Members for Democracy Archive

SIU Wages Vs. SUP Wages: A Dangerous Difference


IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THE READER:

Before you begin reading, please keep in mind that "SIU Wages Vs. SUP Wages: A Dangerous Difference" is a work in progress--it's fluid, it's ever-changing.

Unless--or should I say until?--I'm murdered for writing this, I'll make changes to it daily, even hourly: spelling, mathematical, grammatical, historical, language, et cetera. Meaning, if you read it today, then come back to it a day or two from now, there ought to be plenty more insights to explore.

To encourage folks not normally interested the maritime industry to continue reading, I'll do my best to throw in personal accounts whenever possible. After all, if I can't grab your attention and hang onto it, what good will come of this?

By following this blog, what you're doing, really, is experiencing what it's like to read an expose while it's written in near real time. When complete, I intend to shoot it off to policy-makers, maritime Capital interests, maritime Labor interests, news agencies, federal law enforcement agencies--anyone and everyone--not for personal profit or public recognition, although both, I'm sure, will be widely disputed anyway, but to help forge a new relationship between maritime Capital and Labor interests here in America--one that, I hope, shall be advantageous to both parties in this increasingly fierce global economy.

Thanks for sharing this experience with me.

Oh, and if I stop writing unexpectedly, chances are the bad guys got the drop on me.
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On August 9, 2005, in the editorial section of the Charlotte observer, you'll find a piece, which I shall rewrite (recopy?) here, word for word, below, entitled:

RAISE JUDGES SALARIES

Money isn't everything, but low pay drives good people out.

In a nation where courts routinely handle cases that involve millions of dollars or may lead to someone's imprisonment or even death, you'd think society would want capable, experienced lawyers to serve as judges. But look at the salaries paid to federal and state judges and you'll get the opposite impression.

Federal judges have lifetime appointments and make more than their state counterparts, but their salaries--topped by $202,900 for the chief justice and $194,200 for Supreme Court associate justices--prompted Justice Sandra Day O'Conner to criticize Congress recently for potentially undermining the quality of the bench.

"Congress has not seen fit to have judicial salaries keep pace with what would be expected of people in equivalent positions," she said at a conference. "I know that when my law clerks go out and get a job, they earn far more their first year than any federal judge earns."

In state courts--including North Carolina's--the situation is worse. A recent report by the N.C. State Judicial Council found that among the dozen Southeastern states, only Mississippi ($115,000) and West Virginia ($95,000) pay their chief justices less than North Carolina ($121,391). Judges are among the lowest paid state employees who are lawyers. For example, the chief justice is paid 55% less than the average salary of law school deans at UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. Central and 41% less than top university lawyers at those schools and N.C. State. The chief justice makes less than the city attorney in some big N.C. cities.

Trial court judges are similarly underpaid. A Superior Court judge makes $107,136--that's 114% less than a typical attorney with 10 years experience in a medium-sized law firm, according to a recent consultants' study.

Money isn't the only attraction of service as a judge. It's an important opportunity for public service, as well as good experience for judges who return to the practice of law. But judges pay mortgages and put their children through college, too, so low pay can push good judges off the bench and deter good lawyers from serving as judges.

The State Judicial Council, a body created by the legislature to oversee operation of the judicial branch, recommends raising the chief justice's salary to $155,000 and increasing other judges' salaries accordingly. That isn't likely to happen this tight budget year, but it should happen soon.

If it doesn't? Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. reached the obvious conclusion: "We're going to begin losing a lot of good judges..." (He wouldn't benefit; he'll soon hit 72, the mandatory retirement age.)

North Carolinians expect judges to be drawn from the top ranks of legal talent. But the financial sacrifice now demanded of judges may make that exception obsolete. Our state would not be well served by a court system in which the first qualification for judges is willingness to work cheap.
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quoted from "Understanding Power" by Noam Chomsky

