MSC is approaching a complete manpower collapse. Nearly 1/3 of all new hire 3 A/E’s are projected to quit this year. The office is unable to fill vacancies or even complete travel orders for those mariners who have been relieved. Many ships are short an UNREP station and improvement in both licensed and unlicensed positions is not expected to improve in the next few years.
What do you think the future of MSC is? Will the CLF be returned to the navy, or will COMSC decide to man vessels with contract mariners and eliminate the CIVMAR model all together? The current path is unsustainable.
Other MSC/Navy problems. If this general is right about war with China in 2025, the Navy’s shortage of tankers will be an issue as apparently there are none in the Ready Reserve Fleet.
That’s true, but the NDRFs have some. For example, the four Champion class (T-5e) tankers that Ocean Shipholdings ran are in the Beaumont fleet, though it looks like they’re up for disposal instead of being retained.
I believe CEs and Captains are always promoted from within, never posted, which based on the mission that part makes some sense. MSC currently has every single other shipboard position open for hire on their website.
I think one thing @Schuyler1721 said has some merit regarding change to contract mariners. So why not go hybrid CIVMAR/CONMAR for lower positions. Keep CE/1E Captain/CM as CIVMARs, streamline the ridiculously convoluted and drawn out promotion board process to actually promote quickly to fill these positions from the current crop. Keeping the upper level leadership in-house keeps the required experience, mission knowledge base, and security clearances. Then fill the lower officer roles (2nds/3rds) and ratings roles from the union halls on standard rotation periods. It would be a boon for the unions by vastly increasing their rolls and billets. It would increase the labor pool so people actually get relieved.
Of course it won’t happen, but there are solutions.
The unions are having their own problems filling billets as is. I can’t imagine how bad it must be at MSC from what I am seeing on the commercial side.
Imagine that…our licenses are becoming valuable again! Bet they wouldn’t have a problem filling the jobs if we could buy a house after making 2 trips like the good ole days!
Make it even time and actually have reliefs and it’ll fix their problems. MSC has good benefits and the ops can be a fun change of pace but I would never sign up for 4 months on 2 months off with only one paid, then go sit in a hotel waiting for a ship.
Surprises me that management at MSC can’t understand why people would not want to stay there.
I agree about the benefits and change of pace. It’s incomprehensible that MSC can’t see they have a retention problem and in addition don’t have the wherewithal to look at how the rest of the industry operates. In typical government fashion, I wouldn’t be surprised if they contracted a research firm at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to point out the obvious and still fail to act.
They absolutely know they have a problem. Just last week a manpower briefing powerpoint was pushed out that detailed the positions in the worst shape and what is being done about it.
They have a proposal to increase paid leave to actually get us to 4 and 2, but that obviously doesn’t address manpower directly. Even that seemingly easy ask apparently takes a literal act of congress. I think the fact that MSC can’t readily change nonsensical government rules is both a true problem and an easy scapegoat for big MSC.
I think the real answer is there is no appetite to actually fix anything long term. The fixes would require too much political capital. Especially with the new brown shoe admirals, the #1 concern is making things look good enough to put on another star.
Why are they so adamant against having even time? It doesn’t have to be 4 months on 4 months off with full paid vacation, it could be 4 months off at a lower benefit wage or something if the sort. I don’t know many officers that are itching to sail 8 months a year (on the low end) if they have any sort of social life outside of work (a family, friends, a dog, plants, literally anything).
The goco ships seem to make it work fine with those rotations, why can’t the gogo ships pull it off?
It’s not just a problem for MSC and tug boats. You hear all the time cities can’t get police officers; hospitals can’t get nurse’s; The Navy can’t get sailors; Walmart can’t get slackers. I remember as a kid, some expert warned of this manpower shortage happening, when my generation retired. Now it’s actually happening. We Boomers are leaving the workforce, and there’s not enough younger people to take our place. Especially one’s willing to put up with the crap we put up with.
There’s no easy answer that I can see. Automation will help, but not totally replace all people.
I think in the next 20 years, changes in demographics, as well as advances in automation and especially AI will have transformed modern society to look nothing like it does now.
A few months ago a union guy called me on my home phone asking if I “would like to ship out “.
It have never ever happened before. I imagine union is as close to be desperate as MSC.
MSC has forever been shortchanged by congress. Congress rules MSC just like they rule the military BUT MSC is not as fashionable as the military. When is the last time a MSC member got off a ship and someone thanked them for their service? Doesn’t happen. Congress runs on public perception and money. If MSC had some PR and lobbyists shoveling money to Congress things would change. The US Navy higher ups are too busy sucking up to the contractors they’ll work for when they retire to care. Until MSC has money to pay lobbyists to hand money to congressmen and senators nothing will change. Fifty plus years proves this.
Eventually these companies will have to cave and juat pay better. Listened to "Rich Dad Poor Dad recently. As 3rd Mate Kiyosaki was making the equivalent of $330,000/y if you adjust to 2022 dollars. So why would anyone ship out on today’s wages? People are happy to work, just not for less than is fair.