Wanting to become a Merchant Marine

“Into the Raging Sea” by Rachel Slade.

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Sweet appreciate guys. Thanks a lot for the help.

Please consider checking out the Engineer Apprentice Program the AMO runs at the STAR Center in Dania Beach, FL. I go down there every year and everytime the 6-8 apprentices who are selected to attend the program strike me, (albeit a knuckle dragging rope choker deck officer) as highly motivated and appreciative of the program. It started as a joint SIU-AMO program (believe SIU has since pulled out since), consists of 2 yr USCG approved program which satisfies all STCW and core engineer modules and then tutors and sets you up with the 3/AE exams in REC Miami. Thereafter you are admitted into the AMO union and away you sail. If I were a young man/woman inclined to marine engineering, that would be my absolutely first choice. Met guys off the street with at least a HS diploma to individuals with nearly a college degree who left their degree program for this, This is being offered because maritime ring knockers w/ degrees leave sailing on the average after 3-4 yrs and hawspipers do not, especially when pipelined into a gauranteed union spot afterwards. Unlike the SIU program, these guys/gals strike me as very intelligent, highly motivated and with a good attitude and not the SIU confrontational one. I know many of the instructors and they are experienced and first rate. There is always a shortage of engineers, unlike us deckies who are a dime a dozen. BTW AMO posts its open jobs online and there are no 19TH century good ol boy crimp shop camping out at a union hall requirements. You see the opening on the board, yes there are also openings the companies do not post but STILL ten times more transparent than MEBA/ MM+P. Application fill out @ www.star-center.com/techprogram/techprogram.html.

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Please consider checking out the Engineer Apprentice Program the AMO runs at the STAR Center in Dania Beach, FL. I go down there every year and everytime the 6-8 apprentices who are selected to attend the program strike me, (albeit a knuckle dragging rope choker deck officer) as highly motivated and appreciative of the program. It started as a joint SIU-AMO program (believe SIU has since pulled out since), consists of 2 yr USCG approved program which satisfies all STCW and core engineer modules and then tutors and sets you up with the 3/AE exams in REC Miami. Thereafter you are admitted into the AMO union and away you sail. If I were a young man/woman inclined to marine engineering, that would be my absolutely first choice. Met guys off the street with at least a HS diploma to individuals with nearly a college degree who left their degree program for this, This is being offered because maritime ring knockers w/ degrees leave sailing on the average after 3-4 yrs and hawspipers do not, especially when pipelined into a gauranteed union spot afterwards. There is always a shortage of engineers, unlike us deckies who are a dime a dozen. BTW AMO posts its open jobs online and there are no 19TH century good ol boy crimp shop camping out at a union hall requirements. You see the opening on the board, yes there are also openings the companies do not post but STILL ten times more transparent than MEBA/ MM+P. Application fill out @ www.star-center.com/techprogram/techprogram.html.

If you’re going to get up on the soap box and try to funnel the koolaide into this young mariners mouth, don’t forget to mention that AMO’s dues are three times the amount of MMP and 2.5 times those of MEBA. Oh and don’t forget the wage, vacation, pension and medical benefit differences. Also don’t forget to mention that (last I heard) AMO makes you sign a non compete agreement which lasts longer than the USMMA commitment in order to complete the program. The “tech” program has its positives and minuses and you may get a license only to find out you are stuck working for a lower tier company with nowhere else to go.

As for the hiring hall experience, a half hour a day around lunch time is not too much of a hardship. Transparency? Jobs go up on the board for everyone to see, shipping cards are laid out for everyone to see, only those physically in the hall at job call can bid on the jobs. WTF are you talking about transparency? You even have the opportunity to make some extra money as a port relief officer while you are “camping” at a hall waiting for a ship. Usually enough to offset most of the cost of waiting. Once you get a contract, you then get to take a night off when you’re in US ports because of these port relief officers. Another big difference from AMO.

Lastly, there are “ring knockers” and “hawsepipers” in all unions and ships at various ratios. Those that draw any distinction between one being better than the other based on where they trained are fools or insecure in their professional abilities. No one in the know gives a shit where you went to school or if you went at all. You do the job at a high level or you don’t and that is all that matters. What I will agree with @Memel is. Don’t waste your time with the SIU.