--verbal response while on the lecture circuit--

"...Actually, the US also reconstructed the Mafia as part of this whole effort to split the European labor movement after the war. I mean, the Mafia had mostly been wiped out by the Fascists--Fascists tend to run a pretty tight ship, they don't like competition. So Hitler and Mussolini had essentially wiped out the Mafia, and as the American liberating armies moved into Sicily and then through Southern Italy and into France, they reconstituted it as a tool to break strikes. See, the US needed goons to break striker's knees on the waterfront and that kind of thing, and where are you going to find guys like that? Well, the answer was, in the Mafia. So in France, the CIA--working together with the leadership of the American labor movement, incidentally--resurrected the Corsican Mafia. And the Mafia don't just do it for fun, you know--I mean, maybe they enjoy it, but they want a payoff. And as kind of a quid pro quo for smashing up the French labor movement, they were allowed to reconstitute the heroine trade, which had been reduced to virtually zero under the Fascists--that's the origin of the famous "French Connection," the main source of the post war heroine racket..."
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LABOR MANAGEMENT IN THE MARITIME INDUSTRY

Now let's examine what sailors sailing with Sailors' Union of the Pacific earn, what non-union sailors earn, and what sailors sailing with Seafarer's International Union earn, and you'll see why everyone on the coast, from property-owners in the Hamptons to ice cream vendors in Key West, as well as anyone who would ever like to take a swim in the ocean again, as opposed to a boiling, churning vat of crude oil that stretches from horizon to horizon and beyond, ought to take a hard look at what's taking place in the maritime industry today, and consider how one tanker driven by one inexperienced and/or incompetent sailor could bring every costal economy--correction: the entire American economy--to its knees tomorrow.

Since SIU Labor Agreements vary from Great Lakes to Deep Sea, company to company, even ship to ship within a given company, even salty SIU sailors have difficulties understanding exactly how they're paid--as they debark one ship, return to the Hiring Hall, "throw in" for another job aboard another ship, and start working for yet another Company under an entirely new Labor Agreement--but sailors who are new to the industry are especially vulnerable to exploitation. And I lay blame squarely on the SIU Leadership: Mike Sacco, Auggie Tellez, Nick Marrone, and the remainder of the "Titled Twelve."
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MIKE SACCO

Excellent Question: Why would 80,000 merchant mariners vote a Steward with next to no documented sea-time into office?

The answer is simple: they didn't, initially.

And from that point forward all you hear are nasty allegations of election tampering: from stuffing ballot boxes, at the very least, to hand-picked Bosns requiring crewmembers to fill out ballots in pencil, to patrolmen and port agents telling SIU Members who they are going to vote for, like it or not, while they're trying to vote, to illegitimate disqualifications of opponents running for office, and the list grinds on.

Whether Mike Sacco remembers it or not, I've spoken with him on a number of occasions, back in the early stages of my investigation, and therefore under very different circumstances than I would expect today. If you've been introduced, then you already know he's reasonably intelligent, someone who approaches life with a street-smart wit, a disarming sense of humor, enough charm to soothe even the fiercest of critics, at least temporarily. But what Mike's like on a personal level is irrelevant to what we're examining here.

As for Auggie Tellez and Nick Marrone, they're the same: nice guys, as you'd expect from people in their positions. They're both intelligent, especially Nick, who's known to be the brains of the operation, they're both engaging during conversation, and under different circumstances I might go on to compliment more of their personal traits and characteristics--but like I implied earlier, this isn't personal, it's professional.

Besides, when it comes to assessing the root cause of problems afflicting the maritime industry, it's not my opinions that count, but rather the SIU Memberships' opinions that count--how they view the SIU Leadership, and how their interaction affects the working relationship between maritime Capital and Labor here in America.

So let's move on so that we can get to it.
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MEET THE "TITLED TWELVE"

Michael Sacco, President

Augustin "Augie" Tellez, Executive Vice President

David W. Heindel, Secretary-Treasurer

George Tricker, Vice President Contracts

Dean Corgey, Vice President Gulf Coast

Kermett Mangram, Vice President Government Services

Tom Orzechowski, Vice President Lakes and Inland Waters

Nicholas J. Marrone, Vice President West Coast

Joseph T. Soresi, Vice President Atlantic Coast

John Spadaro, National Director, UIW

René Lioeanjie, Vice President at Large

Charles Stewart, Vice President at Large
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WHAT TO SCRUTINIZE:

--How much--or should I say little?--documented sea-time did each man attain before coming ashore to negotiate and enforce Labor Agreements on behalf of life-long sailors who depend on them to see the maritime industry from their perspective? Three years seems to be the magic number, sometimes less. The day I graduated from SIU's Apprentice program, the Powers that Be offered me and, later, my buddy Dave positions as patrolmen. We declined for different reasons, but here's one reason we both had in common: We knew we'd make incompetent patrolmen because we didn't have the foggiest idea what the maritime industry was like from a sailor's perspective. Our complete lack of experience didn't matter to SIU's Leadership. They were willing to "train" us. How? And why? Nevermind, we told them: We're not qualified, and therefore we're not interested. Thanks anyhow.

