A friend of mine who used to be in the SIU and he would get off the ship one or two times a week. But he also tried to get me to not go into mariner or the SIU. He said yuo work 12 hour days, sleep very little due to the rocking of the boat. He also said you’re exposed to all kinds of chemicals and the bosses on the ships scream at you and treat you like shit. This all happened to him in phase 4 of the unlicensed apprenticeship program.
Then he said you work 20 years and the pension is only 1200 dollars a month and you die withing 5 years because of all of the chemicals you were exposed to. Now he is teaching English to foreigners in Vietnam.
I’m not scared off from his horror stories though. I think mariner is a good deal.
[QUOTE=UltimateMariner;83638]A friend of mine who used to be in the SIU and he would get off the ship one or two times a week. But he also tried to get me to not go into mariner or the SIU. He said yuo work 12 hour days, sleep very little due to the rocking of the boat. He also said you’re exposed to all kinds of chemicals and the bosses on the ships scream at you and treat you like shit. This all happened to him in phase 4 of the unlicensed apprenticeship program.
Then he said you work 20 years and the pension is only 1200 dollars a month and you die withing 5 years because of all of the chemicals you were exposed to. Now he is teaching English to foreigners in Vietnam.
I’m not scared off from his horror stories though. I think mariner is a good deal.[/QUOTE]
Don’t be scared off by the bullshit. There are different levels in the pension. I don’t know the exact pension quotes on the deep sea contracts but it’s well over $1700 for unlicensed, depending on day credits. The Inland contracts, tugs , ATBs ect are wage related. Basic rate with 7300 credits is 40% of your best 5 year average of your last 10 years. Just a rule of thumb, if your average is $100K a year, your pension is $40K at 7300 days credit. Most inland contracts have double contributions.
They also have a Money Purchace Plan and a 401K now. Weigh your options.
[QUOTE=injunear;83639]Don’t be scared off by the bullshit. There are different levels in the pension. I don’t know the exact pension quotes on the deep sea contracts but it’s well over $1700 for unlicensed, depending on day credits. The Inland contracts, tugs , ATBs ect are wage related. Basic rate with 7300 credits is 40% of your best 5 year average of your last 10 years. Just a rule of thumb, if your average is $100K a year, your pension is $40K at 7300 days credit. Most inland contracts have double contributions.
They also have a Money Purchace Plan and a 401K now. Weigh your options.[/QUOTE]
It all depends on what faction of the SIU you fall under, correct? I know AB’s who’ve been working more than 20 years and still don’t have enough time for their pension, and they aren’t making 100K.
[QUOTE=UltimateMariner;83638]A friend of mine who used to be in the SIU and he would get off the ship one or two times a week. But he also tried to get me to not go into mariner or the SIU. He said yuo work 12 hour days, sleep very little due to the rocking of the boat. He also said you’re exposed to all kinds of chemicals and the bosses on the ships scream at you and treat you like shit. This all happened to him in phase 4 of the unlicensed apprenticeship program.
Then he said you work 20 years and the pension is only 1200 dollars a month and you die withing 5 years because of all of the chemicals you were exposed to. Now he is teaching English to foreigners in Vietnam.
[/QUOTE]
I think so too. He liked the money he made and now since he has been teaching English to foreigners in Vietnam (called TEFLing and it is a JOKE) he hasn’t been making the big money.
[QUOTE=SeaSick;83642]It all depends on what faction of the SIU you fall under, correct? I know AB’s who’ve been working more than 20 years and still don’t have enough time for their pension, and they aren’t making 100K.[/QUOTE]
That is correct. Most Inland contracts are top to bottom SIU. The pension is wage related so officers pensions are quite good. AB/Tankermen on the last job I was on made well over $80K for equal time. Still not a bad pension. I assume one can still draw early normal pension at 55 if one has obtained 7300 days credit. Also, if you work to 62, for every year over the 7300, you draw an extra 2%.
