It’s not that bad. 35 applicants got out this June, two as Master, four as Chief Mate, the rest Second and Third mate. It’s been a good year, so far, for applicants at MM&P. I’m always rooting for them, because I remember, having been an applicant four times in my career.
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Please… do tell what you imagine that difference to be, instead of being intentionally vague and inventing anti-mate characters to further your odd personal vendetta?
Every book member was once an Applicant — and if we did get rid of that position, the C-Books just inherit this “starvation mode” you’ve fabricated.
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It goes both ways. Difference with the first option being you never know if you were too late to claim it or it was being withheld by a dispatcher for a buddy. Based on how they do things I wouldn’t be surprised if they man them as permanent slots all the way.
And if for whatever reason those jobs aren’t all permanent slots or they call you for a relief gig and you say “pass,” you’re back on the bottom of shit hill. “StArVaTiOn MoDe 
”
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In my experience, there are crap jobs available everywhere, and these are generally what an applicant in any union lives on. Once in a while you luck into an A3 gig.
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Essentially it sucks to be new regardless of where you hang your license.
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I spent 10 of my 13 years sailing with AMO. I was fortunate to sail with some great engineers and mates. Many of whom I still talk to today even though I work shore side.
To stir things up a bit more, the rumors I heard are that AMO with provide mates for the approximately 20 ships APL (Osprey) will reflag, AMO engineers on every 3rd ship, MEBA to provide engineers for the bulk of the ships. Take that all with a grain of salt.
My first few years out the gate were spent on a grain ship, which was the worst job at the time, possibly in the entire business. The 3rd Mate on the opposite rotation and I maxed out our OT to make around $11,900 a month.
Another gig that popped up on occasion was aboard the infamous Asphalt Commander. Many guys cut their teeth in the biz aboard the “ship of pain.”
Yeah, you rite, as we say back home. I did ten years in Liberty Maritime geared ships when I was in the MEBA.
One of the nicest guys I know in MM&P used to tell me about his time in “Asphalt Commander”.
CMA CGM Phoenix arrived in New York this morning. From CMA CGM’s online schedule, she goes to Norfolk, Savannah and Charleston, and has a nine day stretch between finishing cargo in Charleston and arriving New York again. I assume she’ll go to a layberth and be flagged in during that time?
Is that true? AMO getting it? Any other details? That would be a swift start to that plan by CMACGM. Awesome if so.
Wonder how the contract is. MEBA MSP is very good. I wonder what AMO settled with.
From what my sources tell me. AMO will crew all the deck officers and AMO engineers will crew 1 out of every 3 ships of the 20 CMA CGM promised. MEBA engineers will crew 2 out of every 3. AMO will be getting the first one top to bottom.
AMO being the answer is only good for companies. One thing good about MMP/Meba together is the pay and benefits is better. If AMO becomes the go to union then we all suffer.
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Back this up with some numbers. You guys love to shit on AMO but quote contracts from the 90’s. Let’s hear it Troy, show me the two contracts and benefits point out exactly what you’re talking about.
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I agree, everyone likes to bash AMO yet they have been picking up tonnage with good pay. Some of the recent contracts and negotiations have netted significant raises for the membership as well. This includes the coming CMA-CGM APL, AMO/MEBA contract which has very good numbers from what I’ve seen.
It’s not gonna matter if AMO has 20 APL ships and MMP continues to decline. If you don’t have tonnage it doesn’t matter how much you stick up for mariners.
It’s becoming a lot easier to compare contracts dollar for dollar with all these pass throughs. There’s more than one company that I know of where the MEBA and AMO contracts are a lot closer than MEBA membership would like to think.
“But MEBA has a pension!” Correct me if I’m wrong, don’t they also have a mandatory contribution from current sailors to keep that pension going? How, exactly, is that different than a legalized Ponzi scheme?
I swear that sometimes y’all are like some weird cult incapable of objectively looking at things.
The MEBA has a defined benefit plan and a defined contribution plan. Neither are Ponzi schemes but which are you referring to?
The 11.7 has gone away for the most part. The companies cover it now.
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I was told this is exactly what was put out at the monthly MEBA union meeting in LA this week.
Apparently the wage sheet was there for the new APL ships also. Our members were told the wages were identical to AMOs best contract. What was shown was a little less than our OSG contract.
Monthly wage (no OT rate) so basically 12 hr days if the CE wants.
I’m still all in favor. It’s new work which we weren’t otherwise going to get, it continues a trend of cooperation with AMO, and it further separates us from MMP. A win on all fronts.