First off - “Bravo” NewEngr; we need more folks with intestinal fortitude if we are going to “cut out the disease” and begin healing…
In today’s entry, I would like to address the issue of wages, since the issue has been recently discussed in this forum. Specifically, I would like to address the claim by the Bethel Gang that poor Tom has had to suffer with a “minimal” 3% wage increase. I decided to do my own sleuthing in order to find the truth, which I figured was somewhere between what the Hearn camp was saying, and the Bethel Gang. Imagine learning that the incumbents are spinning the truth again. I call B.S.!!
Of particular concern is the Bethel Gang resorting to every kind of political maneuver they can use to sway the membership during the final stages of the election (after all, imagine Tom having to go to work on a lousy contract, working as a WIPER for a Chief Engineer who just had his pension stolen – thus Tom is pulling out all the stops, including cartoon drawings – if I was a cartoonist, I’d submit a photo showing Tom cleaning the bilges of one of the “Honeypot” Tankers in NY Harbor!!).
Personally, I am thoroughly disgusted with their attempts at discrediting – no, not Jack and his slate – but the intelligence of the AMO Membership. I find it hard to read all of the drivel that is being spun by Bethel and his gang, simply because I know enough to realize it is their final attempt at swaying our opinion, in order to continue to rape and pillage the world’s “finest Officers Union”. I am not taking the taking the time to voice my opinion because I am a “Hearn plant”; on the contrary, if there was a choice in this election I might vote for someone other than Jack. However, I feel that AMO members have NO chance of a financial future that is not dictated by Michael Sacco UNLESS BETHEL IS RELEGATED to being a union member who will have to work under the crappy contracts that HE has helped to shove down the AMO member’s throats for these many years (check out Bob Kiefers wage increases the past 3 years if you wish to see what loyalty to the “King” brings)!! I feel the corruption and the inbred contempt that the members are held by Bethel that if EVERY other incumbent loses the election and Bethel remains in power, we have achieved NOTHING. I feel that Bethel is sooooooooo “in bed” with not only the SIU Leadership (yes, I believe the conspiracy theorists who think that SIU’s greatest victory will be to see all AMO Officer’s subjugated to the will and CRAPPY PENSION PLAN of the SIU), that if Bethel is left in office, then the rest of the election matters not, because the “head of the snake” will continue to sliver around, sucking the lifeblood out of every AMO member until they are left feeling like 3rd world sailors………………
I have sat back and monitored the mud slinging, but what really peaked my curiosity was the mention of union official’s wages. I have always felt a little PO’d by the fact that our “annual 3% wage increase” did not always go to us 100%, but that part of it went to support other areas of the union, if determined necessary by someone “other” than who was expecting the total increase in his pay check! What pushed me over the edge was the commentary in the last few days by Bethel’s Gang that he has taken a “meager” 3% increase in his wages. As I mentioned days ago, I do not begrudge anyone being reimbursed for his expenses, thus I am concentrating on “wages” only. The numbers below (taken directly from the WAGE column – meaning NO expenses included - of the Labor Dept LM-2 form) are not for all union officials, but when you see what is recorded, you will see the impact. I may not have majored in math, but I am not as dumb as Mr. Bethel would like to think, because even I can see that Bethel (and a few others) have done quite a bit better than the “meager” 3% per year that the Bethel Gang claims he has received:
2006 2007 % Chge 2008 % Chge 2009 % Chge % Chg ’06-‘09
Bethel $201,962 $230,941 14.35% $284,656 23.26% $321,589 12.97% 59.23%
Cree $129,900 $134,640 3.65% $167,485 24.39% $172,386 2.93% 32.71%
Joe G. $154,654 $155,151 3.20% $169,004 8.93% $181,667 7.49% 17.47%
Kiefer $127,631 $135,337 6.04% $176,967 30.76% $188,739 6.65% 47.88%
Leonard $191,250 $214,231 12.02%
Nilsson $103,070 $104,910 1.79% $113,304 8.00% $121,600 7.32% 17.98%
Shea $122,131 $128,454 5.18%
Weathers $121,566 $130,570 7.41%
Gee Tom, can you really survive on the “meager” 59.23% wage increase you have had since 2006??? Give me that kind of money and I will do your bidding until the cows come home…. Ooooooooops, it looks like all those positions have been taken, since the guys who were IN THE HEARN CAMP LAST ELECTION (and WON) ARE NOW WAVING YOUR FLAG AFTER YOU “PROMISED TO TAKE CARE OF THEM” (THAT post is for another day – no need to embarrass everyone at the same time)………………………
I hope that Tom Bethel truly feels that AMO has the most qualified Officer corps. in the U.S. Merchant Marine, since he is doomed to registering for a job after this election – and that is only if he in fact has an engineering license. There is NO way that any AMO member could vote for Bethel and the gang if they have any sense of self worth or any level of intelligence at all.
How DARE the Bethel Gang insult my intelligence with the satire and the comic strips………. How pathetic. The AMO membership should be OUTRAGED by the lies regarding wages, the use of cartoons and the satire.
If they are lying about data that is EASILY refuted by simply accessing the data from the Dept of labor website – then God knows what else they continue to lie about!!!
Wake up AMO – throw the incumbents out on the street where they belong. Let Bethel and his gang see what it is like to beg for a job from the dispatcher, hoping it is one that actually pays well with decent benefits!! Oh wait – perhaps they can get a job in the phony SMU union! Or how about TAGOS, or DYN Marine, or some of the other cut throat, garbage contracts that we have been forced to work under….
By the way - rumor has it that John Hafner (one of our union officials) stood up to “the power brokers” - because he was AGAINST the Rape of the members Pension Plan! Anybody know what happened to him? I heard he “retired”… hmmmmmmmmmm…