Yep, the GoM guys who work for larger, reputable companies really don’t need a union as long as they have a looming threat of unions to keep things in check IMO, based on my experiences. I left the GoM in '07 from Tidewater to go work with Local 333 in NY. Tidewater, HOS, ECO & Rigdon treated their employees better than the outfits on Richmond Terrace. The GoM pay was better for officers & as far as I know all those companies paid for upgrades & some had their own schools. Tidewater even had housing to stay in if you wanted it. The GoM offices & schools were pretty nice. Those Sopranos wannabes in Staten Island worked out of ghetto dumps. It was like being in an episode if The Wire just to go get a newspaper. For me, 1 layer of coonasses was enough to get a paycheck. I couldn’t imagine the horror of having to deal with a bunch of Cajuns running a union in Southern Louisiana then having to deal with their cousins, uncles & neighbors at the company. Literally everyone on the bayou have known each other forever or are related somehow. Unionizing that small inbred area of the world would be a horror show. Boudreaux would be the Union Boss & Thibideaux would be the Company Boss. They would go hunting & fishing together every weekend & laugh at how far they pushed the wages down. I think it would be worse than the Bay Street mafia types in NY. The contracts would come up to vote every time the oilfield was in a slump & be long enough to last through the next boom & expire again when the price of oil was low again. No thank you.
It’s been nearly 25 years but I think you are right. But at the time he wasn’t working or living in Mississippi. He was a NY guy who came back down to organize the uneducated & those who weren’t as well traveled as him. According to the captain I was working with Mathes wasn’t getting paid enough from whatever union that sent him & he was searching for guys to give him personal loans which didn’t set well. I left the river before the walk out but Pilots Agree didn’t last long. But it did cause the wages on the river to go up a good bit. They finally got their “Double or Nothing” which was the Pilots Agree slogan.
Your analogy of an organized Bayou outfit is not too far off base. Actually got quite a chuckle, as you put it out what the challenges are. I agree,whenever unions tried to come in, the wages and benefits “Magically” increased. Wonder why? You know the answer. I would ask any GOM fellow over the last ten years if those wages were maintained after the unions quit trying . I understand the patch took a monster hit, a bit ago, it has always been feast or famine as it runs in cycles. As a prior poster said, there was a large concerted effort to keep them out. Actually, in the long run it was better that the unions didn’t get them aboard.
I don’t know, I’ve been with the same deep sea, non-union, Jones Act tanker company for almost 10 years, and I know I’m much better off than if I had been in AMO and sailing on their tanker contracts for the last 10 years.
And I’ve been with MMP for 5 years and I’m much better off than when I was at ECO.
The focus here as been on wages but the union also provides another communication path for problems similar to how the DPA is supposed to work.
Anyone that has been involved with an incident recognizes that the companies interests and the crew members interests can quickly diverge. As they say; who are you going to call?
Some of the guys at the union have a long-time relationships with people at the company. Sometimes just a quick phone call from a lower level union official to someone at the company on your behalf will help shape things up in a more favorable way.
A good union fulfills many important functions, including back up on maintaining safe conditions.
Many companies need to pay local union wages to attract and keep good crew, and sometimes to comply with government prevailing wage requirements. Most companies that pay less than union wages, don’t pay much less, and it wouldn’t really matter if they had to pay union wages. Some companies pay a little more than union wages to attract good people, have less turnover, fewer hassles, and to keep the union bureaucracy out.
Unions typically have much better benefits, but not always. Unions also provide consistent health insurance coverage during the off season, which many employers do not, and coverage between jobs.
If a union wanted to be successful in the tugboat business, it would need to do these things:
Have only one class of membership with everyone getting the same equal treatment (anyone can do any type of work that they are properly licensed for. “Deep sea” guys can sail on tugs while aging their cards to sail deep sea off the board, and tugboat guys can also age their deep sea cards (as long as they have the required license) while working on tugs.
The benefits and training opportunities must be the same.
Union guys may “legally” sail non union (they often do anyway).
When a guy “retires,” he may continue to sail (but his seniority starts over at zero, so that he does not unfairly compete with guys who are still working toward retirement). Retired union members can “legally” sail non union (many do anyway).
The union contracted employers must hire through the union. However, the union should also operate like a temp agency where non union employers may also hire through the union if they choose to. And the union should also actively attempt to market its guys temporarily to non union employers.
