Well said boattrash1. Tugsailor sounds like a well travelled mariner, and glad he is being compensated as per his last post. His OP was that he was not being rewarded for his experience, and I agree with his stance. It is not the unions fault his quite few employers have overlooked his credentials, it is his employers. And I wish him well, no malice whatsoever.
The problem is spending per student. Many states say the worst performing school districts get the highest funding BUT they neglect to say how many students are in the school district, many times the districts have the highest number of students. If you tell us the state you are in that is giving the most money to poorly performing schools that would be valuable information. The per student cost is easily accessible if the state has a sunshine law making spending records available. Is that on a per pupil basis? What are the administrative costs? Paying too much to administrators and not enough to educate children? I am active in my local school district and we would like to avoid the problem your state has, but need more information.
Per student cost is an important guideline. As is administration costs per student if available. Perhaps some states/counties combine the two.
My issue is that tugboat wages (both non-union and union) have not risen to keep up with the true cost of inflation, or the extra costs of being fully licensed with complete up to date STCW II/2. Nor are we getting paid enough relative to many shoreside jobs.
Adjusted for inflation, I make less than I did 30 years ago.
Tugboat wages need to make a significant leap upward for us to be fairly compensated.
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Sit down with your present employer and have a non-combatitive discussion, and explain your credentials and experience. There are many looking for a similar position, prove to them why you are the better choice and can perform well with no losses and contribute to their bottom line. Even better if a former mariner port captain kinda fellow sits in on the interview with the usual noninformed HR Guy.
I did something similar while I was sailing mate on smaller non-union vessels two separate timesā¦ Told the boss how much I thought I should be making. Both times I got the same reaction. The boss gave me a surprised look and said āthatās more than the captain makesā.
I though thatās no good and in both cases I departed for greener pastures.
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At least you found a better path as a result. Have done that myself and walked more than onceā¦ union and non-union. Eventually found a better path with a company or two that realized good business practices. Experience in the field is priceless. Didnāt happen overnight.
That is certainly a common thread, and not just in shipping. That being said, do you know how tug charter or freight rates have trended the last few years? In the O&G world we havenāt had an appreciable raise since about 2014, and over that same time our vessel charter rates have declined by over 75% in some cases. While Iām glad our wages havenāt been cut to reflect that, manning cuts have resulted in an increased workload.
I recognize its a tough argument to make for a raise when the company hasnāt turned a profit in quite some time. Though sometimes I think someone should remind the office that the only reason they still make money at all is because of the mariners operating the ships.
Yeah, walked, thatās what I did.
A few days after trying to get more money I was on the one boat and I explained to the captain why I thought he was an idiot. I got fired a couple days later.
When I told my wife why Iād been fired I told her the truth, nothing but the truth, but not the whole truth. Months later I was sitting outside having a beer with an old shipmate and told him the whole story.
My wife yells from inside the house āYou know your voice carries a lot better than you think it does!ā
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She must know my bride, who claims hard of hearing until specific subjects arise. LOL
I am fortunate to be working on a good boat for a solvent and very profitable company unrelated to oil or the Gulf. My pay is midrange, same as the union.
Itās just about $200 a day short of what it needs to be to bring me back up to 1990 levels adjusted for inflation. Nor does it compensate me for all the extra risk and liability we are exposed to in 2020. Not to mention the cost of acquiring and maintaining up to date STCW II/2.
There are enough tugboat jobs available now, and companies are struggling to find enough good people (they cannot find enough), but that has not yet prompted the big bump in wages that we need.
Not really.
Are you really that dense or are you pretending?
The unions would be fighting for THEIR MEMBERS (actually their membersā companies) not non members.
Go to bed old man read the whole thread will ya.
I have. Quit deflecting your lack of cognitive ability.
Ya I aced that test. Cheated off Trump though.
So youāre blaming Trump for why you canāt grasp the concept that if the unions make the federal government enforce the āprevailing wagesā requirement it will benefit their members? Tugsailor even explained it in the post you replied to but you must not have read (or understood) that part.
Jeez you are no fun
Now from what I have seen most Govt contracts always have prevailing wage clauses in them. The companies get paid based on that. Now if the company decides to pay the mariners what is owed to them that is the problem? I know many people who have had to sue for the wages owed to them. The companies try and see what they can get away with and most the time mariners are scared to speak up.
How is this the unions fault?
Not necessarily. The companies get paid based on what they bid for the job and if a scab company paying half union wages is able to underbid a union company because they pay a lot less then they get the job. If the unions work to make that practice stop then it helps their membersā companies get contracts.
āPrevailing wages is a term used in a legislative effort to provide organized labor a fair chance to bid for government contracts. Federal law requires all employers engaged in the performance of federal contracts to pay āprevailingā wages to their workers. This ensures that nonunion employers cannot gain an unfair bidding advantage by paying wages far below the union rate.ā
The companies can underbid all they want but they must pay prevailing wages. These prevailing wages are union standard and up to the mariner to speak up. These laws are already Iām effect and Iām sure unions had alot to do with that.
Except they get away with not doing so and it would be in the unionās interest to stop it.