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June 16, 2023 – Max Vekich has an interesting story when it comes to his recent appointment to the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the five-member federal body which oversees the interests of U.S. citizens regarding maritime trade.  

In an interview with Cargomatic’s own Weston LaBar, Max talked about the letter he sent to President Joe Biden on learning of a vacancy to be filled at the FMC. 

“I wrote him a letter after the election and offered my services and said, ‘I got 50 years in the waterfront and I moved some cargo. And I think that’s what you need right now: more people like me who have a good clue about how to do things operationally’,” Max said.

“So, I wrote a letter to the president about this position on the Federal Maritime Commission and I’ll be darned: next thing you know, I’m talking to my U.S. Senator,” he said, referring to his eventual appointment as a “Cinderella story.”

He also speaks well of President Biden who “got a start by a longshoreman who helped him in Delaware, a guy named Skinny Wilson.” The whole story can be researched on Google, he says, adding that there is “no disconnect” between this White House and the dockworkers’ union. 

“That’s something really refreshing and we didn’t have to retrain him,” Max tells Weston. 

The new Commissioner got his own start in maritime on the docks of “a little port called Aberdeen, Washington” and worked in the logging industry before moving on to Seattle, where he became a marine clerk.

Altogether, Max spent 5 decades as a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. 

“I started in 1972 and I retired in 2022. That’s 50 years. I was never on strike in the ILWU. I’m a 50-year participant in that contract,” he said and reiterated: “I never went on strike.”  

That life-long experience on the operational side of the maritime industry gives Max a unique perspective on current affairs, not least of which is the importance of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 and the new powers it vests in the Federal Maritime Commission.

Then, too, his experience counts heavily when it comes to the year-long contract negotiations between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the shipping lines and marine terminal operators that employ union workers.

“I think there’ll be a contract before the 4th of July and I think that there will be a long period of labor peace like there had been.” 

As for all of the cargo that’s been diverted away from the U.S. West Coast ports due to the prolonged contract negotiations, Max is clear: “that’s been a mistake and I think it’ll all come back, or, the vast majority will come back.”

Hear more of the conversation between Max and Weston in the video below.