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Talk about funneling Koolaid and incessant hate speech I have seen on this blogsite against the AMO, then you are probably the poster child. BTW I am oil field non-union trash for 13 years before joining any union and before that I was in Uncle Sam’s confused group, suffice it to say I was not “marinated” in any union affiliated school or academy. The AMO has the majority of contracts plain and simple, like it or not and in large part because we are the lower paid union. Happy to be paid less, much less and to be able to catch a ship than sit on my ass in a hall. By the way, sitting in a hall is no big deal…if you live within 50 miles or so, but what of you live in the rest of the country, give me a break. F— shipping A, B, C cards, moronic vestiges from the 19th century. Medical is BCBS, not bad, vacations are per collective bargaining ranging 21/30 to 28/30 all depends. Dues for 3rd 372/qtr; 2nd 392/qtr; 1rst 418/qtr, considering the money spent parking yourself in a flop house with MEBA or MM+P while you wait for a ship, I’ll pay the dues thank you. And yes posting jobs on the website is transparency, guess that new fangled internet stuff is too complicated for you other union folks to figure out. Cannot say yea or nay as to the non-compete agreement but we are supporting the apprentices for two years what do you expect? Lower tier company? as if any of the surviving companies are that different, really? Yea and we also make anyone taking DP training sign a legally binding payback proviso if the leave the union to go work for the oil field MFs, as some buttholes did years ago when we trained them and they left and then came crawling back with hat in hand when the oil field shut down, go figure.

Lmao well as much as I love to see a good debate between you guys, the only reason I am considering SIU is for one its free*, two, its a relatively short program and I want to be in the field as quick as I can and three, from what I have seen so far the school still trains you in all thr basic areas you need to know. Yes I want to eventually become part of the engine room or an engineer but I have already been to a technical school and have that debt and I want to get into the actual field as fast as I can because I believe that is where the real knowledge exists.

AMO? Pension? Surely you jest!!

Sometimes they need to be reminded that it wasn’t MMP that had dispatchers selling jobs to folks or withholding them for old friends… and it wasn’t MMP that had officials serving prison time.

Yup… absolutely correct. Get experience and extra money while waiting for the first gig… and get some long awaited rest and even time ashore if you’re already onboard. They like to call us spoiled brats, but you KNOW if they were offered one of our contracts they wouldn’t say “oh man, please… no, no more money!”

People love to bash the A,B and C-Book system… but I like a system that is designed to weed out the shitbags and reward the hard workers who follow the union’s rules and prove to be capable and trustworthy shipmates while organizing the labor pool. Do some slip through the cracks? Sure, but in my 10 years it hasn’t been many… and it only took me 4.5 years to make A-Book… living 95 miles from the hall…

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If you dont mind me asking, whats your position and how much a year roughly do you bring in as far as money? My goal is to move up as fast as I can and learn as much as I can.

I’m a deckie… I don’t know what the MEBA engineers on my last ship were making, but nobody was complaining, that’s for damn sure.

So a 3 a/e on a bad contract for MEBA is making $81,000/yr. Of course it’s a 90 day job, so you would gross $40,000 including vacation on that trip.

Do you go back to that job every time? No, you go to the hall. I stumbled into a 3a/e job that was probably payed around $120,000/yr or $60,000 for the trip.

Once you’ve been sailing a while you get emails/phone calls from guys you’ve worked with. Mostly along the lines of: “Hey, the 3rd/2d is getting off in Jax if you want a job”

It’s nice to rotate through different vessels. You get to see a lot of different things. See what works and what doesn’t. If you don’t like the crew or the vessel you don’t have to go back.

Edit: MEBA dues is $600/yr. $4,000 initiation fee that is paid over the course of 2 years. I get a hall I can walk into, grab a beer out of the fridge and talk to my union rep in person.

You’re happy to get paid less so long as you can stick it to those MEBA guys on the forum.

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Hey I’m happy for ya, fellow brother of the sea. No I don’t enjoy sticking it to anyone but for years put up with inappropriate hate filled vitriole against AMO and I didn’t appreciate it. Most of the time it was gratuitous and wasn’t even related to the topic being discussed; I decided I’m not remaining silent any longer, that’s all. I am very happy being in the union and AMO union in particular, the training all of us regardless of union affiliation get is worth every penny I spend on dues. Appears your dues are lower, I believe your pension plan etc is solid and therefore probably explains that to a degree. Our initiation is 5K. I like moving around as well and companies have there list of members they prefer, if you do well the company will usually find a place as long as dispatch approves and is kept in the loop. Stay safe shipmate.

My dad spent 50 years working in engine rooms, he was a chief engineer with the Army Corp working on hopper dredges. I spend many summers with him on the ship back when they allowed that. I wish I followed in his foot steps, instead I did 28 years in the AF. I have no doubt it would be a great and rewarding career for you. Good luckESSAYONS

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