They have started offering CIVMARs voluntary separation bonus $$$ to resign. If they cannot get the number of mariners down there may be a RIF in the future.
But why? MSC is the only thing more bullet proof than belonging to a union. Are the amount kids being pumped out of the bastard factories finally catching up to the available jobs?
[QUOTE=Fraqrat;195802]ā¦Are the amount kids being pumped out of the bastard factories finally catching up to the available jobs?[/QUOTE]
Yup. Too many Mates and Engs and at their limits on BMs. Meanwhile, for at least the ships I sailed on, there was always a criticl shortage of ABs, OSs, and SUs.
The GOM has been hemorrhaging jobs for 2 years. I wonder how many GOM sailors ran off to MSC during that time.
Maybe MSC finally filled all their billets with GOM sailors and the house is full.
1 Like
Great now theyāll run to tugs and make it even harder to change companies or get our wages to go up.
Great! Too many ring knockers sitting in the pool doing jack shit except whining about how they canāt afford another sports car and draining the training budget
[QUOTE=Lee Shore;195805]The GOM has been hemorrhaging jobs for 2 years. I wonder how many GOM sailors ran off to MSC during that time.
Maybe MSC finally filled all their billets with GOM sailors and the house is full.[/QUOTE]
The oilfield had several cycles in the '60s and '70s. The worst in my career was mid '80s. I moved to SIU tugs. Many of the guys I sailed with went to MSC and most retired there. Many more crossed the picket line of the 333 strike and fucked everybody for years to come. Itās not as bad now that there is the towing endorsement requirement.
If you clowns spent as much time writing your Senators and Congressman about shutting down and/or stopping any and all federal funds to the ābastard factoriesā and those places that churn out āring knockersā maybe they would all be shuttered by now.
MSC manning/crewing operations themselves are just as wasteful as many other DOD or DOD-affiliated entities. Guys sitting in the pool out west or out east doing jack shit like always, and getting paid for it. Ridiculous MSC policy and practice for decades now.
How does MSC go from big fat sign on bonuses to voluntary separation bonuses in less than 2 years? And how much money is that going to waste due to a complete failure to plan? Iāll bet perceived Maritime Academy / KP wasted money ( or irrelevant if the term is more agreeable) pales in comparison to the money MSC wastes every year.
how about a modern day version of the route this thread should takeā¦
1 Like
Iām on a ship and I havenāt heard anything about this. Google doesnāt come up with anything either. Whatās the source?
1 Like
It sure would have been nice if MMP, MEBA or SIU had given the mariners a heads up about this. This just came out of nowhere, no one knew anything until they got the e-mail. Separation offers going to 3rd Mates and 3rd Engineers only right now, at least that is what I have seen.
MSC is very fat right now, lots of trimming can be done. The CSUs are full of 3rd Mates and 3rd and 2nd Engineers. The base is begging ships to take augments, just to clear people out of the hotels in VA and NJ. Some ships have five or six 3rd Mates and many ships are sailing around with a bunch of extra 2nd Engineers. MSC has no place for them to go. Everyone seems to be able to still work as much OT as they want, I wonder if that is going to change soon.
Wow. Its gotten this bad? Sad to say, it appears many folks are gonna be forced out of the maritime industry (sailing, anyways) this year. MSC was kinda the last stop. Tugs are already full up.
To clear things up, the sign-on bonus was for first mates and first engineers. MSC was so short that they had to sail ships without them, or have seconds fill billets, or promote grossly inexperienced seconds.
The current glut of third mates and third engineers (and seconds) is because the usual attrition from ring knockers using MSC as a brief starter job stopped when finding a follow-on job became difficult or impossible. They just stopped quitting.
The problem now across all ranks and rates is everyone on ships know that when they return from leave and check into the pool to for a ship assignment they will be waiting an awful long time. Knowing this, many mariners simply donāt put in for relief or they cancel their existing relief requests. (There is no mandatory rotation or maximum time aboard ship.)
This becomes a bad positive feedback loop: a shortage of timely assignments delays mariners from requesting relief which creates a shortage of available assignmentsā¦ This is the same as 2008-2009. The feedback loop and the policy changes it created are all the same.
(By 2010 the pendulum swung the other way and people were desperate for reliefs. Deck officers and unlicensed were two to three months overdue. Nothing is forever.)
Me confusedā¦āshortage of 30,000 marinersā was what I heard. All the academies said six figures right out of school! This isnāt fair, lets go protest!
1 Like
Just for the curious, are the people getting the separation offer in the pool or currently on a ship. Also are the people getting the offer new employees or the ones who passed the one year temporary employ mentioned period?
And the most important question, how much $$$?
[QUOTE=UnRepKing;195820]ā¦ The CSUs are full of 3rd Mates and 3rd and 2nd Engineers. The base is begging ships to take augments, just to clear people out of the hotels in VA and NJ. Some ships have five or six 3rd Mates and many ships are sailing around with a bunch of extra 2nd Engineersā¦[/QUOTE]
I wrote last June (Below)ā¦
[QUOTE=Xavier6162;185366]ā¦ MSC has too many third mates. My last ship was at 200%. Three of our third mates did not have a position on the Station Bill. The first mate had to make up duties/positions for them. MSCās response was to send, unexpectedly, another third. Soooooā¦[B]we had four thirds standing watch[/B]ā¦(two on the 12-4 watch) and two serving as cargo mates 4 and 5. [B]Yes we had 5 cargo mates.[/B]
[B]We had four second mates.[/B] One was the Navaigator. The other three were cargo mates 1 through 3. Ohā¦I forgot to mention [B]we also had two first mates. [/B]
Ironically, [B]we were consistently short 4 ABs and half of the required OSs during the entire deployment.[/B] Talk about top heavy. Mates and BMs almost outnumbered the Deck ABs. Go figure.[/QUOTE]
I have had some MSC friends ask about other gov jobs. Non-DoD is under a hiring freeze. NOAA is facing a 17% budget cut for 2018, which could grow by the time the budget hits the Presidentās desk. Soā¦if you are looking, keep on looking. ACOA (Army) will not fare much better, and it is a small service irt mariners. They donāt have many waterborne assets, so they do not do a lot of hiring. I hope that helps answer some questions.
Iām aware of two other policy changes implemented recently to address the problem.
First, cancellations or modifications to relief requests are no longer accepted. Once someone puts in for relief they will be relieved. (This is not absolute as I know some exceptions were made.)
Second, mariners ātemporarilyā shipping in a billet above their permanent rate are being bumped down to their permanent rate. Iām aware of second mates/engineers and third mates/engineers getting bumped down. (Again, I know there are some exceptions.)
These are poor long-term solutions. It will improve things for the next month or two. Beyond that there will be no more temps to bump. More importantly fear of joblessness will spread and mariners will simply hold off on requesting reliefs making the problem worse.
The letters are going to people assigned to ships. You must have 12 months time as a federal employee. There is a formula to figure out how much $$$ you would get. A 3rd mate with a few years experience would get about $4,000. $40,000 is the max you can receive.
[QUOTE=UnRepKing;195878]$40,000 is the max you can receive.[/QUOTE]
Damn! I should have hung in there.
[QUOTE=UnRepKing;195878]The letters are going to people assigned to ships. You must have 12 months time as a federal employee. There is a formula to figure out how much $$$ you would get. A 3rd mate with a few years experience would get about $4,000. $40,000 is the max you can receive.[/QUOTE]
I know one guy with about 6 months that got the offer.