--What university or college did each man attend? And what degrees can they show for it? Because it goes without saying that maritime Capital interests and ship management companies hire plenty of Ivy League attorneys to handle their end of Labor Agreement negotiations. If you show up to a gun fight with a rubber-band stamped GED, the people counting on you are probably doomed. This probably--and only partially--explains why the language used in SIU Labor Agreements is a sick joke.

--How long has each man held his position? Life? That's probably not a good idea. After all, presidents and "trained" officials who serve for life more often than not form dictatorships.

--Who voted each man into office, the SIU Membership, or the Executive Board? Just how democratic is SIU anyway?

--Lots of fellas connected to Brooklyn around here!

-MIKE SACCO-

Michael Sacco is president of the Seafarers International Union of North America, AFL-CIO - a federation of 12 autonomous unions representing 80,000 merchant mariners; industrial, service and government workers; and others in various professions. He first was elected to the position by the SIUNA executive board in June 1988.

Sacco also is president of his home union - the SIUNA-affiliated Seafarers International Union; Atlantic, Gulf, Lakes and Inland Waters District/National Maritime Union (AGLIWD/NMU). The district's membership is composed of mariners, boatmen and fishermen working aboard U.S.-flag deep sea ships, Great Lakes vessels and inland waters and harbor boats. It includes mariners from the former National Maritime Union, which merged into the SIU in 2001.

In November 1991, at its 19th Biennial Constitutional Convention, Sacco was elected a vice president of the AFL-CIO, the federation of 66 national and international unions representing more than 13 million workers in the United States.

Since 1988, Sacco has served as president of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department, representing 29 unions with members engaged in shipping and maritime-related trades. He most recently was reelected to the post during the MTD's 2005 convention.

From 1980 to 1988, Sacco directed the SIU AGLIWD's Great Lakes and Inland Waters division as vice president. Based in St. Louis, he served as secretary-treasurer of the Greater St. Louis Area and Vicinity Port Council (an MTD chartered organization) and as an executive board member of the Missouri State AFL-CIO.

Sacco also was vice president of the Seafarers Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship from 1968 to 1979. The school, located on the grounds of the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education in Piney Point, Md., prepares men and women for a career aboard U.S.-flag commercial vessels and provides upgrading opportunities to active members.

Michael Sacco joined the SIU in 1958 and shipped aboard U.S.-flag merchant vessels until he came ashore during the 1960s to serve the SIU in a succession of union posts, including those of patrolman, port agent and headquarters representative.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Sacco served in the U.S. Air Force from 1954 to 1958. He was born February 14, 1937. He is married, and he and his wife, Sophie, have five children.

-AUGUSTIN "AUGIE" TELLEZ-

Augustin "Augie" Tellez is the executive vice president of the Seafarers International Union. He was appointed to that position in November 2005 by the SIU executive board.

Previously, he served as the union's vice president of contracts and contracts enforcement from 1991-2005. In that post, he managed the SIU's collective bargaining and contract implementation efforts throughout all segments of the industry, including deep sea, Great Lakes, inland and passenger vessels.

Tellez was appointed as vice president in 1991 by the SIU executive board. He was elected to a full term by the union's membership in 1992 and reelected in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

He also serves as a trustee for the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education - a world-class, comprehensive vocational education institution located in Piney Point, Md. Additionally, Tellez chairs the Paul Hall Center's advisory board, composed of high-ranking industry representatives from labor, management and government.

Serving under the administration of SIU President Michael Sacco, Tellez has helped lead the union to numerous contractual gains and improved benefits for SIU members and their families.

As a Paul Hall Center trustee and advisory board chairman, he has helped spearhead the construction of two new, unsurpassed additions at the school designed to promote shipboard safety: the Joseph Sacco Fire Fighting and Safety School, which opened in 1999 and specifically is tailored for marine fire fighting training; and a state-of-the-art simulator building that houses top-notch simulators for shiphandling, engine room operations, liquid cargo procedures, crane operations and more. The latter opened in October 2000.

