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Is Clinton just talk now?

I find it interesting that Senator Clinton has become an advocate of keeping jobs here in the states. To be honest with you I don’t believe her. The reason being that she has accepted money for her campaign from the President and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) (according to the Federal Election Commission website). This is the same company that is currently, advocating having the Jones Act changed to its favor.
NCL is the parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line America (NCLA), what makes NCLA unique in that it is the only American flagged cruise company in the world. When NCLA was stood up NCL made extensive promises that they would be bringing thousands of jobs to America, specifically to the Hawaiian market. In order for a company to be American flagged originally they had to have 100% of the crew to either be American citizens or be Green Card Holders. A part of the promise was that the majority of the jobs would be filled by Hawaiian citizens. This promise quickly fell by the wayside almost as soon as the NCLA ship began sailing. NCLA could not find enough Hawaiians who were qualified or willing to work on cruise ships. This forced NCLA to go to the mainland in order to fill the majority of the job openings that they had.
As NCLA continued operations they were losing money. NCLA has never been able to turn a profit in any of the years that they have been operating. One of the problems cited by NCL was the high cost of operating with an American crew. By doing so NCLA is subject to the minimum wage laws and tax reporting as a regular land based company. The largest contributing factor to NCLA’s profit woes is linked to their much higher than usual payroll costs.
In the 2006 Defense Authorization Act the very last clause is interesting. It allows American flagged cruise ships of a certain tonnage to have up to 40% of their crew to be non-Green Card Holders. When one looks into the clause closely you can see that this clause was applied specifically for NCLA (it is the only American flag cruise company with ships that are large enough to qualify for the exemption). And upon further investigation you will see that it was NCLA and their lobbyists who championed this change. In effect by having this new law NCLA was allowed to displace American jobs in favor of foreign workers.
Currently, NCL is lobbying for a change to the Jones Act. The change they want to enact would bar foreign flagged cruise ships from entering a US port until after they have spent 48 hours in a foreign port. This would not affect NCLA operations as it is American flagged. If this change was allowed it would greatly depress the cruising ports of America (New Orleans, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City, to name a few). In that the normal flow of passenger traffic which their tourist industry depends on would be greatly reduced. As such this would cause a loss of jobs and a depression of wages and hours. This change would adversely affect NCLA’s rival companies (Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Silverseas, etc.)
NCLA is in dire straits. Recently, NCL took on an investor who contributed one billion dollars to NCL; with the specific clause that the money is not to be used for NCLA operations. Also, they have placed another clause that should the NCLA operations not prove to be profitable by December 2008 that NCLA is to be shut down.
Already NCL has begun making moves of reducing NCLA. They have moved their newest ship from the Hawaiian Islands, reflagged it with a non-American flag and are preparing to have it continue cruising in Europe this summer. A second ship has already been identified to be reflagged and transferred over to the Asian market. So, in one swoop NCL has already diminished jobs on their ships along with the supporting land based functions.
NCL’s CEO has already issued a threat to the state of Hawaii that if the change to the Jones Act does not occur then he will pull the last remaining ship from the Hawaiian market. This was issued because the governor of Hawaii is against this change and is working to keep the Jones Act in place.
NCLA is a special project of the CEO of NCL. Despite being advised that an American based fleet is not profitable he decided to stand up the NCLA fleet. A decision that is derided in the entire cruise ship industry. Billions of dollars and resources have been invested into the NCLA fleet, with no return on investment. As such if NCLA should fail then the CEO of NCL would basically have a really black mark on his record. He would have taken a profitable company and turned it to be unprofitable, with nothing to show for it in the end. No CEO wants to have this on their record.
By the CEO of NCL giving the maximum allowable contribution to the Clinton campaign is suspicious. Already NCL has proven that they have the political will and ability to have legislation altered in their favor. Senator Clinton touts that she knows how Washington works. And, she is accepting money from someone who is trying their best to take jobs away from Americans. In the end makes for a very suspicious situation.