the union is i interesting issue, here on the west coast washington particular we cannot bid to dock any ships on a union controlled dock if we are a non union company. There is a supposed shortage of tugs for the amount of ship jobs and pilots often have to wait for tugs to show up form various ports to dock ships when we sit ready
to work. It all comes down to politics. I can do the same job at half the price but we are shut out due to our non union status even though we are on the same pay scale as the union tug companies. At the end of the day we take less profit but pay the crews the same but are denied the work. Just my two pennies.