For what?
To pay for all that.
MEBA takes a percentage of every vacation check. Its not just “free.”
All what?
Insurance.
No, nothing comes out of your vacation check for the insurance. The companies pay for the insurance with what they pay the union for each day you work, along with payments into the pension, etc. You do have to pay dues though, so there’s still a cost involved.
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Don’t sell yourself short, right now is the
time to test them negotiating skills and be ready to walk & switch jobs, I don’t think it will take much to get them wheelman’s rate to 4 digits right now anywhere and even on smaller boats, I figured this much
on calls I get for fill in trip work, which
a lot of are getting turned down at $1000
a day which I feel is soon gonna be the
normal day rate for an experienced mate
with experienced Capt’s at around $1200
The leverage is definitely there! If no
hardball is played now enjoy the BS
7-8.5 range and don’t complain , work
over and accept a 28/14 hitch that is
unacceptable to me. We made in the high six’s many many years ago and
there is some catching up to do while
sneaky used car mentality personal
managers try to feed you the BS, Don’t
bite! Don’t be a Sooner, plenty of Sooner’s that just go along, ride any amount of time and put your head in the sand, about as much leverage is there
with the shortage and couldn’t ask for
a better playing field than right now, FACT
For any office personnel that curls their lip
up at this post the only solution is to up
that vessel day rate and call it inflation.
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This is an interesting topic. It was just brought up on my company forum about the day rates and I would estimate about 50% of the captains at my company are confused about what the day rate includes. This blur seems to be prevalent in the industry. I know ‘somehow’ this higher day rate is published on Glassdoor. Makes it tough to get honest answers when such BS is out there.
The company has done us a disservice by including on our paystub’s an inflated figure that includes daily rate holiday pay insurance cost life insurance cost, and 401(k) contribution. Of course, when the W-2 comes it’s a lower (true) figure.
Going by that inflated number, I’m making about $1210 a day. However in reality I’m making $960 a day. It appears that a lot of people on this forum are batting both of these numbers around. Which ever makes them look better. I wish everyone would just put the straight daily rate down to compare.
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There are some companies still paying
head captains in the $700’s SMH, why they will tolerate this IDK, that’s not including any benefits , some float a
higher day rate than hit you with a
very high insurance premium , rates
still seem to be all over the place &
I get that because of the many different
vessels, size of vessel, region, vessel
mission, red flag barges etc but as a whole I would think by now that even
smaller tug operators , harbor tugs
would now be at a much higher day rate
than what they are.
How much has the tug owners day rate increased?
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No idea but i’m sure some on here can elaborate , the hardest cases in getting
substantial cost of living adjustment
raises would be at companies with junk
or unmaintained vessels or too many
accidents or maybe a tight marginal
profit from an outdated long term contract
if I had to guess
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Most tugboat companies are making very good money. There is a lot of federal infrastructure money paying generously for all sorts of projects.
Most tug companies don’t want to share any of this taxpayer funded largess with their crews.
The oil companies are paying top money for the less than 20 year old ATBs.
Higher costs and inflation have certainly found their way into tug day rates.
There are some companies with long term contracts that are not getting what they should be. They chalk it up to steady work with high utilization.
Good tugs are in short supply. Junk is being retired faster than it can be replaced. Lots of new harbor tugs have been built, but not many new coastwise towing tugs. Small shipyards that build tugs have a backlog of harbor tugs. Prices of good used coastwise tugs have gone way up. That’s because demand and day rates are way up.
The problem is that there are too many tugboat mariners who just feel stuck and are unwilling to change jobs for an extra $100 or $150 a day. They have the better keep this job mindset from the old days when jobs were scarce and mariners plentiful.
Another problem is that the tugboat unions are worthless. How many decades has it been since there was a tugboat union demand for significantly better wages, or a strike?
The unions are also stuck in the past, or gorging on under the table cash from the tug owners.
The supply and demand of crew is now in balance. There is no extra surplus of crew. There are plenty of job opportunities for anyone with an MMC and a little experience.
Now is the time to demand more money or change jobs, even if it’s for a small increase. Tug owners need to really feel the pain of turnover and boats tied up for lack of crew.
Tugboat mariners will never have more leverage than they do right now. It’s a shame that they are wasting it.
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One thing is for sure, no matter what vessel
It is, it can’t operate by itself and is only as
effective as the operator at the helm.