Tellez also worked closely with the development team that put together the union's Coast Guard-accepted training record book - a groundbreaking document first published in 1997 that is designed to help both individual SIU members and SIU-contracted companies comply with complex international maritime regulations.

Tellez worked his way up through the ranks, starting with the SIU in 1975 after graduating from the entry program at the Paul Hall Center's Lundeberg School of Seamanship. He sailed from the union's Brooklyn, N.Y. hiring hall as an able bodied seaman before coming ashore.

He served the union in various capacities in Jacksonville, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; Tampa; Paducah, Ky.; Baltimore; and Houston. In 1980, he became the port agent for the SIU's headquarters port, located in Brooklyn.

Tellez in 1987 relocated to what had become the union's new headquarters in Camp Springs, Md., where he served as special assistant to the president. That same year, he was elected as the vice president for the Seafarers International Union of North America - the parent union of the SIU's seagoing component. A year later, he became the assistant vice president for contracts and contracts enforcement.

-DAVID W. HEINDEL-

David Heindel has been the secretary-treasurer of the Seafarers International Union; Atlantic, Gulf, Lakes and Inland Waters District/National Maritime Union, since February 1997.

Heindel began his career with the SIU in 1973, when he graduated from the program for entry-level mariners conducted at the union's affiliated training facility in Piney Point, Maryland. He primarily sailed aboard deep-sea vessels as a member of the engine department, before coming ashore in 1980 to work as a patrolman in his native New Orleans.

Among the other jobs he has held with the union are patrolman at the SIU halls in Philadelphia and Baltimore, port agent at the Philadelphia hall and assistant vice president of the SIU's Gulf Coast Region.

Heindel also formerly served as a vice president of the Pennsylvania State AFL-CIO and the Philadelphia Central Labor Council. He also was secretary-treasurer of the Delaware Valley and Vicinity Maritime Port Council of the AFL-CIO's Maritime Trades Department.

In August 2002, he was elected vice chairman of the International Transport Workers' Federation's (ITF's) Seafarers' Section. Since then, he extensively has worked – both domestically and as part of U.S. delegations in international forums – with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the International Labor Organization and the International Maritime Organization on shipboard and port-security issues as well as the international project for a new Seafarers Identity Document. He helped protect mariners' rights under the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (which took effect July 2004), and he helped secure a new agreement for tens of thousands of mariners worldwide under the ITF's International Bargaining Forum.

-GEORGE TRICKER-

George Tricker is the vice president for contracts and contracts enforcement for the Seafarers International Union. He has served in that position since being appointed by the union's executive board in November 2005.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Tricker in 1979 completed the trainee program at the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education. He sailed in the deck department aboard deep sea vessels and also sailed in the inland division with Crowley. He upgraded three times at the Paul Hall Center before coming ashore in 1990 to work for the union.

In 1991, Tricker served as a patrolman on the West Coast. Later that year, he became port agent in Wilmington, Calif. Tricker was active in the local port council and the central labor council throughout his years in Wilmington.

In 1997, Tricker transferred to SIU headquarters after being appointed assistant vice president contracts – a position to which he was elected in 2000 and again in 2004. He extensively has been involved in most of the union's contract negotiations since then, and in many cases played a leading role in helping secure favorable agreements.

He also helped organize the cruise ship Pride of Aloha when the vessel joined the U.S.-flag fleet in 2004.

Tricker and his wife live on Capitol Hill.

-DEAN CORGEY-

Dean Corgey is vice president of the Seafarers International Union's Gulf Coast Region.

A lifelong resident of Houston, Corgey began his career with the SIU in 1973 after graduating from the entry training program for merchant mariners at the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education in Piney Point, Md.

He later sailed as a chief engineer for G&H Towing Company and continued his vocational education at Piney Point. He still holds a chief engineer/limited ocean Coast Guard License.

Corgey came ashore in 1979 and worked in Houston as an organizer for the SIU. He subsequently worked as a patrolman and, in 1986, became the SIU's Houston port agent. He became an assistant vice president in 1988 and vice president of the Gulf Coast Region in 1990.

