Officials with the Washington State Ferries (WSF) system are warning that a shortage of qualified captains could eventually force a decrease in passenger service.
Greg Faust, Director of Marine Operations at the Washington State Department of Transportation, said while they currently have enough captains to operate, WSF has a large number of upcoming retirements and fewer-than-expected trained replacements waiting to move up…
I guess they might have to upset the apple cart and hire some officers that didn’t climb the internal hawsepipe. I assume that they are testing the waters and getting ready to renegotiate their IBU contract.
[QUOTE=renoun;173296]I guess they might have to upset the apple cart and hire some officers that didn’t climb the internal hawsepipe. I assume that they are testing the waters and getting ready to renegotiate their IBU contract.[/QUOTE]
I’ll tell you what but if I can get aboard there, I’ll become an overpaid seagoing bus driver. Who do I have to blow?
It must be “pay or no one”. Maine State ferries want to pay $18 something an hour for my services an engineer. In Texas ferries pay $65 an hour and New Jersey 40/Hour. Don’t work for chump change and with all the demands they put on us mariners demand more for your labor. Bottom feeder lawyers are getting 250-500/hr. Can they operate the largest man made moving objects on the planet earth? Work for more not less!Demand more and work less like Congress.
[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;173344]It must be “pay or no one”. Maine State ferries want to pay $18 something an hour for my services an engineer. In Texas ferries pay $65 an hour and New Jersey 40/Hour. Don’t work for chump change and with all the demands they put on us mariners demand more for your labor. Bottom feeder lawyers are getting 250-500/hr. Can they operate the largest man made moving objects on the planet earth? Work for more not less!Demand more and work less like Congress.[/QUOTE]
Last I heard, Washington ferries were paying very good money for a day job. There was a line down the street for on call work.
The Maine ferry guys are mostly “contractors” with no benefits. The guys have to camp out in a trailer on the island at night. It’s not a day job. Last I heard they were making less than $200 a day. These guys do all Mariner’s a real disservice by working for these ridiculous wages. These guys should just stay home and do odd jobs for more money. The state would eventually have to raise wages. Jeaux Bawss could learn a lot from the Maine ferries. Maine has a lot of mariners, but I’ve never heard of decent seagoing job in Maine (except for fishing).
[QUOTE=Ctony;173349]Just curious, but how about tugboats there?[/QUOTE]
As far as I know, the handful of tugs in Maine are mostly day boats doing on call ship work. One or two tugs sporadically towing cement barges. A number of small day boats doing construction work. A few Canadian and New York tugs bring in oil. Virtually no Maine based coastal barge towing. Other than oil, no coastal barge traffic.
The majority of Maine tugboat guys are working in New York. Plenty of Maine mariners everywhere.
Last statistics that I saw showed that Maine and Mass have the largest number of licensed Mariners after California, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.
[QUOTE=Ctony;173349]Just curious, but how about tugboats there?[/QUOTE]
Portland Tugboats is now McAllister Towing which means peanuts for wages. I would expect you’d come away with about 25 grand at the end of a year, but they probably have comfy lifejackets for sleeping. (Sleep with one hand hanging off the bunk so you’ll wake up when the water touches it.)
Wow, you guys are out of touch. The Portland guys make less than they do elsewhere but it’s definitely not 25 grand. Over the short term (adjusted for changes in the world) they’re making no significant amount less as Mcallister than they did before as Fournier, maybe more for all I know. Could be better befits too as Mac offers a good package. The guys that work there tend to be happy with their jobs with little turnover as opposed to doom and gloom misery at Kirby for example. Winslow has a few decent boats that work elsewhere, one runs a cement barge to boston on a schedule (mate’s were making in the 400’s…good experience, not oil, close to home) and other contract towing around the northeast plus regular bunkering. Maine is a bad state or wages though, no doubt about that. South Portland is killing the waterfront with their anti pipeline agenda and it’s hurting the industry though.
The Portland tugboat jobs are probably pretty good money for Maine (maybe 75 percent of NY). The jobs are highly sought after because it’s on call ship work close to home for the guys.