training for their specialties. I won't fly commercial airlines because most of them now outsource their aircraft maintenance to low cost, non-union competitors in Asia. Some things are too important to compromise for the sake of saving a couple of bucks.
Yes, special thanks are due for the Navy Seals. They did their job well. That doesn't detract from the importance that union training and solidarity played in the conduct of the ship's crew and its captain.
The Navy Seals were not apart of a union and yet they did the impossible and deserved all the credit as he said and praised them for. To make this a case about the unions wrongly implies those who are not in a union would not do their job as well, that is bull shit. This post is divisive and you just added to it.
There is nothing wrong with being proud of those you work with or the union you represent, as he clearly is. But to use this moment to pump unions is cheesy. Those in the Navy who helped end this may or may not end up in a union, they might go start their own private non-union company. This moment was about American's doing their job, but thanks to threads like this and comments like yours it's getting sullied.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
I disagree. It absolutely has its place here. The Maersk seaman said it was his training as a union seaman that helped he and his fellow crewmembers fight off the pirates.
This is a member of the crew who is a union member who feels that his brother crewmembers banded together to fight their invaders because as union members they had always felt they were stronger as a union than as individuals.
Those of you who have never been union members know what it is to have to face the power of a corporation alone. Union members know that their brother union members and other unions will support them gives them strength against the power of corporations.
For far too long, big business loathed the right to organize and through their Republican stooges,systematically destroyed the laws that protected the worker's right to organize.
So, yeah, it belongs here. "Look for the union label" by supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. Keep in mind the Solidarity of a Polish shipworkers union eventually brought down the Soviet Union.
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
There is nothing wrong with being proud of those you work with or the union you represent, as he clearly is. Yet to make this a case about the unions is divisive. It wrongly implies those who are not in a union would not do their job or be trained as well and that is simply flat wrong. Vegas is a strong union city, their are talented good people who work on both sides of the fence here.
Some lines of work benefit from having a unions, some lines of work do not. For this moment however there was a combination of union and non-union training that made Captain Phillips rescue possible, to hold one up over the other is wrong. The Navy didn't wave their flag, they just did their job and went back to work.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
My dad was a pilot in the Navy in WW11. He was a union man. One look from a union man who's been through battle...one look and bosses and owners backed down because they knew who would win. There was a line you never crossed. Those union men tolerated a lot but you never expected more than they would tolerate. You never crossed the line. It's amazing the strength the men from that era had. I believe Capt Phillips and his men have the same amazing strength.
Jeanne
Capt Phillips hasn't been on fox yet because fox doesn't want him on. They don't want their balls handed to them on air.
Jeanne
a pilot in the Korean war, and my grandfather in the Army in WWII, and great grandfather was a pilot in WWI, they all saw battle and none were ever in a union. Their strength lead them to all go and start and prosper in their own companies. To make a case for or against unions around such things to me is terribly wrong. Whatever happened to just being a proud American?
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
happened to allowing people to have their own opinions?
It's all good.
everyone's opinions are here for all to see.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
So email fox and tell them not to bash unions. Fox would stop stomping on people if the average joe in the US would demand change. It isn't about whether you watch or not anymore, it's a matter of conviction toward what is proper...just simple manners.
Jeanne
virtually every single responder to the airliner emergency landing in the Hudson River was a Union member, as were all of the flight crew
Thomas A
the fact that the responders were doing the kind of work that enabled them to respond and help(paramedics, firefighters, police etc) says more about them, than being in a union does. It takes a very special kind of person to risk their life on a daily basis to help others.
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