The State, through the Department of Public Service of Washington regulates services and charges of intrastate carriers, public terminal operators, warehousemen, and public utilities, and through the State Commissioner of Public Lands, controls the sale and lease of State tidal and shore lands. The City of Everett is empowered to exercise general police powers over shipping within the harbor included in which are the regulating of the speed of vessels, designating of anchorages and the handling of inflammables, explosives, and other hazardous cargoes. The Port of Everett Commission organized pursuant to the provisions of the Port Districts Act of 1911 is composed of three members elected by the voters of the port district to serve for a term of 3 years. It exercises jurisdiction over the port district which is practically coextensive with the corporate limits of the cities of Everett and Mukilteo and directs the affairs of the port facilities under its control. Among other powers the commission may acquire lands by eminent domain; collect taxes and make assessments; issue bonds when sanctioned by the voters of the district; construct or otherwise provide facilities essential to port development; fix absolutely and without right of appeal or review, all rates of wharfage, dockage, warehousing and other port and terminal charges in connection with improvements owned and operated directly by the port district itself; lease wharves, docks and other property acquired by it; and create and fill positions and fix salaries. The Board of Pilotage Commissioners.-Up to 1935 the pilotage law of the State of Washington, passed in 1907, merely required that a person offering himself as a pilot should hold a Federal pilot's license for Puget Sound waters, that he should not pilot a vessel of greater tonnage than provided by his license, and that he must have had 1 year's experience as a pilot of oversea or coasting vessels of at least 1,500 gross tons. The law imposed a penalty upon masters employing pilots not holding the required license and upon unlicensed persons engaging in piloting. There was nothing in the law compelling any vessel to engage a pilot. In 1935, the legislature passed the Puget Sound Pilotage Act creating a board of pilotage commissioners for the State of Washington. It was approved by the Governor, February 23, 1935. The statute provides that the director of labor and industries of the State of Washington shall be ex-officio chairman of the board, and that four other members each to hold office for a term of 4 years are to be appointed by the Governor. Two of the appointive commissioners must be pilots licensed under the new statute and actively engaged in piloting upon the waters covered by the act for at least 3 years immediately preceding appoint ment while the other two must have been actively engaged in the ownership, operation, or management of deep-sea cargo and/or passenger carrying vessels for at least 3 years immediately preceding their appointment. One of the shipping members must be a representative of American and one of foreign shipping. The appointive commissioners hold office for the period for which they are appointed and until their successors have been appointed. Any vacancy in an appointive position shall be filled by the Governor for a term of 4 years. Members of the board serve without compensation or payment of expense. The office of the State Department of Labor and Industries is the office of the board. Jurisdiction of the commission extends over Puget Sound and adjacent inland waters, which is construed by the statute to mean and include all the inland waters of the State of Washington inside the international boundary line between the State and British Columbia, extending south to and including Olympia but excluding that portion of the Straits of Juan de Fuca west of Port Angeles. Powers and duties.-The board is authorized to make rules and regulations in furtherance of the purposes of the statute; establishing the qualifications of pilots, providing for their examination, issuance of licenses and to establish a register of licensed pilots and of vessels, operators, and agents; to provide for the maintenance of efficient and competent pilotage service on the waters within its jurisdiction; to fix rates of pilotage, provided that no rate shall be changed upon motion of the board more than once in 12 months. Pilotage dues.-Rates established by the statute remain in effect for a period of 2 years from its enactment. No rate is to be increased, lowered, or altered without public hearing. The board may fix extra compensation for extra services to vessels in distress or for awaiting vessels or being carried to sea on vessels against the will of the pilot. Pilot licenses.-Pilots are required to obtain licenses from the commission which are valid for a term of 5 years unless revoked. The commission has the authority to suspend, withhold, or revoke such licenses, and appeal from its decision may be taken to the Superior Court for Thurston County. An annual license fee of $100 is payable by each pilot to the Puget Sound pilotage fund. Pilotage fund.