Jamie Walker, Subdistrict Director of the United Steelworkers District 1, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about how unions and labor-friendly organizations are working together to bring shipbuilding jobs back to America.
Nearly 70,000 shipbuilding jobs have been lost in the U.S. since the mid-1990s, Walker said. The number does not include secondary jobs and work to produce a fully-finished ship. He outlined the industries that were negatively impacted by poor trade laws with China.
Several labor groups within the United States, including the USW, recently filed a Section 301 Trade Petition. They hope this petition will remedy issues with the trade laws by enforcing a docking fee on Chinese-built ships. Ideally, it would level the costs to source and build a ship domestically, which in turn would recoup some of the lost shipbuilding jobs, said Walker. He talked about a ship that was built in the Great Lakes in 2023, and how it was an example of what American shipbuilding can do for the economy, as every part of the ship was sourced from domestic suppliers.
Canada, which has no domestic shipbuilding industry, sources its ships from China. This has put the lives of several USW members on board these Chinese-built ships in danger because the ships are at risk of suffering catastrophic failures. He told a story about a Canadian carrier that had one of their Chinese-built ships break in half while it was being towed by a tugboat. Walker is hopeful the trade petition will lead to a return of shipbuilding to American shores.
To hear more from Walker on returning shipbuilding to America, listen to the show above.