Opening Lake Erie shipping lanes as scheduled will help lengthen the loading and unloading Longshore season on maritime docks. The Coast Guard conducted ice-breaking operations in Sandusky Bay this week in order to keep ships moving in and out of Sandusky Bay. Icebreakers have been working the waterways to keep them jam-free. The shipping season will resume March 25 when the Great Lakes are reopened to major traffic.
In the recent past numerous Indiana riverboat casino workers enjoyed the protection of the Jones Act and General Maritime law. When the Indiana legislature removed the requirement that riverboat casinos travel in navigation, most (but not all) casino employees lost their Jones Act and maritime status. The Indiana legislature is now working on a bill that would permit Ohio River and Lake Michigan casinos to move inland. The Indiana state Senate worked on this issue earlier in the session. The initial draft of the bill would have permitted casinos to move away from navigable waterways. This provision was removed from the bill but language was substituted that removed the requirement that casinos be manned with maritime crews. Considering the unpredictable nature of Lake Michigan and the Ohio River, safety mandates riverboat casinos being fully staffed with maritime crews. The Indiana House of Representatives is working to move forward with the provision that would permit casinos to move inland. Additional work is expected to occur on the issue this legislative session.
Pittsburgh and Conneaut Dock Company/Canadian National provided employment for hundreds of Longshoremen and other dock workers in the not so distant past. Good paying jobs with reasonable benefits were provided through the cooperative effort of labor and management. With the flight of factories, steel production and automobile manufacturing from the midwest, docks at Conneaut, Ashtabula and throughout the Great Lakes corridor are rapidly diminishing. The Conneaut Port Authority is working to increase government funding of projects that could lead to an increase in shipping into the port. In particular, projects are being developed around the Pittsburgh and Conneaut Dock Company/Canadian National Docks. This would inevitably lead to an increase in Longshore work for the local labor force. Lake Erie commercial docks have been a mainstay of local economies throughout northern Ohio for decades. Spending to increase shipping opportunities in the area would be money well spent.
Great Lakes maritime safety in Ohio and elsewhere may be compromised by the 2010 federal budget proposal. Members of the House Coast Guard & Maritime Security Subcommittee are concerned about cost cutting measures that will reduce the number of Coast Guard personnel available to perform safety inspections. Coast Guard personnel are highly trained professionals. They assist industry and working crew members. Coast Guard safety inspections are instrumental in protecting the lives and safety of Jones Act seaman. Coast Guard inspection teams perform tasks such as boarding vessels, performing marine casualty investigations and assisting with anti-terrorism surveillance. The 2010 budget proposal would also reduce the number of Coast Guard helicopters available to assist with Coast Guard inspections and patrols. If anything, in the interests of safety, the Coast Guard budget for the Great Lakes region should be increased, not slashed. It is hoped that a more rational approach is taken to preserving maritime safety on the Great Lakes.
Tow boats and maritime commerce on the Ohio River, Great Lakes and Tennessee River will benefit by allocations in the 2010 Federal Budget. Infrastructure projects on the inland waterways are coming under heightened scrutiny in light of failures at the Greenup Locks and Dam on the Ohio River (down stream from Huntington, West Virginia - Ashland, Kentucky) and Markland Dam (near Carrolton, Kentucky) which is also on the Ohio River.
2010 allocations include $400,000 for the Great Lakes Navigational System Study;
$2.8M for construction at Kentucky Lock on the Tennessee River; and
$5.4M for construction at Markland Dam.
See the Corp's FY2011 Budget here
Attorneys handling Jones Act and Longshore cases in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia are finding that employers frequently spend large amounts of money to avoid paying modest injured worker claims. The insurance industry perpetually complains about the so called litigation crisis but then acts in a fashion that insures claims will be filed. Many injured workers are forced to hire an attorney to obtain payment of very modest medical bills or small amounts of compensation. The employer typically pays minimal benefits for a brief period of time and then pulls the rug out from under their injured worker. If this happens to you, do not be discouraged. The fact that payments have stopped does not necessarily mean your case is flawed. Employers terminate benefits in even the best cases. Jones Act employers, vessel owner and Longshore employer have the resources to wait the injured worker out. Protect yourself and be prepared. If you have been injured on the river and wish to discuss your potential claim please call for a free consultation.
