Tongue Point Job Corps seamanship program loses union contract

Published 11:08 am Tuesday, October 6, 2026

Students say MTC promised certifications that they can no longer earn after the company ended its longtime contract with the union running the program

After decades of partnership, the Management and Training Corporation has cut its contract with the union which staffs the instructors at the Tongue Point Job Corps Center’s Seamanship Training Program.

The for-profit contractor, MTC, is the company which has been contracted by the U.S. Department of Labor to oversee the Tongue Point Job Corps Center and its seamanship program. For decades, sub-contracted under MTC, the seamanship program at Tongue Point has been run by the Inlandboatsman Union of the Pacific — that is, until October.

On Sept. 14, members of the union, along with Job Corps students and instructors, were notified by MTC that the company’s contract with the union would be terminated and their last day with the program would be Sept. 30.

According to IBU President Robert Estrada, the reason behind MTC parting ways with the union comes down to three major factors which compounded on one another: 1) Changes in course curriculum standards issued by the National Maritime Center; 2) The thwarted attempt by the Trump administration to shut down Job Corps; 3) The COVID-19 pandemic.

According to students, instructors and union officials, there are no certified instructors available to teach Job Corps seamanship students the skills they signed on to learn.

Pandemic, presidency and scrutiny slash certifications

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the number of students in the seamanship program decreased and the pre-pandemic numbers have not come back. Following this, the National Maritime Center increased their scrutiny of the curriculum and the approval process became more difficult for maritime schools across the country, according to Estrada.

One example is when two certifications were denied approval by the U.S. Coast Guard. According to Krystal Wolfe, a Coast Guard spokesperson, the certifications for QMED-Junior Engineer and Able Seaman-Limited expired at the Tongue Point Job Corps Center after the center was unable to satisfy federal training regulations.

The program approvals were initially set to lapse earlier, on Oct. 31, 2023, but the NMC granted extensions through Feb. 29, 2024. According to Wolfe, on March 12, 2024, the NMC issued a formal Notice of Intent to Suspend, stating a final compliance date of April 30, 2024. The NMC declined further extension requests, allowing program approvals to officially expire and close on April 30, 2024.

“Despite extensive guidance from the NMC spanning from April 2023 to April 2024, Tongue Point did not resolve critical deficiencies in instructor qualifications, training equipment, underway sea service, curriculum delivery and examinations,” Wolfe said.

Tongue Point instructor Mat Thompson said the union put hundreds of man hours into revising the program’s curriculum to meet the NMC’s standards, and even sent their new curriculum to the Coast Guard for review.

In the midst of it all, the federal government shut down in October of 2025. Since then, Tongue Point has not heard back about the approval of their curriculum, said Thompson. Thompson’s last day with the Job Corps was Sept. 30.

However, according to Wolfe, “the approval process is not closed. The Tongue Point Job Corps Center can choose to submit a package at any time for Coast Guard review.” But, in order to receive approval, she said “a package must demonstrate full adherence to federal safety and curriculum standards.”

According to Estrada, the union is doing everything it can to reestablish the relationship with MTC and the Job Corps.

“We are still trying to work out a way to present ourselves as the partners we’ve always been — as the collaborative support structure — and that has always made Tongue Point a great school,” Estrada said. “We’re talking to various politicians and various stakeholders to see if there’s an avenue to renew that relationship, to refresh it, because I understand that this school — and MTC — was under some pressure, because of things that were out of their control.”

Congressional intervention halted the Trump administration’s push to dismantle the Job Corps at the beginning of Trump’s second term in the Oval Office. However, the initial attempt to close the program had already triggered widespread repercussions.

For one thing, according to Estrada — and corroborated by Thompson — the program experienced major budget cuts. In addition, Job Corps students were sent back to their homes across the country.

“Donald Trump (announced) that (the) Job Corps was going to be shut down … so we literally were putting people on buses,” Estrada said. “The students from Hawaii were put on airplanes. They all went home, not just (the) Tongue Point Job Corps school, across the country this was happening. … (Then) there was congressional intervention to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, you can’t do this by caveat. You can’t just shut it down. This is a congressionally approved program.’”

According to Estrada, the Trump administration backed off over time — but not all the students came back to Tongue Point.

The seamanship program is the largest program at the Tongue Point Job Corps Center, with roughly 60 students enrolled in the program. However, according to one student who asked not to be named, that number is only half the capacity of what the program originally had before the Trump administration began putting the corps on the chopping block. The student requested anonymity because he said he is part of a group of students in an impending lawsuit preparing to sue the MTC.

Lawsuit underway

Students at the Tongue Point Job Corps say they are planning a lawsuit against MTC for accusations of “false advertising.” They say they were “sold a lie” by MTC that they’d receive their certifications upon completion of the seamanship program.

“Every seamanship student here came from all over the country,” one student said. “Leaving behind whatever life they had. … We all came here under the impression that we would walk out of here with our OS (Ordinary Seaman), our AB (Able-Bodied) and our QMED (Qualified Member of the Engine Department) credentials.”

While students were told that the AB and QMED certifications hadn’t been offered in two years and weren’t being offered currently, they said they stayed because they were assured the certificates would come back “any single day,” once the program received curriculum approval from the Coast Guard.

On Sept. 14, Tongue Point students and instructors were informed that MTC would not continue in its partnership with the union. In addition, students were told they would not be receiving their AB and QMED certificates.

“Those credentials only stand to come back if we have the AB-certified instructors that are here now,” the anonymous student told The Astorian before Sept. 30. “So if they leave … there’s absolutely zero chance of anyone here getting any of those credentials except for their OS (Ordinary Seaman).”

As stated above, the AB-certified instructors had to leave at the end of September.

Since the announcement that the union contract was severed, several students in the seamanship program have left the program or switched to different trades such as cement masonry or carpentry. New students either picked a different trade, or went back home after hearing about what was happening to the seamanship program at Tongue Point.

“We’re already losing numbers over this. … No more than 10 (have left), but within a week, that’s noticeable.”

The Department of Labor and MTC failed to respond to The Astorian’s inquiries by presstime.

The seamanship program no longer has the instructors necessary to sail the vessels students use to gain experience.

“The training vessel, Columbia … we’re supposed to be taking out (on the water) every Tuesday and Thursday,” the student said. “Well, now we no longer have the instructors to do that … so now we can’t get sea time to learn anything.”