-The statute created in the State treasury a special fund to be known as the Puget Sound pilotage fund to which all monies collected under the provisions of the statute, including fines, are to be paid and credited. The statute made an initial appropriation of $5,000 from the fund for the payment of expenses, maintenance, and operation of the board. The rules and regulations promulgated by the Board of Pilot Commissioners name Port Townsend as the pilotage station. PORT LABOR CARGO Longshore labor and other water-front labor at the port of Everett is regulated under a system designed to effect decasualization in these occupations-a plan to limit the men eligible for water-front work to the actual needs of the port and to distribute the work proportionately among those eligible in order to assure more equable wage and work opportunity. This system is administered jointly by labor and employers through a series of separate agreements between employers and longshoremen, dock workers, and checkers. The International Longshoremen's Association represents labor while the employers are represented by the Waterfront Employers Association. The system of decasualization is predicated upon two main essentials-central registration of eligible workers and dispatching of all water-front labor through a central hiring hall. Control is vested in a labor relations committee for each class of workers composed of three representatives of the labor union concerned and three of the Waterfront Employers. In their respective fields, these committees are empowered to investigate and adjust grievances between employee and employer. The contracts between the unions and the employers stipulate that although the hiring hall shall be controlled jointly, all dispatchers are to be union men and preference for work is to be shown union men. The registration lists of workers determined as eligibles by the labor relations committee constitute the total water-front labor supply of the port and the employers are bound by agreement to draw from this supply. However, should the supply of registered men be insufficient to meet the demands of the port, the dispatcher is privileged to hire nonregistered men usually obtained through other unions to perform longshore work. Such men are known as permit men and are employed only until the supply of registered men once more becomes adequate. It is not essential that registered men be affiliated with the union, but practically all are; and they must contribute toward the support of the hall in the same proportion as union men. Hours. Six hours constitute a day's work, and 30 hours constitute a week's work, averaged over a period of 4 weeks. The first 6 hours worked between the hours of 8 a. m. and 5 p. m. are designated as straight time, but there shall be no relief of gangs before 5 p. m. All work in excess of 6 hours between the hours of 8 a. m. and 5 p. m. and all work during meal time and between 5 p. m. and 8 a. m. on week Pacific-West Coast of South America Conference, C. R. King, Secretary, 369 Governs freight traffic from United States and Canadian Pacific coast ports to East Coast Colombia-North Pacific Conference, E. J. Brown, Secretary, P. O. Box 5097, Cristobal, Canal Zone Governs freight traffic from Atlantic ports of Colombia to United States and Canadian Pacific coast ports. Association of West Coast Steamship Companies, Royal Netherlands Steamship Governs freight traffic from Pacific coast ports of Colombia and Ecuador to Cristobal and Balboa; to United States Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coast ports (including Alaska); and to all other destinations, except those under the jurisdiction of the European-South Pacific and Magellan Conference; also between ports in Colombia and/or Ecuador. S fr P West Coast South America-North Pacific Coast Conference, C. R. King, Secretary, 369 Pine Street, San Francisco, Calif. Governs freight traffic from west coast of South America to United States and Canadian Pacific coast ports. INDIA AND PERSIAN GULF Pacific Coast-European Conference For description see under United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Africa. Calcutta Trans-Pacific Conference, L. E. N. Ryan, Secretary, c/o Canadian Pacific Steamships, Ltd., Hong Kong, China Governs freight traffic from Calcutta and Rangoon to Hawaiian Islands and to United States and Canadian Pacific coast ports. DUTCH EAST INDIES, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, SIAM, AND/OR MALAY STATES Pacific-Straits Conference, E. J. A. Watts, Secretary, 244 California Street, San Francisco, Calif. Covers freight traffic from United States and Canadian Pacific coast ports to Straits Settlements and Port Swettenham, Federated Malay States, and also freight traffic transshipped in the Straits Settlements or Port Swettenham to ports beyond. Pacific-Dutch East Indies Conference, General Steamship Corporation, Ltd., Secretary, 240 Battery Street, San Francisco, Calif. Governs freight traffic from United States and Canadian Pacific coast ports to Netherlands East Indies. |