[QUOTE=z-drive;142966]Regardless it’s still a hell of a lot better of a deal than staying with 333. The guys at Weeks seem to have made out pretty well so far. In this case at least they will have access to more union benefits than they ever would have with the old regime.
I don’t see why they need separate divisions either, but unfortunately sometimes you have to choose between the lesser of two evils. Love 333 or hate it, it played a big roll in the industry wide wage increases in 2005-2012[/QUOTE]
You need to put the crack pipe down! Seriously! Local 333 had a big roll? Did they negotiate the huge Xmas bonuses that Reinauer was giving at that time? What exactly was that big roll, please define that for us that aren’t in the loop of knowledge?
[QUOTE=tugsailor;142992]There are plenty of tugboat captains and mates that hold third mate or second mate. I have not met a lot of chief mates or unlimited masters on tugs, but I have seen a few.
If a guy has been paying dues to 333 for years and then the membership of 333 votes to merge 333 into MMP, and then the guy becomes a dues paying member of MMP, the guy should be treated as a real member of MMP with all the rights and obligations that any other member has. He should not be treated like some guy that just walked in off the street to join.
The MMP reminds me of the story of Animal Farm: “all pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than other pigs.”
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If the books are open and have the ticket, you can throw in for any job. No veterans preference, no diversity goals, no questions about gender
or ethnicity. No interview, no one asks for your resume, where you went to school or who your daddy is.
The inland division can use the same system if they can get the contracted companies to agree to rotary shipping It would be unfair to the rotary members to open the jobs to inland members unless the inland jobs go on the board as well. I can’t throw in for a pilots job and the pilots can’t throw in for an off-the-board job. I don’t see that as unfair to the pilots.
It played a role, excuse me, not a “big roll.” Don’t be bitter because some companies ate the shit sandwich and still do. Are 333 wages top dollar? No. But they increased a lot faster than other places did for a solid period. Mates at Chouest were making $350 a day when they were making 550+ in NY. Just for example. I am not a 333 member and never have been, just saying they did some good For the industry at one time or another.
[QUOTE=z-drive;142994]I agree, I don’t see why it even needs to be a different whole division. I hear they’re going to be keeping a bunch of the 333 bozo’s too.[/QUOTE]
It looks like the 333 union management bozos made a deal to sell the 333 membership and their dues paying cash flow to MMP in exchange for keeping their jobs, plus God knows what else.
In due course MMP should clean house by making the 333 bozos early retirement package offers that they cannot refuse.
MMP Offshore seems to be a half decent union. It should start acting like it and make sure that the Inland division and 333 live up to MMP Offshore standards. In other words, if MMP is going to have its name on a union, it ought to do a decent up of representing its members.
They had plenty of money and they squandered it. That money was not for them to do as they please. Bad management with members not voting or paying attention created an unstable union. Now the UMD 333 has a chance to save the good working sailors that still actively pay dues and participate in the democratic process of the union.
Nothing less than a complete nuking and rebuild of 333 can save that mess. Bringing the same poor leadership into a new mother union will fix nothing. It doesn’t matter how many dues paying members you have if there is no action to make sure the guys are up to date. Overpaying the mother union for 15 years doesn’t help the locals bottom line either. I’m very glad not to be paying those guys to sit on Bay St and do nothing anymore.
It’s that same kind of thinking that’s kept this disease spreading along R.T blvd. The crews need to be active and find the right candidates to represent and manage the funds and contracts. Quit putting your problems off on the shoulders of less qualified individuals. Grown men and women need to take on more and more responsibility for others and less for themselves.
Right except when they did that the ILA put them in trusteeship after failing to reinstall their cronies. Since the trustee was already in their pocket back in the 80’s. The new members of the EB were just fired and now they’re even worse off.
I see this as a positive both for 333 and my union, MMP. MMP’s insurance kicks ass and that alone is worth the price of admission. It doesn’t matter what division the 333 guys will be in. The insurance is the same. Putting them into the offshore division does not make a lot of sense as MMP’s definition of offshore isn’t what most on here think offshore means. MMP Offshore is all big ships. The only jobs I can think of that requires a towing endorsement would be the ITB’s with LMS in the Gulf.They have a hard time getting reliefs for those jobs because most big ship guys don’t have towing endorsements.
There are downsides with every business merger so suck it up buttercup and try to remain positive. In our trashed economy, beggars can’t be choosers.
See that’s the problem. You guys see your selves as beggars, our industry has never had a higher quality, more trained and technologically advanced personnel than it does right now. Between ECDIS, GMDSS, STCW, and all the other alphabets we have to get we are not as easy to replace as grabbing a hobo off the street like It used to be. We’re highly trained and should be represented accordingly.
That’s very incorrect. There has always been technology and a new generation. The sailors of yesterday would’ve learned how to use any technology that aided in the safe navigation of his or her vessel. We do still grab the occasional hobo off the street. If anything this new generation of vessels [OSV, ATB, decline of US ships] has created a generation of sailors that can do much less that our predecessor. The breakdown of the union is compiled by one generation dumping his beliefs and other bad habits onto one generation after another and no one wanting to take responsibility for a sinking ship and patch the freaking hole. They all want a brand new ship with the same ole problems. It’s not healthy for the future of the maritime unions or for the maritime industry as a whole.
Yeah you found me out. You Z-drive guys are all alike. Can’t live with a rudder like the rest of us so you gotta put your z-drive beliefs on us like its a new fangled religion. Well I ain’t swallowing. If I had it my way we’d be back to oars and sails.
Dannngggitt! Don’t give up like that. Look all fooling around aside I enjoy being able to get true intellectual responses to some of my comments. I do make a difference in my crews through positive action, I love America and still believe in the American Dream. I may get beat down time to time in the forums but I always come back. I believe we can’t stop here on the internet we have to get out and really work. I’m a weathered salty son of a gun. But if you want to lambaste me with cheap name calling go ahead. Troll…
[QUOTE=OBXmariner;143387]Dannngggitt! Don’t give up like that. Look all fooling around aside I enjoy being able to get true intellectual responses to some of my comments. I do make a difference in my crews through positive action, I love America and still believe in the American Dream. I may get beat down time to time in the forums but I always come back. I believe we can’t stop here on the internet we have to get out and really work. I’m a weathered salty son of a gun. But if you want to lambaste me with cheap name calling go ahead. Troll…[/QUOTE]
Obviously, you still believe in the dream. You dream that you make a difference by your positive action. Everyone can and eventually will be replaced. Granted some are much easier to replace than others but we are all temporary labor. Ships were running for a long time before I started sailing and they will be running for a long time after I retire.
