It’s not good for the industry to enable these bottom feeder companies. It gives them an unfair business advantage against the good companies.
We just cut our own throats and everyone else’s when we work for these people. There were times when we had to, but we don’t need to anymore.
Some guys are institutionalized at these crappy companies are just cannot bring themselves to leave.
MMP lets no-union people work on their ships?
Why did the MMP ratify the contract? In MEBA we vote on the contract before it’s approved, does MMP not do this ?
sailing with one of the companies mentioned above. i was sent an email to my personal email referencing a post on gcaptain from the company dpa about a disgruntled employee. think i found it! very funny stuff.
i would guess that company probably knows the current reputation but dont really care to make any changes if people are going to take the work. theyre reading the posts so who knows! 
I think i sailed for that guy a few years back. He actually gives a shit and tries to do right by the mariner, unlike his predecessor at that company who would lie to his own grandmother.
This doesn’t just fall on the company this also falls heavily on the Union for signing off on this crap. The Union is supposed to protect you and flight for the highest wages. The Union is supposed to hold the company accountable and this is a failure yet again of the MMP leadership.
MMP members deserve a response from the MMP leadership over this catastrophe.
491 a day all in for a 3m/3ae is absolutely pathetic!
The Master and chief mate wages on there are lower than 2nd mate wages.
It’s a miracle the company can find people.
SLNC has jobs on the board right now. DO NOT FILL THEM !! TELL EVERYONE TO NOT FILL THEM UNTIL THEY RAISE WAGES.
Even tho the MMP leadership can try to sell you out, you can still have a card to play by not crewing the ships and quitting.
By having the SLNC ships sit at the dock and no sail bc of lack of crew then they will wake up and have to raise wages default.
Hearing that they are sailing without a chief engineer and short of crew is a big red flag. The Captain, if they even have one, should not let this happen.
Sadly these ships will just become a way for applicants to get their books. Always seems like there’s one company where new guys have to “pay their dues”
Plenty of guys who have made their book sailing all box ships in the last decade or so. There’s very little reason to take a terrible job these days. Might change with the prepos going away.
SLNC raised the wages for senior level officers on the Goodwill late last year, they are much closer to competing Tanker companies than before but lack in some spots, namely the stipend for the duty engineers. you only get paid OT for any time worked over 84 hours/wk.
So pay for 1AE/CM isnt so bad now…but it isnt the case with the other SLNC vessels, which are bargained for separately. They will essentialy pay anybody anything for these ships, up to and including using core groups and AMO to fill billets, while paying at a higher pay scale than you are billieted.
however the real issue with these ships is poor maintenance support, high turn over in all ranks, extremely poor condition and even more unsafe conditions.
Among many other things…
Can you speak more on the unsafe conditions? Considering going to one of their ships to run as chief mate (for sea time, not pay) but, true danger would keep me away.
I’d be curious too. Have you brought concerns of unsafe conditions up to anyone else? Like i wrote in a different post, I worked with their DPA in the past and if you brought something to him he would chase it down for you.
Company culture more than anything. I’m sure they’ll be gone in a few years if they don’t adapt. Doesn’t hurt to give them a try, if you’ve got more than one ship in a company with major concerns then I don’t think theres any surviving that. Anyway, some folks end up loving the company. Pay for top four got a significant bump company-wide. Everyone else? I believe thats another story.
As a group, Mariners, maybe except AB’s that
in many cases or making good money or acceptable money for the position in this day and time, but not always, should put the foot down, organize whatever, shut some vessels down because of a lack of crew, I got in this business to be well paid for the sacrifice of being away, now compare current wages to that of a plumber, hvac or many other trades where a guy works for themselves, than you can see how GD far these jobs have receded
in The grand scheme of pay, LOOK at the hours worked a hitch, much less babysit hours
Or awakened hours, I don’t feel sorry for any of the short crewed fleets, should of seen this coming, a few top tier companies try and retcruit, retain, educate & invest in crews and I tip my hat, shame on the rest, Somebody told me once we are a lot like pidgeons , whoever throws the most crumbs is where we go.
