You were in the right place at the right time with the right skills. There are damn few guys doing any better than you are, and thousands that are not doing nearly as well.
[QUOTE=josh.reid24;164993]Yeah I agree with you… I believe the’ve got a few boats stacked, but 50 with that few layoffs…[/QUOTE]
Not sure about 50 that sounds like a lot, but half of them being boats from Brazil would mean only a couple of people per boat laid off so the math could be closer than you think
I mentioned months back that the “massive” pay cut was coming. Common sense really we all new it was just a matter of time. Upper management has now it seems finalized the next round of cuts. Not sure when it is going to happen but it’s happening. One major expense they’ll eliminate is wages on the Unlimited vessels. It seems the UL vessels haven’t been profitable to their liking. If you work on an UL boat and your vessel is not on full contract (even warm stack like Aiviq)you will no longer make UL pay you’ll make what the supply boats are currently making.
Gee I thought they were saving money by never making an announcement when pulling into or out Fourchon or infront of any vessel underway in the channel. Bunch of asses couldn’t happen to a better group of folks!
A 200 ton deckhand is calling us a bunch of asses. Hey Keith Boyer, please tell us more.
hey, he was shipwrecked, the guy’s practically king Neptune himself.
Next time I am coming in the jetties I will give a security call shout out to any of those Weeks units to see if Keith is on board so I can check in with PFKBVTS
[QUOTE=keithboyer;165247]Gee I thought they were saving money by never making an announcement when pulling into or out Fourchon or infront of any vessel underway in the channel. Bunch of asses couldn’t happen to a better group of folks![/QUOTE]
If JFK’s economic aphorism is true, “A rising tide lifts all boats”, I wouldn’t be cheering a falling tide if I worked on the same bayou.
That’s quite an inflated profile he’s got!
Good old Keith has quite the resume. He might even move up to the big boys on a 60 foot yacht.
Damn he’s bonafide alright. If he’s ever in a bind I know a chief I can recommend that’s cut from the same cloth…batteries included…
starting batteries that is
How this company can remain in business let alone a billion dollar enterprise is remarkable if any other business treated their employees the way this company has treated deck hands you can bet that business would not be as fortunate. The company has an obvious black eye in the shipping industry, as apparent by all the negative attention it receives on this site. What really needs to happen is the media needs to get involved so as to bring it to the attention of the community that surrounds the area. All other companies that layoff people get mentioned on the news and in papers nation wide, chouest avoids that by making the working environment so intolerable people would rather quit than stand up for themself. It is high time chouest have to face the wrath of local news as well and get rid of the mantra “we have never laid people off”
[QUOTE=Ecowhore;165501]How this company can remain in business let alone a billion dollar enterprise is remarkable if any other business treated their employees the way this company has treated deck hands you can bet that business would not be as fortunate. The company has an obvious black eye in the shipping industry, as apparent by all the negative attention it receives on this site. What really needs to happen is the media needs to get involved so as to bring it to the attention of the community that surrounds the area. All other companies that layoff people get mentioned on the news and in papers nation wide, chouest avoids that by making the working environment so intolerable people would rather quit than stand up for themself. It is high time chouest have to face the wrath of local news as well and get rid of the mantra “we have never laid people off”[/QUOTE]
That will never happen and for several reasons. The local folks will not standup to them because they donate money to various causes in the community and the community needs ECO more than ECO needs them. The amount of tax revenue they provide for Lafourche parish is massive…many won’t bite the hand that feeds them. If ECO were to relocate to another parish it would cripple the local economy.
ECO is getting away with what people allow them to. If enough people were fed up and left they would be forced to change, there is power in numbers. Look at the big drug debacle that popped up a few months back in the office. So many people tested positive that they had to throw out the tests because it would have harmed the business substantially. Use that power in a more positive way and the employees would be able to make changes whether Gary likes it or not.
You have no clue what your talking about. Your post is actually comical.
Sorry Saltine- you posted before me. That was meant to ECOhoe.
Meanwhile the Chouest are out fishing in a billfish tourney with their fleet of boats.
I will admit it will never happen, and maybe my post wasn’t as eloquent as could have been stated but being a deckhand whose wages have been cut more than 50% from what they were last year, I believe I know exactly of which I speak.
when the shoe is on the other foot then we will see what is comical.
perhaps you were overpaid to begin with?
[QUOTE=Ecowhore;165501]How this company can remain in business let alone a billion dollar enterprise is remarkable if any other business treated their employees the way this company has treated deck hands you can bet that business would not be as fortunate. The company has an obvious black eye in the shipping industry, as apparent by all the negative attention it receives on this site. What really needs to happen is the media needs to get involved so as to bring it to the attention of the community that surrounds the area. All other companies that layoff people get mentioned on the news and in papers nation wide, chouest avoids that by making the working environment so intolerable people would rather quit than stand up for themself. It is high time chouest have to face the wrath of local news as well and get rid of the mantra “we have never laid people off”[/QUOTE]
If anyone that actually believed a free enterprise company will not reduce employees when the outlook of those employees generating revenue for the company is not even a marginal possibility, did not quite understand what the ramification could be - the older generation did as they lived through it. Employees will be let go - they must be unfortunately at certain times, and that is how companies do stay in business. This goes for every facet of the economy, including ECO. ECO let people go in the eighties and the nineties, although it was in the context of attrition of who was underperforming, and some where in fact let go when the decision was made that there we too many employees at the time; that happened to be enough in that situation. “We never laid people off” must have been some catch phrase invented over the last few years by the same generation of people that have never seen bad times. They have and they will cut people, they all will, especially servicing a commodities industry. That’s about as risky as it can get as far as fluctuations in margins.
Qualcomm and Microsoft announce over 10,000 layoffs within the last 7 days alone, and Baker Hughes, in our industry just cut 7,000. All in the news, not much of a dramatic effect of making a company pay for what they did. It doesn’t make the families feel any better with it being in the news, that is for sure. And nobody enjoys that part of any business.
International Drilling Contractors have cut benefits and pay as well. This entire industry is in recession for the next few years. I hope I make it through this as well, like everyone else, but I know this is only the beginning as the bottom of the market has only been tested, but not found until production and demand find equalization. It will get worse as the capital spending in 2016 by the majors will be less once again if equalization of a stabilized market has yet to be achieved. Deepwater is expensive, and that will need to get cheaper even if the majors where ready to invest more in exploratory drilling today - to make the risk even feasible. Oil will take off again at some point, with that point constantly being pushed to the right. The oil companies will be ready to jump in long term contracts with lower rates as soon as there is a good indication to do so.
I left ECO 3.5 years ago as Master on the Island Enforcer making $750/day, which is still decent money, and still less than what that position pays now, and much more than the $45/day I was getting in the early nineties. No surprise for compensation to be reduced compared to what was experience over the last few years. That was never going to last forever. I am very sorry for anyone that lost employment. I would suggest all hard workers that are willing, and have the flexibility, to get with Neptune Group in Fort Lauderdale and cross-over to yachting. That industry is booming and you can make very good money provided you develop the required skill-set.