I’m a drillship DPO that just isn’t feelin’ drillin’ any longer. Curious about joining a union.
I don’t care too much about 401K / pension / benefits, just looking for interesting opportunities and sea time.
Several friends are MEBA mates and seem to enjoy it and MSC has a backlog of washouts like me.
What’s the word of the street? Who’s got the stuff?
I was displaced with the Chouest takeover in Valdez. I went to Wilmington to check out the MMP hall recently. Its bad. If you have work stay where you are
Went from oilfield DPO on DP2 supply boats to MM&P with the AK marine highway. It’s ok If you don’t mind being treated like a cadet. MM&P trust is kinda nice. Pays for tuition/room and board at PMI/Mitags. Scenery is beautiful. Inland time mostly, but some boats you can get ocean time. They are desparate for mates, but you have to do the pilotage otherwise you are useless.
As one of those displaced by Chouest, do you know how many Crowley employees went to work for the new contract holder?
I don’t know, but I heard NONE.
There were a few drawing charts for WA State ferries several months back.
Zero as far I know
Do you know if anyone tried to get on with ECO? I seen they were hiring about 4-6 months ago.
I heard that almost everyone from Crowley tried to go to Chouest, but that Chouest didn’t want any of them.
I believe Crowley’s Valdez operation were union with the wheelhouse licensed being MM&P and the engineers & unlicensed IBU. Not exactly what Chouest is looking for.
One would think it would be a good thing to retain some people that know the customer, the run and have local knowledge…but I suppose union affiliation was enough to not be proactive and go down that route…
I also heard that chouest has most if not all the valdez crews doing a 2 for 1 rotation of some sort…
I apologize to the OP and the contributors to the thread before my hijack. Based on what I’m hearing though, Chouest really is an example of much of what ails this country today.
I’m a MEBA Mate sailing up on the Lakes. On my vacation last month I stopped in the Norfolk hall. The dispatcher told me I’d be waiting months for a job even with a group 1 card. MEBA doesn’t have many Mate jobs and with the Seakay Spirit getting scrapped they have even less. As much as you don’t care for the oil field dpo job I’d stick it out until things are better. You’re probably making double the money you would make shipping out of the hall maybe once a year.
A health industry has a wide variety of employment opportunities: Union, non-union, big companies, mid-size companies, small companies, National companies, regional companies, local companies, etc.
The small family local companies that are run by mariners, and often are very good to work for, are being gobbled up, or crowded out, by the big boys run by accountants and lawyers from far away. This isn’t a health employment situation for mariners.
They didn’t want any of them cause of the union labor. Chouest would do anything esp being a southern boat company to keep the unions off his deck.
It was made clear to us almost a year before the transition in Valdez that Chouest wasn’t going to retain any of us. Towards the last quarter that Crowley had the contract our leadership put out there that Alyeska had asked Chouest not to hire any of us before the July 1st transition. I have a strong suspicion that this was untrue and just an attempt to prevent a suitcase parade.