All my experience is in the Gulf. Still employed (in the oilfield)but the pay reduction and stress of not knowing if I’ll have a job next week is motivating me to look elsewhere.
[QUOTE=DirtyRodriguez;166490]All my experience is in the Gulf. Still employed (in the oilfield)but the pay reduction and stress of not knowing if I’ll have a job next week is motivating me to look elsewhere.[/QUOTE]
Harvey or Hornbeck?
Crowley is looking for mates BTW.
Crowley is ALWAYS looking for mates. You’ll be a cargo mate not a steering mate. It’s funny how this forum was inundated with people trying to get to the patch for the big boom…and now everyone is scrambling to get back to tugs where the work is steady. I tried for a minute to go to an OSV company and am so fucking glad it didn’t work out. Mad respect to all the tugboat trash that stick it out on tugs.
Without recency in the northeast you’ll unlikely be cut loose within a year, if you’re lucky. You can get away without having it everywhere, but you need a few places which can take a while to get. I don’t know the GOM side of Bouchard but I assume they take pilots everywhere. Doubt they’d send you there right off though.
Not breaking your balls, but why do you still have a mate’s license? You’re way more attractive to oil companies with a Master of towing.
[QUOTE=RubberRhib888;166493]Mad respect to all the tugboat trash that stick it out on tugs.[/QUOTE]
Right on. Glad i stuck it out too.
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;166486]The way I heard it told all those mates they let go were being called “third mates” but you know how the grapevine goes 'round these parts…[/QUOTE]
I can’t remember the reason why, but say hypothetically there were a dozen, one or two got promoted, the rest went home, not de-moted to AB from what i recall.
I for one would jump on the opportunity, even if it meant working the deck for a year or longer. Does bouchard want their mates to have every endorsement known to man like crowley?
Bouchard sucks.
Like Patton said of Gen. MacAullife’s response to a German offer of surrender at Bastogne (“Nuts!”), “A man that eloquent has to be saved!”
[QUOTE=s31;166491]Harvey or Hornbeck?[/QUOTE]
My guess would be Chouest. They had the most recent pay cuts and the layoff scare is likely hitting those guys harder now that they realized the “Chouest doesn’t do layoffs” line is BS.
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[QUOTE=z-drive;166496]Not breaking your balls, but why do you still have a mate’s license? You’re way more attractive to oil companies with a Master of towing.[/QUOTE]
That’s a good question. Two years as Mate on an ATB plus whatever time on an OSV equals more than enough time to upgrade to Master.
I met a couple former Hornbeck guys at a course. They had pay cut, layoff, and demotion horror stories. I hear that there are a lot of former Hornbeck guys in the wind, and a lot of former 2nd through 5th “captains” now sailing as AB, but looking to go elsewhere to get back into the wheelhouse.
What little Chouest news that I’ve heard sounds a lot better than the Hornbeck news.
HA! It’s a bloodbath everywhere right now, I know for a fact it’s worse somewhere else. I heard directly from the master on a 300 ft boat at another company that he’s making $500 a day now.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;166516]What little Chouest news that I’ve heard sounds a lot better than the Hornbeck news.[/QUOTE]
My point was that the Hornbeck stuff happened a while ago, whereas Chouest has very recently massively cut pay and done large layoffs. That would explain why Chouest people all of a sudden don’t feel secure in their job. The timing of this quotation makes me think recent pay cuts and layoffs, like Chouest.
Harvey just gave their largest paycut yet…25-30%. Paycuts for officers are now 50-60%, unlicensed guys even more.
It sounds like you have enough experience to make it on atb/tugs, recency will be your only major issue. On the East coast the mate is expected to preform everything the Captain does except for paperwork. If you don’t have experience in an area, say something. A couple of new hire mates at my company have little to no experience with the currents we get in the Northeast and it’s making a monkey out of them.
He’d have to fire himself to make it better. The office staff isn’t the problem.
[QUOTE=Tugted;166465]He’s fired most of the office staff.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, that will make it better. LoL
The main problem still remains.
Well shit!!, this thread died quickly.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;166457]That may be a great opportunity, or just a deckhand job than may eventually turn into mate. At any company, personnel is mostly interested in the filling the current needs (in this case for a deckhand). They will promise anything to get someone on the boat. Most personnel types do not plan ahead.
The best way to find out if they are serious is to say: Ok, I accept your offer for a position as a mate, and its ok with me if you want me to do one hitch as a deckhand, so long as as I am starting at mate’s pay. When a decent company is hiring a mate, they don’t mind paying him mate’s pay. If they only want to pay you as a deckhand, then they are only hiring you as a deckhand.[/QUOTE]
I wouldn’t say that most personnel types do not plan ahead. In my experience the personnel department always tries to plan ahead but that area of the business is hard to do so. Turnover, no shows, sickness, death in family, etc… make it very difficult to execute even a well prepared department. Just when you get everyone in the right slot everything seems change.
Just my 2 cents.
A good personnel person would probably love to have a dozen extra employees, but Jeaux boss has to run a business and it’s not economical to do so.
What’s Bouchard pay in gulf as of 2017 ?
If you’re being offered a job, take it. They’re hard to come by now. The pay will be ok ( I have no proof of this) but the benefits and crew changes will be meh.
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