Female captain awarded $3.6M in gender discrimination case

Maritime News
1

this news makes me simply EFFING ill! I hate them all but this is utter over the FUCKING top!

[B]Female captain awarded $3.6M in gender discrimination case[/B]

By Tracy Vedder Oct 10, 2014

SEATTLE – Captain Katharine Sweeney wanted to be the first female vessel pilot in Puget Sound. Instead she’s now won a $3.6 million gender discrimination case, and taxpayers are on the hook for the actions of an obscure state commission.

Sweeney spent years working up the ranks of the maritime industry. She ultimately captained some of the largest and newest container vessels for Matson Shipping, sailing around the world. She helped rescue Japanese fishermen during a raging storm. She kept her crew safe off-loading cargo in Kuwait while SCUD missiles flew overhead during the first Gulf War.

But her final career goal was right here in Puget Sound.

“It was her dream to be a Puget Sound Pilot,” said attorney Deborah Senn.

Licensed vessel pilots are the only ones allowed to guide commercial ships in and out of Puget Sound. They are coveted positions – only 55 of them all told – and the jobs are worth about $400,000 a year.

In the 100-plus years of the Puget Sound Pilots association, there has never been a female pilot. Sweeney was the first and only woman ever even accepted into the training program run by a Training Evaluation Committee that is all-male.

Senn, along with lead attorney David Breskin - represented Sweeney.

Senn said in all the years Sweeney worked her way up the ranks, she never complained, never asked for special favors, and the same was true when she started training to be a Puget Sound Pilot.

“Captain Sweeney would make a mistake and get marked down for it,” Senn said. “Another pilot trainee would make the same mistake and not get marked down for it.”

Despite that, Senn said Sweeney performed as well as her male counterparts who got licenses. She said in some cases pilots trained and graded their own family members, who all got licenses.

But the State Board of Pilotage Commissioners voted against giving Sweeney a license. They decided, “she would not be a safe pilot,” according to Board Chairman Captain Harry Dudley. Dudley said each of the Commissioners had their own requirements in voting for or against licensing a trainee but, in general, he said Sweeney wasn’t consistent.

Dudley said the Board is disappointed the jury ruled against it and he doesn’t believe their process needs to change.

“We believe the system is set up so that no one group of people could discriminate against another in this training program,” he said.

Senn said the idea of nepotism and the “good old boy network” is well recognized in the Puget Sound pilotage community and, “it’s really, really time to change it.”

The Board of Pilotage Commissioners has not yet decided if they will appeal the jury’s verdict. All the Commission members are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the State Senate.

2

My dream was to play with the Rolling Stones. I think I’ll sue them fuckers.

3

Hopefully next will be the racketeering investigation into pilots

4

I’m a lot more interested in Reverse Discrimination against old men that just happen to be white.

But I’m glad this woman stung the pilotage commissioners for $3.6 million.

Forget the Bayou Mafia, these inbred private good old boy pilotage clubs are the real maritime mafias.

5

I am no fan of the Puget Sound Pilots, but the woman did not have ship handling skills, and
I believe she sued to be accepted into the training program. Now she can go off and live happily ever after.

6

Ah she played the “Im a victim card.”

7

[QUOTE=RichM;146073]I am no fan of the Puget Sound Pilots, but the woman did not have ship handling skills, and
I believe she sued to be accepted into the training program. Now she can go off and live happily ever after.[/QUOTE]
This is not the first time somebody has sued their way into Puget Sound Pilots. Sailed with a real shitbag on the ARC car carriers that sued them for improper administration of the exam, or something similar. Understand he is a full pilot with them now. I’m not a huge fan of the associations, but in this case, I think I may actually feel bad for them!

8

I don’t know all the facts of the case, or whether there was a jury trial or not, but I know for fact no one in a discrimination case just gets handed 3.5 mil for just saying there a women. That kind of money is built through the discovery portion of the case, and for that kind of money Im positive they Puget Sound was dirty.

9

Both sides in the case undoubtedly hired economists to calculate the measure of damages

This is an overly simplified way of saying it, but it would work something like this: what she would have made through the rest of her career as a $400,000 per year pilot, minus what she is projected to make as a seagoing captain, maybe $180,000 per year, with of course other adjustments, plus perhaps something extra for the indignity of it all.