The Ohio Department of Homeland Security secured a grant for a 32-foot patrol boat to help protect Lake Erie's 158-mile shoreline from Conneaut, Ohio to Toledo, Ohio. The new boat will cost over a quarter of a million dollars. It is expected be operational in 2010. The vessel will assist local authorities with drug enforcement and protect against terrorists.
The State of Ohio is working to bolster employment opportunities for deckhands, pilots, Longshoremen and other maritime based workers. The Ohio River and Lake Erie have been designated Marine Highway Corridors by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). ODOT hopes expanded cooperation between government, labor and industry will enable these two waterways to move people and freight and help ease highway and rail line congestion.
Great Lakes ships have carried coal, iron ore and grain for years but ODOT officials hope to see container ships, passenger ferries and other vessels on those waterways in the future as a way of easing I-90 congestion.
In 2014 the Panama Canal will open a deeper and wider third lock which would allow container ships to travel through the Gulf to New Orleans and up the Mississippi River to the Ohio River. Growth of shipping related industries on the Ohio River could be unprecedented as fuel cost rise for overland transportation providers.
Ohio is hoping for federal money to help expand existing services or develop commercial and passenger traffic.
As someone who has a law office overlooking the Covington & Newport, Kentucky - Cincinnati harbor on the Ohio River, I can tell you there is nothing more exciting than bustling river traffic. Unless of course that river traffic is made of strange and fantastic boats of a bygone age. Cincinnati, Newport, Kentucky and Covington, Kentucky hosted the Tall Stacks festival in 2006. Imagine sixteen riverboats, from the meek to the mighty, docked at the port of Cincinnati. They took visitors on scenic cruises, serenaded passengers with their calliopes and raced each other for bragging rights.
Officials in Duluth are planning a July 2010 event with eight tall ships called "The Great Lakes United Tall Ships Challenge." The tourism folks are planning the five day historic ship event to draw both residents and visitors with a festival atmosphere to include entertainment, bands, food and beverage vendors and, of course, pirates. Officials think this might be Duluth harbor's biggest event ever.
Good luck Duluth, stay out of Davy Jones' locker so you can come to Cincinnati's Tall Stacks in 2010!
The number of Longshoremen working in northern Ohio (Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland, Ashtabula, Conneaut) has decreased significantly since 2000. This trend continued in 2009. The Port of Toledo's cargo traffic declined for the second year in a row according to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. Total cargo tonnage was down by nearly 1 million tons, in 2009. Steel, steel-related freight, and iron ore lead the drop. Much of the U.S. lake-freighter fleet was tied up at Toledo wharves until late in the summer due to the slump. Officials hope new cranes to be installed this year at the port-owned docks will help business.
The slow down in commercial traffic has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of Longshoremen working at Lake Erie docks in northern Ohio. The reduction in the Longshore workforce has resulted in companies being much less likely to offer lighter duty work to injured workers.
In cases I am handling, Lake Erie employers repeatedly haved refused to offer accommodated lighter duty work to their injured employees. I will comment on this issue in later posts but suffice to say, if you suffer a workplace accident you should be very careful to document your injury. Unless you can work without restriction, there is a good chance you will not be allowed to return to work.
I occasionally travel to maritime law, Longshore and Jones Act seminars on the coasts. Lawyers from the coasts are often surprised to learn there are flourishing admiralty dockets in the middle of the country. Kentucky has 1,090 miles of navigable waterways (second only to Alaska), 11 public river ports, over 160 private marine terminals and 9 ferry operations. The port of Cincinnati is one of the busiest harbors in the country. Large tonnage Great Lakes vessels regularly frequent the ports of Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland, Conneaut and Ashtabula, Ohio.
The heritage of Ohio's Great Lakes maritime industry is memorialized in a world class museum on the shores of Lake Erie. The Maritime Museum of Sandusky has exhibits on shipwrecks, navigation, recreational boating, passenger boats, boat building, commercial fishing, commercial shipping and many other topics. It is a great reminder of the long and rich maritime tradition in the midwest.
Practicing maritime cases in the midwest is the best of both worlds. You get the novelty and challenge of handling admiralty cases but do so in a friendly more laid back environment than would be experienced in New York, Long Beach or Philadelphia.
And, as we say at my office, it's never boring.
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