This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our affiliates. The series will run weekly until we've covered all 65 of our affiliates. Next up is the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (M.E.B.A.).
Name of Union: Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association
Mission: To elevate and maintain the rights and advance and safeguard the economic and working conditions of its members for their better protection and advancement.
Current Leadership of Union: Adam Vokac serves as president, Roland Rexha serves as secretary-treasurer, Maxim Alper serves as executive vice president, Jason Callahan serves as the Atlantic Coast vice president and Adam Smith serves as the Gulf Coast vice president.
Members Work As: Primarily engine and deck officers on U.S.-flagged vessels, but they also represent shoreside professionals at ports, offices and in the service industries.
Industries Represented: The maritime workforce.
History: M.E.B.A. is the nation's oldest maritime labor union, established in 1875. In the late 19th century, the forefathers of M.E.B.A. fought to eradicate dangerous and deadly working conditions on early steam-powered vessels—conditions that threatened not only M.E.B.A. members, but all passengers at sea. M.E.B.A. was the first union to bargain for a 40-hour workweek while at sea, and the union helped secure overtime pay and night relief. The union won the right to man its own hiring halls and to have union representatives visit ships to ensure proper working conditions. The tenacity and vision of M.E.B.A.’s founding members was ultimately rewarded. Today, with thousands of marine engineers and deck officers, M.E.B.A. members are unparalleled in maritime training and experience.
The leader in continuing education for maritime officers, the union’s training facility in Easton, Maryland, the Calhoon M.E.B.A. Engineering School (CMES), ensures that M.E.B.A. continues to be the finest source of maritime labor. The mission of the CMES is to provide professional M.E.B.A. marine engineers and deck officers with internationally recognized, state-of-the-art training and experience that enhances the safety, reliability and profitability of their vessels while preserving and protecting the natural environment. The school’s world-class bridge simulator allows the facility to offer the intensive, cutting-edge training to deck officers that engineers typically enjoy.
One of the prime benefits of M.E.B.A. membership is access to the M.E.B.A. Plans, one of the most comprehensive, well‐funded and well-managed benefit plans among unions. Each plan is governed by a board of trustees that includes both union and employer representatives. Working with M.E.B.A.-contracted companies offers members great pay, flexibility and the knowledge that a democratic and transparent union will support and represent them.
M.E.B.A. draws the majority of its members from the nation’s maritime academies, proudly providing a wide variety of lucrative opportunities to cadets as soon as they graduate. M.E.B.A. marine officers crew the most technologically advanced ships in the U.S.-flag fleet, including tankers, a cruise ship, Great Lakes vessels and LNG-powered container ships, among others. Members sail aboard government-contracted ships of the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command and the Maritime Administration’s Ready Reserve Force, on tugs and ferry fleets around the country, as well as on vessels and in various capacities in the shoreside industries.
M.E.B.A.’s expertise and proven track record of readiness, safety and loyalty in answering America’s call to action is unrivaled. In times of military contingency, members sail into war zones to deliver critical defense cargo to the nation’s fighting forces. M.E.B.A. members braved the perilous waters of the North Atlantic and the dangers of the Murmansk Run during World War II. Members served in every U.S. conflict since 1875 from Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf to Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Members brought critical food aid to starving people in Ethiopia, Somalia and in dozens of other regions around the world. As America watched the tragedy of September 11 unfold, M.E.B.A. was there, ferrying thousands of people to safety in New York. During the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the tsunami in southeast Asia and through other trying times, M.E.B.A. was there, with the professionalism, pride and patriotism that has long been the hallmark of the American mariner.
M.E.B.A. members have continually answered the country’s call for military sealift power at a moment’s notice—fighting injustice around the globe—and doing what's right for the country. M.E.B.A.'s officers have repeated their substantial contributions to the nation’s defense since 1875, in times of both peace and war. While the future of the maritime industry is in question, one thing is certain, the members of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association will unceasingly fight to preserve America’s fourth arm of defense—the U.S. Merchant Marine.
Current Campaigns/Community Efforts: M.E.B.A. provides members with information through the publications Marine Officer and the Telex Times. The M.E.B.A. Political Action Fund makes sure that the voices of members are heard in the policy-making realm. The Calhoon M.E.B.A. Engineering School is the union’s continuing education facility that provides state-of-the-art training to keep members on the front-end of evolving industry needs and requirements. The American Maritime Congress is a research and educational organization. M.E.B.A. offers medical and retirement and other employee assistance plans along with a member help line.