If MM&P looses the prepos and express ships, I feel they are going to be flooded with A books. The lack of good paying work in the MMP possibly by next year was my principal concern in another topic I started. I should have mentioned the SLNC Star in addition to MMP tankers (including the SLNC Goodwill and SLNC Pax) as jobs I don’t want because financially when compared to every other option it doesn’t make sense to stay MMP if you are working on those ships.
Heard that in the biggest scam with the contract written low and people think “oh that’s not bad if I get OT” the. Come to find out they end up with none.
That’s the problem. SLNC is organized with Union Labor but the MM&P has done nothing to increase wages or conditions on those vessels. I am not going to lie when I’m disappointed and disillusioned in the MM&P alot.
Having the lowest paying US Flagged containerships/ general cargo ship and the lowest paid US flagged foreign trading tankers is not something to be proud of.
MMP isn’t just dropping the ball on on ships. Some of their tug company contracts are pretty weak, too. At the company I work at, we are now almost a full year without a contract because the company laughs at any attempts by MMP to increase wages more than 3% a year, and has stated simply that travel pay is never going to happen.
The previous contract had the company matching 3% of employee 401k contributions, and they stopped matching this a long time ago.
Also stated in the contract is that tankermen working on barges over 75k barrels get an additional pay bump. But we have 4 tankermen working on an 80k barrel barge that only gets the small barge pay rate because it is “unmanned”. Meanwhile, the tankermen on the only other 80k barge we have get that pay bump. Many in the company believe this is only because several of these tankermen are relatives of management.
MMP “Inland” has always been a pathetic excuse for a tugboat union.
Way back when, when I was an MMP member, the only plausible theory I could come up with for why MMP was so bad, was that tug owners had to be paying off union officials for sweetheart contracts, and non enforcement of contract provisions.
I can only hope that those old MMP union thugs are now demented and incontinent in nursing homes, or rotting in hell where they belong.
Nope they are still in charge and running the show!
Don Marcus is the champion of low wages and screwing over the US Merchant Marine.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the MMP under Don Marcus agrees to sell out the ATC deck officers with another low tanker contract to line his pockets and to fill the Union coffers!
MMP still has a bunch of old thugs that are in it for themselves.
The contract agreement the MMP Inland sailors on Crowley’s ATBs reached this year isn’t too bad. 12% (2023) / 4% (2024) /4% (2025) I know it was long overdue, and it took a year to hash out. They also managed to get 10% towards their IRAP (retirement) with no requirement to contribute. In my mind that is HUGE. Hopefully more MMP inland contracts will follow suit.
The union insurance, Cigna, is the best and cheapest health insurance I’ve ever had. 3% of your income, $15 copays/ $25 for specialists, deductible of $250 individual / $500 for family, max out of pocket $3000, 90/10 coinsurance in network, and you could have up to 7 family on it with no change in premium.
What are the update wages now?
That is pretty standard for union contracts or at least in the MEBA it is, I’m surprised they didn’t have this before.
Off the top of my head I can’t think of a MEBA contract that doesn’t have that at 10% or higher. (It’s called MPB with the MEBA but it’s the same type of thing)
Are they making you pay for the health insurance with 3% of your pay? Or is the company contributing the equivalent of 3% of your pay to the health plan?
So they charge you if you have over 7 family members?
Speaking of Inland Wages the MEBA got a huge contract win for the Staten Island Ferry Deck and Engine officers.
Base pay of 180k for MEBA Staten Island Captains and Chief Engineers by 2027 is not bad. I’m glad the MEBA got back wages for these guys too and didn’t give in.
The MEBA recently had an inland members conference at the Calhoon School. And they seem to be engaging inland members much more which is great.
The big unions in the past had not given attention to the inland members as much as they should. I think this MEBA administration has been reversing the trend. Hopefully other Unions will follow suit.
The numbers are fuzzy, I left before it was printed but not due to issues with pay or benefits
3M: 673
2M: 720
CM: 790
Captain: 980ish? depended on the barge also, I think they were over 1000 on 650s and 750s
Is the MPB separate from your pension? The inland guys at MMP are not in the pension. But that is cool that it is the standard at MEBA.
As far as I am aware, 3% of my income was going towards my insurance premium. It was 2.5% but it was increased union wide this year.
I believe it does change after 7 immediate family, I forget the number. But idk anyone that wants or has a spouse and 6 kids these days.
