U.S. Shipping CEO Calls for Foreign Seafarers Amidst US Merchant Marine Pay

Yea how well is Jybe working out :joy:

From Mr. Norton’s post “MARAD estimates the current shortage of US mariners at close to 2,000 persons.” -

I may not be the sharpest knive in the draw, but it seems to me if the scope of the issue is 2,000 jobs against the size of the labor force in this country - that problem is not structural - it is just money. You will have a very difficult time convincing me that at some level of compensation you could not find 2,000 more workers .

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Hahaha 10000%. If the money is there I guarantee you’ll have people. And the best part? If the money is right GOOD MARINERS will want to work. Not the absolute abomination of lazy, unmotivated people that so many people are dealing with in the US fleet today. Across the board everyone I talk to. AB’s up to masters. Nobody will get fired because there aren’t replacements.

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From a 2017 MARAD report: https://www.maritime.dot.gov/sites/marad.dot.gov/files/docs/mariners/1026/mwwg-report-congress-finalr3.pdf

“However, the maritime labor unions, which represent mariners on 158 of the 176 commercial ships and all the government-owned ships and are contractually committed to crewing the surge fleet…”

Still not specifying what percentage of mariners are actually union. Even with MSC…what’s the percentage relative to CIVMARS. I know a lot of them are MMP and SIU.

Here is the latest editorial which includes the responses by MEBA and OSG:

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To be fair - and let’s be clear - I really don’t want to be, OSG really is an awful place to work, there is a labor shortage industry wide. As an employee, you now have the freedom to pick and choose where you work. You can search for the highest paying jobs where you are treated with fairness and respect. So, with that said, why would you ever in your right mind choose OSG, yes they pay a fair salary, but you are trading your dignity and self respect where you can make the same or even slightly more other places without doing that. You can imagine the labor shortage is hitting OSG in the hardest way possible, you can only assume for their CEO to go public with such a ridiculous idea, that their unwillingness to make a cultural change from within and revamp their company culture has caught up with them and they are now desperate because it has all come to fruition and is affecting their bottom line. And most impressively but not shockingly, they are pointing fingers at every one else but themselves.

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I know a guy. :wink:

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How do you not see the leverage? If union mariners in only the tanker sector went on strike for example, we could shut large portions of the country down and it would require a response from congress and the President.

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Probably should ask any air traffic controller during the Reagan Admin. how that mentality worked out for them.

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I think the post-Regan era has been absolutely disastrous for Unions. And what are you even saying? Strikes or the threat of strikes have gotten huge concessions for the railroad workers, auto workers, and airline pilots just in the last couple years.

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OSG deck officers were represented by the MMP until 1984 when management locked them out. The MMP declined to take what amounted to a 40% pay cut. MMP members who rejected the pay cut and wanted to stay aboard as was advised by the MMP, while the union attempted to negotiate further, were taken off in handcuffs.

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The average longshoremen has an 8th grade education, has nothing v more than a driver’s license, goes home every 24 hours, and makes about $200,000 a year.

It’s long past time for mariners to demand: ME TOO.

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It was on my Christmas list to be a gantry crane driver at Los Angeles.

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That doesn’t really matter. If the unions got deep sea vessels to drastically increase pay then the rest of the industry would largely follow suit.

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Any large increase within any mariner sector would push rates for everyone. Fingers crossed!

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Unions with their multi year contracts and 2.5% annual increases are holding back Mariner wages.

Solution:
1 merger the officers unions into one union ,and
2 hire the longshoremen union negotiators.

No contract until Mariner wages are at least as high as the longshoremen

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Shoot, merge em all under the UAW and let Shawn Fain negotiate, he’s certainly not afraid of the spotlight and media and always looking to build his ranks!

The ILU and even more so the ILWU on the west coast get their people paid.

The Maritime unions are so busy trying to undercut each other that it’s a race to the bottom.

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Exactly. You know why they get paid? They go. On. STRIKE.

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