Corgey also serves as a vice president of the Texas AFL-CIO; as secretary-treasurer of the West Gulf Ports Council of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department; and on the executive board of the Harris County AFL-CIO. He also served two terms on the Coast Guard's Towing Safety Advisory Committee. He currently serves as a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Area Maritime Security Committee for the Port of Houston/Galveston.

Corgey is married to Theresa Mangiameli Corgey. They have two sons and are active members of Second Baptist Church.

-KERMETT MANGRAM-

Kermett Mangram is vice president of the Seafarers International Union's Government Services Division.

A graduate of the entry training program for merchant mariners at the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education in Piney Point, Md., his first assignment was aboard the Sea-Land Seattle as a steward assistant in 1978.

The Jacksonville, Fla. native came ashore in 1980 as an instructor at the school. He became a patrolman in the port of New York in 1981, then port agent there in 1987.

Mangram was named by the SIU executive board in 1992 as assistant vice president for contracts and contract enforcement. He was reelected to the post in 1996.

He succeeded Roy 'Buck' Mercer as vice president of the union's Government Services Division upon Mercer's retirement in 1999. Mangram was reelected the next year.

As vice president of the SIU's Government Services Division, Mangram, who holds a bachelor's degree in business administration, is based in Norfolk, Va. The Government Services Division represents unlicensed crew members aboard Military Sealift Command (MSC) Fleet vessels.

-TOM ORZECHOWSKI-

Tom Orzechowski is vice president of the Seafarers International Union's Lakes and Inland Waters District.

A native of Camden, N.J., Orzechowski graduated in 1991 from the trainee program at the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education in Piney Point, Md.

He sailed in the deck department, both in the deep sea and inland divisions.

Orzechowski came ashore in 1996, when he was elected port agent at the SIU hall in St. Louis. Two years later, he was elected vice president of the SIUNA-affiliated Seafarers Entertainment and Allied Trades Union, and in 2000, he was elected to the SIU executive board as vice president of the union's Lakes and Inland Waters District. He was re-elected in 2004.

Orzechowski has extensive experience as an organizer, including sailing aboard organizational-status vessels.

Currently working out of the union's Algonac, Mich. office, he also serves as an executive board member for the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO as well as the Greater Chicago and Vicinity Port Council of the Maritime Trades Department.

-NICK MARRONE-

Nick Marrone is vice president of the Seafarers International Union's West Coast Region.

The Long Island, N.Y. native began his SIU career in 1975, when he graduated from the trainee program at what now is named the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education, located in Piney Point, Md.

He sailed as an AB before coming ashore in 1978 to work as an instructor at the Paul Hall Center. A year later, he became the union's port agent in Piney Point. Marrone was assigned to the SIU hall in Paducah, Ky. in 1980-81.

During the mid-1980s, Marrone worked in various capacities for U.S.-flag shipping companies, including a stint as district manager for Lykes Bros.

In 1988, he became director of military operations for the Transportation Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization devoted to maritime research, education and promotion.

Marrone rejoined the SIU in 1990 as the director of the union's legislative and governmental affairs department. From 1992-96, he served as administrator the Seafarers Plans. He then returned to the Paul Hall Center to work as the school's vice president until 1998, when he was appointed West Coast vice president (a post to which he was elected in 2000 and re-elected in 2004).

Marrone is active in the San Francisco Central Labor Council, the Alameda Central Labor Council, the California State Labor Federation and the Propeller Club of San Francisco. He helped develop the union's safety school in Honolulu, and he also assisted in some of the behind-the-scenes work that helped lead to construction of the Joseph Sacco Fire Fighting and Safety School in Piney Point (an extension of the Paul Hall Center campus).

JOE SORESI

Joe Soresi is vice president of the Seafarers International Union's Atlantic Coast Region.

Following in the footsteps of his father, Tom (an SIU member since 1961), he joined the union in 1990 and shipped out until March 1993, last sailing as an AB aboard the ITB Groton.

Soresi came ashore in 1993 to work for the SIU as a patrolman in the port of Philadelphia and became port agent there in 1996. During those years, he was active in organizing campaigns in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana involving an affiliate of the SIU, the Seafarers Entertainment & Allied Trades Union, and became involved in other areas of the labor movement as well. While in the Philadelphia region, he was vice president and served on the board of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, and he was elected secretary-treasurer of the Delaware Valley and Vicinity Maritime Port Council of the MTD.

