3/M shipping with SIU?

Maritime Employment
1

A few friends who also became Mates last month talked me into joining SIU this week to start making some money and getting sea days.

I have a confirmed/contract signed permanent Mate job coming up this fall, but the company told me that they would call me sometime between October and December to start on probably around two weeks notice. This being the case I’m hoping to pick up a quick 4-5 week temp/relief job in the SIU hall to avoid having to quit a longer rotation mid-voyage if the company hiring me as a Mate calls out of the blue to start working.

Is this plan of grabbing a short term job a pipe dream? If I take a longer 60-90 day job and have to quit halfway through, is it pretty unlikely I’d even be able to get off within 2 weeks? I hate the idea of quitting anything, but I’m having trouble making ends meet and really need the cash.

Thanks

2

SIU is mostly unlicensed jobs unless it’s on the Tugs, but the Tugs (both officer and unlicensed) are direct hire not from the hall

Just joining In you’d be a C Book which they already have problems shipping out, Issue #2 I could be rusty or flat wrong on the rules here but if an AB job.comes up and you thrown in and a AB throws in and you both have equal time waiting on the beach the AB gets the job since that is their rating

You look at AMO or any of the other Officer Unions?

3

I’d take a job as a deckhand or mate on a tug before I’d try to ship out deep-sea with the SIU. It will keep you closer to shore when you want to quit and you’ll likely learn a lot more in a short time.

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