Apr.30--THE New York Waterfront Commission has declared the New York Shipping Association (NYSA) and International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) are slow at hiring veterans ahead of their own nominees, reports American Shipper.
The unskilled waterfront jobs pay US$80,000 a year and are much sought after by friends and relations of members NYSA and the ILA, who are loathe to give them to defacto nominees of a hostile Waterfront Commission, which seeks a greater say in hiring.
The commission said hiring statistics on the NYSA website shows that "while their plan calls for the hiring of 348 military veterans, they have only sent 216 veteran candidates to the Waterfront Commission to be pre-qualified as longshoremen.
The crime-fighting Waterfront Commission, seeking racial and gender diversity in hiring for these extraordinary plum jobs, as been accused in court of brief creep, entering into areas in which it has no mandate.
The commission, NYSA and ILA are involved in litigation over hiring rules that the commission is seeking to impose.
"Over the past several months, the Waterfront Commission has had to forcefully advocate on behalf of veterans whose background checks have been cleared and who are simply waiting for the NYSA and ILA to put them to work in the port," the commission said.
"As of today," it added, "there are over 50 veterans who have been cleared by the Waterfront Commission and who are waiting for industry sponsorship in order to work in the Port. The Waterfront Commission urges the NYSA and ILA to immediately sponsor those individuals."
(Source:shippingazette)