Wednesday September 21, 2005

Dear Law Makers and Courts of the United States,

Our Constitution strictly forbids classes of nobility ("No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States..."). Yet, due to unions and other reasons many of our laws are designed to protect jobs from people who have gumption, skill and ambition by requiring them to follow union rules of progression. We must not continue to allow such new laws to be passed, nor should we allow the current ones to stand.

We have made progress with Amateur Radio and Pilot's Licenses (or Certificates) by completely doing away with "service time" requirements in the former and dropping the required hours to a sane, and assumably justifiable, levels. However, in chapter 46 CFR, we continue to have union mentality that does not appear justifiable. For example, to become chief engineer on a boat, you cannot just have a reasonable number of hours of experience and/or class room experience plus an exam, you must pass through approximately 10 years of service as a qualified engineer member, third to first engineer, and finally chief engineer. This also applies to Ship Master licenses under the same chapter.

I urge you to take action and remove all such union protections from all Federal laws and codes. I urge you to ensure that all "service time" requirements are necessary to do the job safely and not in place to slow down or impede the progression of talented and able individuals.

In fine, if an individual company/group of companies has a union contract placing such union-like rules upon progression, that is between them and the union, but the Federal Government, no state, has any business creating classes of nobility or privilege.

Thank you for your time, Trever Adams