Why would we do that? Don’t you remember? We’re the selfish mean spirited people who refused to let them disembark and forced them to stay at sea!
Your words, not mine.
Why don’t you get serious and support your fellow seafarers when they need it??
There are now over 200,000 seafarers stranded around the world:
I know, very few, if any, are Americans, so it is not interesting.
I know at least 5,400 of them are Americans and that’s just at my employer. (I think there’s an entire thread about that somewhere…)
Link?
This too
Not sure if MSC personnel is included in the 200,000. If they are and if all 5,400 are stranded around the world, it is near 3% of the total stranded seafarers. (Just to put it in perspective)
More reason to react for everybody, though.
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Thx JD. Second chuckle of the day. I cannot find popcorn in the store, but can find celery,cukes and carrots with dip.
Nothing to do with American mariners, it’s true of people in general. Mariner’s concerns are for their family and friends back home. Do transportation workers in say for example Asia care about workers in S. America? No.
In fact If the late night chatter on the VHF is any indication the seafarers from E. Europe, India and the Philippines all hate each other.
That is funny but true, not that they hate each other but the chatter.
There is a lot of posts about the relatively few Americans that is affected by Covid-19 lockdown and “gangway up” order, many of them in US ports.
Far less interest in the 200,000 other seafarers that is stranded on board ships for many months, after they have completed their sometime long contracts.
It depends on which Asian countries and what kind of transport workers you are talking about. Truck drivers in Afghanistan may not care much about their counterparts in S.America, although they face many of the same dangerous roads, (But less roadside bombs in S.America)
Japanese seafarers may have some sympathy with their fellow seafarers though. (They may face the same problems)
So yes; more of the same shit.
The only one of the “original” family owned Singapore shipping companies from the late 1960s/early 1970s. (when Singapore Gov. decided to “go for” a maritime future) to survive still, Pacific International Line (PIL), has been in trouble for some time.
Now they are getting some help from Temasek, the Gov. investment company:
Never heard of PIL? Here is a brief history:
https://www.pilship.com/en-our-history-and-milestones-pil-pacific-international-lines/82.html
There was some dude that got beat up by LA cops that said" Why can’t we all just get along". Never heard an answer by anyone.
Well it apparently interests my American union leadership as this story was posted in the weekly newsletter.
Can we please stop painting with such large diameter brushes of black and white bugge?
MM&P SEEKS HELP FROM CONGRESS IN BATTLE TO REPATRIATE OFFSHORE CREWS
The crews of five US-flag containerships are among the thousands of mariners who are essentially being held hostage aboard their vessels because of the breakdown in the crew change process caused by Covid-19.
The crews of the five ships–operating in the Mediterranean, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, and all participants in the Maritime Security Program–have been working since December 2019 without reliefs.
The vessels run a 24/7 operation delivering goods that help supply US bases overseas as well as commercial and humanitarian cargo around the world.
MM&P and the other American maritime unions have sought to repatriate their members via major ports–including US naval bases in Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, Dubai and Oman—but without success.
“These professional mariners are true frontline workers and now is the time to lend a hand to get them home,” MM&P Atlantic Ports Vice President Tom Larkin told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a May 21 letter.
“Apart from humanitarian concerns, the global supply chain is at risk,” MM&P President Don Marcus wrote leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
He said the situation is particularly difficult to comprehend because US-citizen merchant seamen are America’s fourth arm of defense.
“They are supplying our troops overseas and delivering government cargoes of all sorts, including essential foreign aid to many of the same countries that are preventing their repatriation,” he wrote.
“At the most pragmatic level, how can it be that to date there has been no effective US government intervention to prevent a critical break in the logistical supply chain of our military?”
Marcus has transmitted to Congress a letter drafted by the International Federation of Shipmasters’ Associations, of which MM&P is a member, outlining the magnitude of the global crisis and calling on governments to immediately implement the IMO’s crew change protocols.
“Isolation and excessive lengths of service aboard ship have created grave dangers of fatigue and psychological stress, increasing the likelihood of marine accidents, creating mental health risks, including deep depression and, in extreme cases, suicide,” Marcus wrote.