10

The taxpayers are on the hook for the money not the pilots from what I understand.

11

Didn’t she win the American Merchant Marine Seamanship Trophy for helping save a bunch of fisherman in the South Pacific? Sounds more like a bunch of guys with tiny pricks afraid someone new might be a little better at something than them.

12

[QUOTE=rshrew;146081]The taxpayers are on the hook for the money not the pilots from what I understand.[/QUOTE]

Yes. That may well be true, but it was the State tha gave the pilots the legal authorization to maintain their inbred monopoly and control who can get in (especially family members) and wh they can keep out (all the rest of us).

13

[QUOTE=jrock;146078]I don’t know all the facts of the case, or whether there was a jury trial or not, but I know for fact no one in a discrimination case just gets handed 3.5 mil for just saying there a women. That kind of money is built through the discovery portion of the case, and for that kind of money Im positive they Puget Sound was dirty.[/QUOTE]

I am certain that every sigle party in this is filthy. My GOD can you imagine what our good lady captain smells like? I bet it’s close to rotten shark!

14

I thought that was the only type you go for Cap. The fishier the better.

15

[QUOTE=LI_Domer;146089]I thought that was the only type you go for Cap. The fishier the better.[/QUOTE]

A broad that smells of skank and has lots of jingle…paradise to this rotten old man!

16

Now you have to ask yourself…is that sexual harassment?

17

You know what they say… if you have to ask…

18

[QUOTE=Traitor Yankee;146098]Now you have to ask yourself…is that sexual harassment?[/QUOTE]

Misogyny would be more accurate.

19

[QUOTE=RichM;146073]I am no fan of the Puget Sound Pilots, but the woman did not have ship handling skills…[/QUOTE]

Bingo.
Couple that with Sweeney’s shitty attitude, refusal to take direction and advice from senior pilots, she should have been thrown out and never received a penny.

20

Here is an article about the resuce

…The master and crew of a U.S. cargo ship are the recipients of the American Merchant Marine Seamanship Trophy for their skillful action in rescuing six fishermen from stormy seas.

Capt. Katharine Sweeney and the crew of the American-flag cargo vessel MV MOKIHANA displayed superior seamanship when they saved the lives of six seafarers from a sinking Japanese fishing boat under difficult weather conditions.

The Seamanship Trophy, which recognizes extraordinary seafaring skills by American mariners, was presented during a luncheon ceremony at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on Jan. 24.

The MV MOKIHANA is operated by Matson Navigation Company. Capt. Sweeney is a member of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots.

On July 19, 2002, the MOKIHANA, underway in the Pacific en route to Guam from Oakland, received a call from U.S. Coast Guard Station Honolulu to divert course and come to the aid of a vessel in distress.

The MOKIHANA was already due south of its normal course to avoid Super Typhoon Feng Shen. The vessel’s master, Capt. Sweeney, determined that it would take about 10 hours steaming time to reach the vessel in distress, the Japanese fishing boat KATSUURA MARU #28.

The vessel had scraped a submerged atoll, pushed by the typhoon’s strong winds. It bottom was severely damaged and its pumps could not handle the flooding water. An order was given to abandon ship after a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft dropped a life raft and emergency supplies to the fishermen.

The MOKIHANA arrived on scene on the morning of July 20, and quickly spotted the life raft with six fishermen aboard. After several attempts at rescue in 25-knot winds and 12–foot seas, the crew of the MOKIHANA, exhibiting skillful seamanship and great determination, pulled the six stranded seafarers aboard.

“Getting the ship in the correct position to drift down towards the life raft was a little tricky,” said Capt. Sweeney, “and the sea anchor on the life raft made it very difficult to heave the raft alongside our vessel.

“Unfortunately, the fishing boat crew spoke no English, and did not know to cut loose the sea anchor once we had a line to the raft, which hampered rescue efforts,” she said.

The survivors of the fishing boat were discharged by the MOKIHANA in Guam. The efforts of the American ship’s captain and crew undoubtedly prevented the loss of human life…

25 kt winds and 12 foot are difficult conditions but not the “raging storm” in the article about the lawsuit.