In February 2002, Soresi, who was born and raised in Staten Island, N.Y., was appointed by the SIU's executive board as vice president of the Atlantic region. In 2004, he was elected as a vice president of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO. Soresi also currently serves in the position of president of the New York Maritime Port Council, vice president of the Hudson County Central Labor Council, and a vice president of the Food and Allied Service Trades.

-JOHN SPADARO-

John Spadaro is national director of the United Industrial Workers Union, which is an affiliate of the Seafarers International Union.

A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, he started his career in the labor movement in 1960 when he served as a shop steward at the UIW-contracted Hussmann Refrigeration Company - now Victory Refrigeration Company - in Cherry Hill, N.J. In 1970, he became chief shop steward at that company, and in 1984, he was hired as a UIW business agent.

Five years later, Spadaro was voted into office as UIW assistant vice president, Atlantic Region, working out of the Philadelphia union hall. He was then elected UIW vice president of the Atlantic Region in 1993, an office he won again in 1997.

In June 2001, Spadaro was appointed to the post of national director of the UIW and was elected to that position in September of the same year. He was re-elected in 2005.

As national director, Spadaro is responsible for carrying out the terms of his union's constitution, bylaws and adopted resolutions as well as other affairs at UIW shops located in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Great Lakes, Gulf Coast, Midwest and West Coast regions.

-RENE LIOEANJIE-

René Lioeanjie is vice president at large of the Seafarers International Union.

He came to the United States in 1945 after sailing on Dutch-flag ships and immediately started sailing aboard U.S.-flag vessels. Lioeanjie worked as an ordinary seaman, deck storekeeper, quartermaster and bosun until he came ashore in 1955 as chief, master of arms at the New York headquarters of the National Maritime Union (NMU).

Moving up within the union management, Lioeanjie was responsible for some groundbreaking activities and frequently represented the NMU on innovative projects-always aimed at improving the working conditions of seafarers.

He tackled the job of working with crews on flag-of-convenience vessels and was later appointed organizer for the International Maritime Workers Union, a union formed by the NMU and the Seafarers International Union, to organize flag-of-convenience ships.
Lioeanjie then went to organize seamen on the MSTS and Corps of Engineers vessels. He was elected regional director of Latin America and the Caribbean, where he was active in organizing the federal employees in the Panama Canal Zone.

Working his way up through the ranks, he served as patrolman, agent, vice president, secretary-treasurer and, in 1997, he was elected the fourth president of the NMU.

Following the merger of the NMU into the SIU, Lioeanjie was elected vice president at large. He continues to reside in Panama.

-CHARLES STEWART-

Charles Stewart is vice president at large of the Seafarers International Union.

He joined the National Maritime Union (NMU) in 1959, sailing in all three departments aboard tankers, freighters and passenger vessels. He became involved in all phases of union activity, including serving on trial committees, extension committees and convention committees.

Stewart served as a patrolman in New York, Miami and Port Arthur, Texas and was assistant to the vice president of government operations. He was one of the first U.S. ITF inspectors. Additionally, he served as branch agent in Houston, Texas.

Stewart was elected vice president of the NMU and was assigned to contract enforcement.

Following the merger of the NMU into the SIU, Stewart was elected vice president at large. He continues to work from his Washington, D.C. office.
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Indoctrination into Modern-day Slavery

An estimated 80% of SIU sailors who graduate from the year-long SIU Apprentice Program in Piney Point, MD, abandon the maritime industry after only two years.

I call them "turn-key" sailors: sailors who approach the industry optimistic and ready to work until they reach the fleet, contribute to SIU's billion dollar pension fund for a year or two, and then--once they realize how the system works, once they realize how many hours they toil per month and see how little they earn in return for their hard labor, once they crunch the numbers and realize there's an excellent chance they'll never retire, and finally, inevitably, conclude that they're being exploited both by the ship management companies they're working for and the SIU Leadership, they abandon the industry, disgusted, disillusioned, never to return. Less than ideal working conditions combined with slave wages is a great way to ensure a sustained, rapid-fire turnover of personnel who abandon the industry before they master their trade, politically and professionally.

NOTE: if I recall correctly, you're required to sail for five years before you're vested with SIU, while SUP sailors, on the other hand, are vested from day one; SIU-contracted companies contribute $7.00 per day toward the pension, while SUP-contracted companies deposit $25.00 per day into a 401K that you control; multiply that over the course of a forty-five year career.

