Unions appear to gain more latitude in the present administration. I use that word “Appear” with not a lot of conviction. Maritime unions are but a small speck in the overall graph you show. Perhaps you can dig up a graph specifically regarding union vs non-union in maritime related numbers. I think you are correctly showing all union numbers in many different industries. A hard task to isolate one particular industry from the other. No secret membership has suffered and defined pensions as well over many decades. Economy and politicians had a hand in that.
This off shore wind/tide power generation is going to need a LOT of govt. money, It’ll probably always need a lot, we know what salt water does !! … Unions are generally credited in a large way of setting standard wages. If there is any hope of hiring US workers, I’d tend to favor a us union being involved, at least to a influential degree.
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One big problem with this anti-union rhetoric / propaganda is it fails to explain why union workers are more productive than non-union.
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That’s easy. You get what you pay for.
Some of the unions have very good training programs that are not duplicated by other schools.
A lot of non union deckhands have no commitment to being good deck hands. It’s just a temporarily thing, why bother. But union deckhands are more apt to make a career out of it.
A good mom and pop tugboat company that treats people well and pays close to union wages, or a bit more, will have good long term deckhands too. This somewhat depends on where they are located.
I use to see a lot of union guys working non union boats to fill in the employment gaps, but I don’t see this much anymore. We use to get deep sea mates ageing their cards at MMP, but once TOAR came along that ended.
The were a bunch of ex-Crowley Valdez union guys scrambling for non-union jobs. I see a few of them around on non union boats.
The argument being made is if your 're a superstar you want to negotiate directly with the company for higher wages while the no-talent shulbs need the protection of the union so they can f*ck off without getting fired.
However it’s in the union’s and the company’s mutual interests to negotiate work rules such that higher standards result in higher pay and benefits.
That would explain the higher wages, higher productivity and good quality union schools etc.
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Not to mention competent.
Watch this video about why customers are refusing to buy Boeing 787s built in South Carolina. The core issue starts around 6 minutes in but all of it points to worker quality and performance.
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This points more to Boeing 's failure to maintain quality control in a race to cut production costs. Pointing fingers at the workforce is a deflection away from the source of the problem which is that the company is run by bean counters.
I’d like to see offshore wind be about three quarters union (leave room for some non union mom and pop local companies), but not MMP Inland, SIU, IBU, Local 5000, AMO, or Local 25.
If its going to be union, it needs to be a real union, like MEBA, MMP deep sea, or the crane operator type locals of the Operating Engineers.
Also, no more than one licensed union , and one unlicensed union , per coast. No more underbidding in a race to the bottom.
Since none of these offshore wind projects can be built without government subsidies and tax breaks, the Bacon Davis Act “prevailing wage” requirements should be enforced for all offshore wind related work. No third party contractor transportation exception scams.
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Their only real competition is Airbus and last I checked, they are heavily unionized. Though at the same time, are also heavily subsidized… 
There’s nothing preventing small mom & pop companies from being union. They exist. It’s the small companies wanting to have control over their employees that keeps them from joining. We get it, you don’t like unions. So don’t join one.
The bean counters are always at work, regardless if you are union or not.
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The fingers are pointing out what happens when you hire untrained, unprofessional, low cost workers who can be fired for pointing out defects when they do see them.
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One of the many advantageous of working for a mom and pop company is that it’s more likely to be run by an experienced second generation boat Captain than a bean counter.
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Pretty hard to take national union data and make a believable argument for the maritime sector… Vessel operators with maritime unions more productive than operators without them? Really I would like to see some actual numbers to back that claim up. I have worked on union dredging jobs with mandatory scowmen and extra vessel engineers…when the contracts start padding the number of men required its hard to claim an uptick in productivity. I have also worked both union and non-union ATBs… The Union ATBs are faster? Offload quicker? The NS-5 maintenance routines get done quicker?
And your analogy of a “Superstar” mentality versus the slacker that needs to find a warm hole to crawl into is pretty harsh. I do not believe either is remotely true. There are so many variables that it really comes down to a personal choice. I really do not believe for the quality companies that there is a real difference.
You’ll find all the idiots who have been run off from the oil and gas industry re-appearing in the wind industry now. Happened in the Uk.
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I see Crowley is having a seminar regarding opportunities/strategy in wind farms later this month.
That’s a given but it’s a mistake to let them take over. A union would likely be able to deliver better workers via training programs since Boeing has not shown that it has the wherewithal to manage it.
Another leadership fail on the tail of the 737 fiasco. You’d think their experience building 787s in Seattle would have given them a clue on how to proceed but apparently not:
“They didn’t know how many managers they were going to need. They didn’t know how many specialized technicians.”
Oddly, workers rejected the union in order to protect their jobs. Good luck organizing mariners in offshore wind.
Interesting story.
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Yes Crowley is going full speed at Wind. Set up a separate division. Hired some great wind talent and are selling the “womb to tomb” maritime solution for offshore wind. There “ATB” windfarm supply solution is good but would enable foriegn flagged installation vessel to get the lion share of the big dollar work, but that might be unavoidable based on US flag installation vessel availability ( read existence) . Out side of the one installation vessel being built for the Virginia projects, there are not any other US builds on the horizon. This whole union non-union concern may be for naught unless we consider feeder tugs and crew transfer vessels ( read crew boats) a keen interest of unlimited union mariners? Crowley is in forefront of it in many ways, but might be missing the mark for Jones Act opportunities and enabling Jones Act work arounds. Those high paying unlimited tonnage jobs for US offshore wind may become great Eastern European and Pilipino jobs.
ECO and Harvey Gulf are also either making new vessels’ with built operate contracts (ECO) or for Harvey apparently just watching and waiting for best timing to enter. And I would be suprised if HOS did not have some activity in this market. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out…
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Anything that gives USA mariners a shot at more work/opportunities is welcome. Especially off our own coast. As other posters have mentioned, it will take working together with foreigners who know what the heck they are doing to learn the craft. That is already happening, but won’t happen overnight, but a step in the right direction.