for generations of young people from deprived backgrounds to gain employment. The 1970s saw further strengthening of the SIU with acquisition through merger of the National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards (NUMCS). After an eight-month battle with cancer, Hall died in 1980. Controversy In 2005, SIU and the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education were sued for age discrimination by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The SIU was restricting applicants based on age rather than ability, rejecting any apprentice applicants over the age of 35. In the opinion on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, "throughout this appeal, and in the proceedings before the district court, the center and the union ... maintained that age-barriers to entry are a hallmark of apprenticeships and complained that the EEOC's regulation effectively guts that employment practice by erasing its defining characteristic." In 2006 the case remanded back to the Baltimore federal district court and that court ruled in favor of the EEOC and ordered back payments in the range of $2 million to over 180 plaintiffs and further ordered that they and all future applicants to the Paul Hall maritime school be admitted regardless of age. In testimony before the Parliament of Canada in 1996, David Broadfoot of the Canadian Merchant Navy Association recalled that in 1946, "Our government imported a thug, a real heavy-duty gangster from Brooklyn (Hal C. Banks), to smash our union and bring in the Seafarers' International Union ... which was no different from the Teamsters at its worst and no different from the longshoremen's association at its best. ... They came on our ships with baseball bats and bicycle chains. That's how they introduced their union to Canada." Presidents Harry Lundeberg (1938–1957) Paul Hall (1957–1980) Frank Drozak (1980–1988) Michael Sacco (1988–current) Affiliated unions According to its 2005 report at The Department of Labor, total membership of all 13 affiliated unions is 35,498. Information for affiliated unions follows: Recently terminated affiliate unions Seafarers' Professional Security Officers Association was terminated in 2004. Seafarers AFL–CIO Local Union 5 Chauffeurs and Industrial Workers was terminated in 2000. Seafarers AFL–CIO Local Union 300 United Industrial Workers - Midwest was terminated in 2000. Seafarers AFL–CIO Local Union Marine Staff Officers Pacific District was terminated in 2002. See also Harry Lundeberg Paul Hall Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education Michael Sacco Frank Drozak United States Merchant Marine Related organizations American