Apprentices, like myself, since I, too, subjected myself to SIU's Apprenticeship Program voluntarily, learned to appreciate the joys of rabid exploitation from the moment they vanished from society, staggered deep into wilds of rural Maryland, and ran up against a sizable compound by any measure surrounded by fences topped with barbed wire. Since the barbed wire was installed pre 9-11, one had to wonder, was it installed to keep locals out, or to keep students in?

Welcome to the Paul Hall School of Maritime Training.

The Paul Hall School of Maritime Training was--and, of course, still is--an impressive facility for anyone allowed to pass through the security check-point and wind down the picturesque drive lined by sizable anchors, anchor chains, the Paul Drozak building surrounded by Norfolk pines off to the right, storage facilities off to the left, a sizable pond, The Hotel, as it's called, directly ahead, demanding immediate attention.

Inside the small buildings to your right were the compound's classrooms and simulators. For visitors, those who'd spent little if any time aboard a ship before, simulators were fun and exciting--definitely a main feature along the political parade route. They were also fantastically expensive, something like a hundred grand plus for what amounted to life-sized video games, one in which you stood in the middle of a mock Bridge surrounded by video screens displaying moving images of life aboard a ship transiting the Houston Ship Channel (or where ever). You saw ships on reciprocal courses booming toward you, you saw pretty lights, heard fog horns in surround sound, mashed lighted buttons, maybe spun the Helmsman's wheel--it was all very engaging.

But then, you weren't a visiting politician, but an Apprentice, so get ready to experience the School from the polar-opposite perspective.

As you continued on, you'd see the Library off to your right, across the pond, and the Chesapeake Bay beyond The Hotel, where Nancy Lynn Manni's body washed ashore. You'd see a crane, some trucks, fire-fighting equipment. It all looked impressive, very hands-on, and if you were there to investigate labor problems in the industry, like I was, you couldn't help but wonder: Who pays for all this, ship management companies that require an educated labor force, or the SIU's Membership?--because any way you look at it, this is one enormous burden, especially when compared to the smaller, faster, more stream-lined maritime training schools opening around the country.

While standing there grappling with my surroundings for the first time, I remember thinking: it wouldn't take a creative imagination to make lots of the Membership's money disappear in a place like this. Within the week I had heard about Mike Sacco's infamous "Ghost Room Scheme," which cost the SIU Membership millions: first, when he stole the money, then a second time when he'd given himself a $600,000 raise to pay a portion of it back.

Over the following week, I'd realize that for most, not all, of my classmates, the decision to sacrifice the next year bouncing between a prison-like learning environment, often called Piney Point, Prison Point, Piney Penitentiary, and an ever-changing variation thereof, and working in the world's most remote and unforgiving environment, one that will happily kill you, was less an act of courage than a last ditch effort to join the middle-class.

With little or no money to attend college, they had some options in life, but few of those offered much hope for a future. Many could either join the military--which, when alternative options exist, is an especially noble decision, in my opinion--remain in juvenile incarceration, like my friend Dave, or they could take their chances at sea.

When your options in life are that grim, you're ready to learn a lesson in voluntary servitude, but not before you're stripped of your wallet, and therefore your means of escape, your identity, and you're shoved face first into a dorm room setting where you'll spend your first week adjusting to jailhouse policy: might makes right.

Navy boot camp, as I recall, never promised to be much fun, but you didn't complain about it while you were there, mostly because you didn't have time to complain about it: you zipped through it in eight weeks (now it's only six), during which time drill instructors crammed a relatively huge amount of information into your head. Then you went on to A-school, which, for me, was in avoid-at-all-costs Millington, TN, and for the next four weeks even more instructors crammed even more information into your head. Point being, you were hustled off to the fleet to do your job so fast that the whole indoctrination process seemed little more than a blur.

All that was zippy about the SIU Apprenticeship Progam were the uniforms you were required to purchase at top dollar. As I recall, each apprentice spent upwards of $600 for three sets of dungarees, two sets of khakis, hats, belts, ill-fitting boondockers, etc, none of which you'd be required to wear in the fleet. When you multiplied $600 by the number of Apprentices entering the Program each month--usually between 30 and 40, many of whom were scheduled to quit, though they didn't know it yet--you soon realized: Wow, somebody's raking in more than $18,000 per month selling Apprentices Dickies--which were made where? China?--and for how much, thirty or forty cents per uniform? (We'll explore the incentives to smuggle anything and everything out of China later.)

