https://www.romania-insider.com/romanian-shipyard-brings-300-workers-vietnam/
Is this a lesson to be learned by US shipyards, keep costs competitive by shipping in skilled welders from the developing world that will work for $750 per month?
Tampa Ship had a very large compliment of Vietnamese Welders. When the Port installed the new Security Gates it was quite a surprise that some of them never returned to work. Now some of them were brought here legally but something must have gone on to cause the big change in needing to pass a security check.
Average factory job pays about $100 to $200 USD per month in Vietnam. $750 a month with free housing for a few years would be a great step forward for most Vietnamese factory workers. Shipyard workers are not paid well at all in Vietnam.
I don’t know what the shipyards in Vietnam pay their welders, but here is the what is paid to higher position in Engineering: [quote]VIETNAM
ROLE PERMANENT SALARY PER ANNUM USD ($)
2016 2017
Operations Manager 56 - 70k 60 - 70k
Plant Manager 56 - 70k 60 - 70k
Continuous Improvement Manager 35 - 49k 36 - 50k
Engineering Manager 35 - 49k 36 - 50k
QA/QC Manager 35 - 42k 36 - 50k
Project Manager 30 - 48k 36 - 60k
R&D Manager 30 - 48k 36 - 48k
Maintenance Manager 30 - 45k 36 - 48k
Service Manager 30 - 42k 30 - 42k
Production Manager 30 - 42k 33 - 45k
HSE Manager 30 - 42k 30 - 42k
HSE Director 40 - 66k 42 - 72k
Facility Manager 24 - 30k 30 - 36k
NB: Figures are basic salaries exclusive of benefits/bonuses unless otherwise stated [/quote]
There is known to be a big salary gap in Vietnam. Here is average wages for workers in HCM and Hanoi: [quote]The average wage in Hanoi is of 281 US dollar as of March 2016, while the average salary in Ho Chi Minh is of 265 US dollars according to Numbeo.[/quote]
Obviously USD 750/mth. would be attractive to many Vietnamese, but whether that is enough to attract skilled and certified welder to work in Western Europe or USA is an open question.
PS> Vietnam is raising the minimum wage by 12.4% so Vietnamese workers will be more costly soon: http://www.industriall-union.org/vietnam-raises-minimum-wage-124
Chouest hires all of the Romanians to work at their yards down da bayou therefor Romanian yards have to ship in Vietnamese to work in their yards!
Even more Romanians work in Norway, many of them at shipyards owned by the same company that employ most shipyard workers in Romania, Vard.
Maybe that is why they import workers trained at their yard in Vung Tau, Vietnam to work at their two yards in Romania?
Here is a Romanian advertisement for work in Norway: http://www.workexperience.ro/work_experience_norway.php
And in USA: http://www.workexperience.ro/h2b_en.php
I don’t see anything about shipyard work in the US though. Maybe some other Agent offer that service.