“ Thank you Schoonerman
Yes I am seeing that BTC is not one of the beloved companies ”
I have to ask, you claim you knew nothing of the reputation of Bouchard and your Captain husband didn’t either? I assume then that you or husband had to figure it out pretty quickly.
If you googled Bouchard transport anytime in the last 15-20 years all you would see were wrongful death claims, spills, collisions, explosions, complaints, hearings, etc. That doesn’t even count the scuttlebut on the waterfront.
Or did you not bother to look into it because you just cashed the paychecks and thought, wow that’s a lot more than hubby was getting at Penn?
Although I have sympathy for the mariners and hope for a quick resolution and restoration of the fleet under new management… I am shocked to hear that supposedly people didn’t know what kind of company Bouchard was.
When I married my husband he was already working for BTC, did he look into them???
I never thought to ask. Clearly I was and in some ways still very naive wife, when it comes to his job. I don’t know anything about the industry other than what he’s tried to explain to me when I’ve asked questions. He rarely brings work home so, I never had the alarm bells go off. Yes, I heard about the explosion of B255 and my heart broke, did it scare me YES! I also know that working out there has tons of dangers, do I want to think about them as a wife…not really, it would have me a nervous wreck the whole time he’s gone. Time to put my big girl pants on and get educated! Did I know there was video and forums discussing the trial no I didn’t. I’ve been given quite the education the last couple months…Whats scuttlebutt on the waterfront? I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Kullman, it’s really not always about the money, if this same situation happened with ABC company with everything being the same except they were say an average paying company, would everyone automatically go to the assumption that the only reason 300 seaman where working there was just for the money?, no…maybe it was just because it was the only job they could acquire at that time, and you get into a routine and life happens and so on. I know now when he is looking into a company to work for I’ll be doing some investigating.
The saying I always heard when there was no place else to go… “theres always Bouchard”. I called this fall when I was job shopping after being shoreside, the 630 a day was ok but after hearing what was going on I stayed away. I have sympathy for the guys who are stuck but they knew something been up, EVERYONE in the maritime world has been watching this for months, I passed all the stacked boats at Caddells 2wks ago and we all just sort of shook our heads. My uncle had almost 30yrs in over there and wasnt bashful to tell the truth, he was only fired 3x which I guess was kind of a record ?
What position is your husband ? The job market isnt great, we have a mate from over there who jumped when he saw it getting bad in Dec, I know a now retired chief from there who packed it in mid Jan because he saw the handwriting, again I feel for the guys onboard but I bet 3/4 of them went to work because they where tied to the koolaid.
Kennebec_captain,
Yes my husband is a captain.
I’ve actually been on there…just last night actually. there is a new case as of the 14th, waiting for more info. There was a story on Tradewindsnews, that I don’t have access to and don’t want to spend $100/month for the subscription. I was hoping someone would had shared some of that information from it but, I’ve not seen it anywhere “Seafarers chase bouchard transportation for unpaid wages” If anyone is able to share it would be appreciated.
At this point the most important thing is to get your husband off the Bouchard vessel.
First of all, listen to your husband and follow his instructions about how he wants to handle it. He is there, he knows what’s going on, he knows what his situation is and what his tolerance level is.
Beyond that, contact your State’s Congressmen and Senators and ask for help getting your husband ashore. Contact the USCG. Contact the press. Make noise. Don’t take no for an answer. Keep calling.
Someone needs to get some competent lawyers involved on behalf of the crew.
If your husband is a captain, he must have MOPS (Merchant Officer’s Protective Syndicate) License insurance. He should call MOPS straightaway and ask for assistance. MOPS will appoint a good lawyer to represent him.
If your husband is a member of the Nautical Institute, he should call them and ask for Criminal legal defense assistance.
I agree with this, Need to make some noise. This happens to mariners because they are an easy target. Call you senator and representative and tell them whatever the polite way is to say “this is a bunch of fucking bullshit”.
There is this, I just found it with google so I don’t know anything about them:
Before you call that ambulance chasing law firm, Have your captain-husband call the legal response team associated with his license insurance. Surely he has a claim since the COPT memos were originally written to the master.
This is assuming he wants off the boat as much as you want him off. If you’re only thinking about the missed pay, call the ambulance chaser. Let us know what % cut they are asking.
Slickcam, I am sorry you are not offering a solution, if that is even possible for any of us. . Attacking your fellow mariners for expressing their opinions is fruitless. This is a complicated matter that NONE of us want to go through,. Some have been there, and have decent advice. Back off my fellow mariner. I am just as pissed as the rest of our small community, this employer has some good equipment, and some not so good. He is a rotten egg, we all know that. To say your fellow mariners don’t care about the current situation could not be further than the truth.
Yeah ok, most probably did, but I saw some F’ed up ish come from the fleet side at my 2.5 years there. I couldn’t believe the level of un-professionalism I saw in some of my shipmates. I’m not going to sit here and preach to you that this is what caused the issues today, but it certainly didn’t help.
BargeMonkey,
My husband is a captain. He has been there over 20 years, I guess he holds the record…he had never been fired to be rehired. Yes, we saw the writing on the wall as well and had a plan…he was going to put in applications, work 2 extra hitches which would had allowed us to pay off everything except the house, (knowing he would take a pay cut) before shit went down in a hand basket. He got the extra time, just not the paycheck…the plan was to get ahead of the 8 ball but, instead we are chasing it…LOL
The fact that one of the largest Jones Act operators has apparently abandoned all of their crews, who are now being forced by the USCG to stay on board, is a pretty big deal regardless of whether or not Bouchard is known to suck. The tone would be different if Matson were doing this but now every company is going to know they can seemingly get away with murder.
I agree, how Bouchard was to work for is irrelevant.
It’s like saying all the mariners that work at below average companies should quit and instead go to work at above average companies. Then no mariners would work at below average companies.
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