Had a tumble drier ‘thermal event’ at 0300 on a Sunday morning, a couple of hours before EOP on a regular, daily run.
Smoke, then flames, then extinguished.
Back to bed.
Up again 1 hour later, for arrival.
Company response; zero.
AI response ‘Thank you for submitting this report…’
Turds.
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Another company’s response.
No, not to a drier incident but to seafarer’s evolving role in a more digitalized future:
Thing will evolve quickly with the introduction of AI in everyday life at sea.
Some seafarers will have problem with the changes and need the support of their employers to adjust and evolve.
Different companies will approach the challenges differently.
Ship arrived on time, cargo not delayed, didn’t go off charter, no cost to company. What else do you think they care about?
How about the massive about of bullying/abuse/harassment that has historically gone on at sea by senior officers that got ignored by the office. End or tour evaluations are one direction, downward…right?
Well, considering a few bad apples have finally cost shipping companies a lot of money and bad publicity, it looks like the company is finally forced to care about the assholes that would have been fired years ago in an equivalent shore-side position.
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Arrived on time, cargo not delayed…no problem. Everything else is a personal issue. Get paid and forget about it as long as the check doesn’t bounce. Took me awhile to accept that.
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Actually, it’s a personnel issue, not a personal issue. As stated, it eventually costs the company big money when ignored for too long.
Be interested in reading the email/text chain when Hornbeck had a vessel on temp assignment in Trinidad and the Captain put his genitals on a foreign temp employee. Note…The Captain is still working as a Captain with them!
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Ignored by the office and the union. We got one ship like that right now and the Master keeps getting away with vicious abuses to officers and crew alike year after year. He’s such a coward that he hides in his office and put a peep hole in his stateroom facing the passageway so he can see who is knocking before opening the door.
But… they survive.
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I just read an article on “ cutting edge technology “ pushing for a completely plant based diet. Anyone fancy a steak or fish grown by fermentation in a corner of the engine room. Me I will continue to look out the window where my next meal is coming from.
Sounds about right! I never understood this situation of inaction by the company/union.
And then somebody eventually sues (and usually wins) and company stands there dumbfounded wondering, “How did we not know this was going on?”
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Me too. And if the check bounces, or conditions become unsafe or unbearable then roll on out and go to the next company.
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In this case, verrrrrrry simple. A senior union official and this particular captain are classmates and old buddies. I bet the grievances are an inch thick but found their way into a paper shredder.
The union can’t fire the captain/chief. In fact, it really isn’t the jurisdiction of the union to deal with assholes.
However, an asshole is a big liability for the company. And that is what mostly surprises me regarding the inaction.
Really? Are things that hard to figure out? If the captain is fired his union will fight the company tooth-and-nail in his defense. Isn’t that what unions are for?
Catch 22…
This is true, but one would think you’d at least make it known that they are putting their ship on the map and their career on the line if the complaints go from a grievance to a documented case that goes beyond that stage and right to a lawyer and is made public — rather than just look the other way for one of your old homeboys.
Worth noting is the guy is such a notorious shitbag that folks openly tell him to get fucked, and even if they get shitcanned the union won’t hold it against them. When a captain or chief goes to those great lengths to be a douchebag there really isn’t much they can do to you if you push back (not that there ever was.)
This is completely not true. And your assertion has been proven wrong by a fairly recent high profile case that involved many folks getting sacked in which the unions rightfully said, “you’re on your own, buddy!”
In such instances, the union is not the proper avenue to head down. The only thing that will bring change is pain to the pocket book of the company. Some former sailor turned lawyer appear to have made his entire business model chasing a specific type of allegations.
There is some tension within the union between protecting an individual member from unjust disciplinary action when that individual is affecting other members. In such a case the appropriate role of the union would be on a case-by-case basis depending upon the facts of the case. The union has a duty to protect the other members as well.
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To a certain extent. But if other union members complain there have been times when the union will give a less than enthusiastic defense. The unions are not unintelligent, they know that they have to negotiate with the company to get a contract renewal and there are other unions out there. It’s not like the police unions who have a lock on cities and defend their members even if they know they are in the wrong.
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I found that it all depends on perspective. When I was sailing CE, some of my assistants thought that I was the biggest asshole around (they weren’t necessarily wrong), BUT. . . as a CE or Master, there are people that we have to answer to and oftentimes deckhands/oilers/assistants/mates aren’t aware of that. That said, there were just a couple of Masters that I sailed with that weren’t so much assholes, but psychotic hazards. . . that is a bit different.
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Let me bluntly define “asshole” since the my subtle attempt didn’t work. An “asshole” is a abusive bully/harasser that makes at least one crew members life miserable for no reason. Many are sociopaths. These folks somehow have survived at sea in their own little fiefdom due to lack of oversight. He/she would have been shitcanned years ago if working in a shore job because of at least the occasional evaluation by the organization.
Luckily, the younger blood in union leadership and retirement of the assholes is slowly making change. But there will still be the scumbags; for some reason shit always seems to float to the top.
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In the case of this Master, he cooks his books and makes it believable enough that the office just likes his great KPI figures. A little MS Excel magic goes a long way and if the office is happy and people onboard are too scared to file the paperwork and make a scene or simply tell the old man to get fucked (or both) — it perpetuates itself.
A shipmate from the union refers to him as “Adolf Shipler.” (He lives in Germany)
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