“Seafarers are being abandoned.”
“We seek your assistance with the State Department and/or the Department of Defense to ensure that US mariners can be relieved in Middle Eastern ports and, for the greater global crisis, we seek the assistance of the US government to see that foreign seafarers can be similarly relieved and repatriated from US. ports,” Marcus wrote leaders of the House Committee.
“Humanity and the global supply chain demand no less.”
“UN MUST PERSUADE GOVERNMENTS TO ADOPT CREW CHANGE PROTOCOLS–OR RISK DISASTER,” GLOBAL MARITIME LEADERS WARN
With over 200,000 tired, mentally stretched seafarers stuck on ships across the globe, the international maritime industry is calling on United Nations Secretary General António Guterres to persuade the 193 UN member states to immediately implement the 12-step crew change protocols developed by the International Maritime Organization.
“There is no time to waste,” leaders of the International Chamber of Shipping, the International Trade Union Confederation and the International Transport Workers’ Federation told Guterres.
ICS member shipping companies operate over 80 percent of the world’s merchant tonnage. The ITUC represents around 250 million workers around the world.
The ITF, of which MM&P is a member, connects trade unions in 150 countries that collectively represent nearly 20 million working men and women.
“There are 200,000 seafarers out there right now desperate to get home to their own beds, see their families and hug their kids,” says ITF General Secretary Steve Cotton.
“They’ve been stuck on their ships, keeping global trade running since this pandemic blew up. Enough is enough–they have earned their ticket home. Now governments must make that happen.”
As travel restrictions swept across global economies, trade continued thanks to the 1.2 million seafarers crewing ships across the world.
Their commitment to keeping open the supply lines for food, fuel and goods, including vital medical provisions, has enabled governments to focus on addressing the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the crew change process necessary to support the world’s mariners has–with very few exceptions–ground to a halt.
“It’s time for governments to open their hearts, and open their borders, to the world’s seafarers,” Cotton says.
“The alternative is exhausted crews and the shutting down of global trade. The world can’t afford that.”
Although there has been engagement from some national governments, such as by designating seafarers essential workers, there has been no fundamental progress on the crew change crisis.
“As thousands of seafarers face exhaustion at the helm of critical supply routes, the clock is ticking for governments,” the ITF, the ICS and the ITUC wrote.
“Time is running out. We ask that action be taken immediately, ahead of June 16, the final agreed deadline to implement crew changes for our seafarers.”
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Yes, nice to see that one of the (many) mariner’s unions purportedly also have some concern for their fellow seafarers of other nationalities. (Although mostly because any help for them MAY benefit those who are on board 5 US container ships transporting US military supplies in the Middle East)
The Indian Government also care about Indian seafarers only. (as a government is supposed to do, I presume):
The Singapore Government is showing some compassion with foreign seafarers though:
https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/regulation/singapore-allow-crew-changes-where-seafarer-contracts-have-expired
As a major port, shipping and travel hub, they should do, although there are very few Singaporean going to sea anymore.
Singaporeans don’t even do a lot of the work in Singapore’s shipyards from what I’ve seen. They took a page out of the USA’s playbook and imported workers from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan etc., to do the work for MUCH less money.
They are paying for it now, with over 90% of the cases of Covid-19 being among the foreign workers:
Yet the local population is in lockdown (or Circuit breaker, as it is called in Singapore)
PS> Don’t know if any “USA’s playbook” was involved. Foreign labourer, (mainly from Malaysia and Thailand initially) was common already in the early 1970s. Then in Construction, Garment industry and for Electronic Assembly work, using microscopes.(Thai women)
The labour intensive Garment and Electronic Assembly work was “exported” to Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Bangladesh already in the mid/late 1970s to free up factories and Singaporeans to work in more value-add industries. (Mainly in skilled, Supervisory and Administrative positions) as Foreign workers from other parts of Asia (mainly South Asia, Philippines and China) became more easily available.
Today there are more restrictions put on the accessibility to use foreign workers, incl. “foreign talents” in higher skilled positions, many from other developed/western countries