No requirement to hang around the union hall in an expensive city far from home, playing cards and drinking with a bunch of degenerate winos for weeks just to get a job. (Yes, this may limit a guy’s ability to get day work, night work, or pier head jumps).
Of course there is a lot of room for improvement. For sure there is a common attitude that deep-sea has a higher status than tugs but there is also a lot of people who don’t feel that way.
The idea that unions just got stupid and greedy in the 80’s doesn’t really hold up. There can be little question that the political winds shifted in the 80’s, both Thatcher and Reagan were following neoliberal orthodoxy when they went after the unions.
Don’t know how many tug companies on the Columbia River are still union but it’s far fewer than it was before the 1980’s. Did the unions coincidental get stupid just then or did the winds shift?
Dumb question from a WAFI. I have never been paid to sail in any way but by the day even if it turned into a 24 hour day, so the union rules are nothing I know about.
So here goes: If the master can earn OT, what stops him from assigning himself unlimited OT? Could I decide the mates are idiots and I need to stay on bridge 24/7/365 or something?
Airline unions I know more about and seniority is EVERYTHING. Any job you qualify for you are the king of everyone with a lower number - you get first pick of routes, days off, bases, everything. Sucks to be low guy, but eventually it is very nice. I was low guy with a pager for some time - you have no schedule and can get called in at any random time. No drinking ever more or less unless you want to tell dispatch you can’t fly because you are at a bar.
Since I am assuming this is a union company. What would prevent him to do what you allude to, in a word, the contract.
Broadly speaking the contract specifies whether or not the master can earn OT, when and under what circumstances.
The contracts typically specify when all types of overtime are payable for all of the crew. The master is then responsible to maintain a budget for the vessel. I wouldn’t keep my job very long if I were allowing the budget to run out of control. I would certainly be shown the door if I decided to just start paying myself overtime that was not negotiated in the contract.
Haven’t seen many contracts where the Master can earn overtime per say. Pilotage waters with no pilot, “in and outs,” and weekends are about the only time I’ve seen any bumps to their pay. Should have seen the captains with the “you sure you don’t want to get off here inside the breakwater where it’s calm?” so they could get that flat pay bump. Lol
In the tugboat business, the master typically stands watch from 0600-1200 and 1800-2400, in a two watch system, totaling 12 hours a day.
It is common for the master to be called out off watch for arrivals and departures, make and break tow, pilotage waters, traffic, fog, mechanical issues, calls from the office, etc.
In some union contracts everyone in the crew gets overtime after 8 hours, including the master. If the company wants to avoid paying everyone at least 4 hours of overtime everyday, it can easily do so by adding more crew and instituting a three watch system instead of two watches. Or the company can get a compliant union to agree to contract for no overtime until after 12 hours. Which do you think is more likely?
Most union contracts specify that if anyone is called out off watch to work, they get overtime, including the master. Typically, there is minimum amount of overtime, such as two hours for being called out while off watch.
It’s common for the master to be called out more often than anyone else, yet some companies have gotten compliant unions to agree to no overtime for masters. It’s not right to have a union going along with its members doing extra work for free. It just isn’t right.
Union pay scales can be great in some places, but too often a company with a compliant union can negotiate a low contract rate to hold wages down. The race to the bottom is on.
It’s been a while since I was on a union contracted vessel, but if I recall correctly that particular contact called out an OT rate for Masters and C/E and specified 2hr a day regardless, on the assumption that they were always working. They couldn’t just assign themselves unlimited OT obviously.
Depends what Union and what contract. As C/E with the contract I worked it was generally 1 hr/day. If the ship was in Port and I had to work extra such as bunkering, repairs, or in the shipyard overtime was payable but had to be documented. I didn’t get both the 1 hr/day plus the documented OT. It was either or. At sea there was no regular OT payable.
At my company, both the Captain and the C/E get maneuvering pay, outside of 0800-1700 and all day on the weekend. It’s capped at 6 hours per evolution (6 in, 6 out).
Chief also gets OT for bunkering, no matter when it is.
Yup! They were great for getting in to unsnarl industrial looms too, and brought home much needed money to their families…
Don’t you sail OSG? You are better because of the piggy back contract with MEBA
man, ain’t that the truth…But it makes sense because if they (OSG) didn’t match our pay raises, they (the mates) would likely join up with us. As it is, what is their (the mates) incentive to join? they get all the benefits without any of the dues or other requirements.