[QUOTE=Tugs;139652]EVERY Union Fucked 333 during the 1988 Strike. I remember talking to a Dock worked (ILA) and after me bitching about them not supporting us he said that they were told by the High Ups in the ILA to NOT support 333.
The days of one Union supporting another Union during a Strike is over as the all fight for control and in doing that the only winners are the companies and the Union Officials for handing out Sweet Heart Contracts![/QUOTE]
I remember my VP at Moran raising hell because we refused to cross a 333 picket line.
You have to remember the surplus of guys out of the oilfield that had been out of work for 2 years. Then there was Zapata-Gulf that was undercutting contracts. After the 333 strike was settled, we were saddled with a bunch of the scabs. During our contract negotiations, they were the ones that pissed and moaned the most.
[QUOTE=z-drive;139640]Shit pay, look at the Crowley tugs with SIU compared to 333. Yes there is better pay than 333 out there but I doubt you’ll find it at SIU. I am not supporting 333 in any way here though.[/QUOTE]
I haven’t seen any contracts in a while and never worked on the wire boats. I have heard many have voted with their feet going to the oilfield. The money will have to come up.
On another note, a friend was a captain on a wire boat for Crowley. He retired his book and hired on with a non-union outfit. The raise he got just paid for the insurance for the same level of coverage he had with the SIU.
Most of the mates on the wire boats @ Crowley deserve shitty pay cause they can’t handle the boat light, much less putting it on the wire. Some can’t even steer up the Del Bay towing.
Just cause SIU guys have that doesnt mean 333 will get it… It has to be negotiated into the current contract. That being said 333 would get everythin mmp has to offer either, it has to be negotiated. SIU is a shit union compared to MMP, id personally rather go with MEBA but MMP will work for me too.
[QUOTE=injunear;139654]I remember my VP at Moran raising hell because we refused to cross a 333 picket line.
You have to remember the surplus of guys out of the oilfield that had been out of work for 2 years. Then there was Zapata-Gulf that was undercutting contracts. After the 333 strike was settled, we were saddled with a bunch of the scabs. During our contract negotiations, they were the ones that pissed and moaned the most.[/QUOTE]
I remember the “Invasion of the Loosiana Coon-Ass” in NY Harbor. It was a time of collisions, allisions, sinkings, groundings, oil spills and deaths on the water. Companies paid peanuts and they got monkeys!
[QUOTE=injunear;139654]I remember my VP at Moran raising hell because we refused to cross a 333 picket line.
You have to remember the surplus of guys out of the oilfield that had been out of work for 2 years. Then there was Zapata-Gulf that was undercutting contracts. After the 333 strike was settled, we were saddled with a bunch of the scabs. During our contract negotiations, they were the ones that pissed and moaned the most.[/QUOTE]
I remember those day very well. When the "Office decided to raise the day rate from $80 to $90 for the Union Deckhands, the Scab Deckhands bitched. Now, you have to remember that, (a) The company was paying these guys travel door to door and (b) That these guys worked as long as the wanted, one guy had been on a small boat for over 6 months. So, the Scabs were offered the extra $10 per day but they would lose the paid travel, they all jumped on it. So, what happened next was that the company told ALL of the deckhands that they were all working 28/14.
Man you should have seen the bitching and moaning for those scabs about how unfair it was as they had been there for over 9 months. Needless to say they did not get much sympathy from the Union Guys, some whom had been there for close to 30-40 years. Most of the scab deckhands quit after a couple of weeks.
This has been presented as a vote for 333 to become its own separate division within MMP. That has a lot of potential to be a good change, or not much of a change at all. It depends mostly on whether MMP 333 would have new leaders, or the same old 333 leaders with new MMP hats.
It depends on whether MMP 333 would be more like MMP Deepsea (an actual union) or more like MMP Inland (a cheap labor pool that caters to employers).
Any half decent union should be able to negotiate a much better deal for tugboat officers in New York. (I don’t know about deckhands) Its not the 1980’s now. With requirements for a Master of Towing license, and recency, companies cannot just throw anyone from out of town with no towing experience on a boat. There is no longer a huge underpaid coonass navy ready to invade NY at low wages. This is the time to negotiate a much better deal – wages at least as high as the Gulf, or press a successful tugboat strike for higher wages in NY.
The problem for officers is that tankermen, deckhands and engineers outnumber them many times over. As you suggest the only real solution is a separate unions for licensed and unlicensed.
Unfortunately I see a lack of recency way too often. Not at the top tier companies but often enough.
If they got into MMP they do stand a better chance of expanding their ranks to some of the non union companies I think though. No disadvantages to making that move.