Dan Duncan: “If the Jones Act was waived – even for a couple of months as some people are tryin’ to say as a compromise – it could cost 5,000 American jobs.”

AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department Secretary Treasurer Dan Duncan.

As Puerto Rico struggles to rebuild, corporate interests backed by the Koch brothers and others are using Puerto Rico’s tragedy to attack the Jones Act – and to attack U.S. ships and crews. Allied PR firms are piling on to mis-inform about what the Jones Act does.

It’s a lie that the Jones Act somehow impeded or blocked relief supplies from being shipped to Puerto Rico. The Jones Act is part of the Merchant Marine Act of  1920.  It says any cargo carried between two U.S. ports must be on U.S. flagged, built and crewed vessels.

Duncan says the Jones Act did not prevent food or other supplies from reaching Puerto Rico.

Dan Duncan: “The United States flagged companies – four or five of ’em who sail regularly to Puerto Rico – saw what was happening, started stockpiling and got ready. And by the day that the San Juan port was open after the storm we had almost eight thousand containers on the docks.”

So why the fake news that the Jones Act was somehow Puerto Rico’s problem in its recovery?

Dan Duncan: “Because there’s been a concerted campaign by folks funded by the Koch brothers, the Heritage Foundation, by the Cato Institute, to show that the Jones Act is the reason Puerto Rico is in debt – not the bankers who fund the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation and help the Koch brothers!

In the Jones Act recovery effort 60 percent of the goods have been coming in on foreign flagged ships. There was nothing stopping foreign flagged ships from coming to help the folks of Puerto Rico.”