It was described as a quasi-military program. To this day, I don't pretend to know why. As a merchant mariner, you were, are, a civilian, free to come and go as you please, relatively speaking, at least once you reached the fleet, so there was no legitimate reason for hazing--which, despite the fact that it was illegal, was a common practice, largely because students, not trained professionals equal to drill instructors, were required to discipline themselves.

Nor was there any functional reason for shaving Apprentices' heads, screaming in their faces, humiliating them, making them march in formation, restricting them to the compound for three consecutive months plus change, much less requiring they spend upwards of $600 on uniforms--except, perhaps, to provide a false sense of military-like discipline for Washington outsiders who occasionally visited the School, hoping, no doubt, to exchange a photo opportunity for campaign contributions--and of course the SIU Leadership would pony us around in the more professional-looking khakis.

It would never be a question of if you could endure the abuse, because anyone could endure it. It was a question of necessity. It was also a question of function.

Throughout the course of your training, the process of "weeding out the weak" would be implemented, and it would undermine the Membership's position exceedingly well, from the Leadership's perspective.

The process of systematically undermining the Membership requires explanation. But before I provide one, I should begin by saying that attending a Big Ten and/or an Ivy League university doesn't necessarily mean someone who's formally educated is more intelligent than, say, another guy who's straight out of the ghetto, and who's never attended college, more likely than not because he couldn't afford it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Now, I might have grown up comfortable, for lack of a better word. Most would say way too comfortable. But between college, the navy, and the mayhem I consider my everyday life, I've come to appreciate all types of people, from those who were fantastically wealthy ten generations before they were born, who've attended the world's finest universities, yet some of whom couldn't tell you Tom Joad's last name until you slugged them upside the head with a copy of "The Grapes of Wrath" and pointed it out--("There, do you see it now, do you hear what I'm saying? JOAD! J-O-A-D!")--to guys straight out of East St. Louis who grew up Third World poor right here in America, guys who never purchased a book in their lives, much less contemplated how to finance MIT's out-of-state tuition costs, yet some of whom had the mental capacity to strip down a jet engine, locate the problem, correct it, and put it all back together in time to make Flight Quarters the next morning.

Okay, so we've established that there's not always a direct correlation between college degrees and intelligence, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't benefit the SIU Membership to increase the number of guys running around holding degrees, either. They're out there, too, no question about it. From time to time, I've encountered SIU personnel who were far more educated than, say, the vessels' captains.

What's difficult for some people to understand is why, generally, these Unlicensed personnel tend to conceal their educational backgrounds rather than shed light upon them. For the most part, it has everything to do with the relationship between Licensed and Unlicensed personnel (officers and non-officers). When an Able-bodied seaman holds a degree from, say, Florida State, whereas the officer shouting orders graduated from a maritime academy, friction between personnel can and often does arrise. Unlicensed personnel holding degrees know this. To reduce that friction, they simply keep their educational backgrounds tucked under their hats.

Of course, when you're an apprentice, when you're struggling to survive your present environment, it's difficult to see beyond graduation to the fleet, much less how the egotistical jerk holding a degree standing next to you might evolve into one of your strongest allies five years down the road.

Society places an emphasis on degrees for good reason. For example, if you ever need a malignant tumor sliced from your noodle, chances are you're going to ask the doctor performing the surgery if he (or she) graduated from a reputable Med. School well before you're twitching on the operating table, unconscious, and for obvious reasons: you don't want to jerk awake midway through surgery and see him reading directions on how to perform brain surgery from Martha Stewart's Thanksgiving cookbook.

Okay, so I'd studied at the University of Illinois (and elsewhere), survived military conflicts in Somalia, Bosnia and Haiti, plus I had very specific reasons for enrolling in the Apprenticeship Program, so my willingness to tolerate jailhouse policy was higher than most of my classmates' to begin with.

Others--that is to say, the minority, the handful of my classmates who'd also been to college--were immediately recognized by the majority as different, for lack of a better word. So as the "weeding out the weak" process commenced, more often than not, those who were formally educated were typically singled out--they were targeted, harassed, sometimes even assaulted--so before we even got to First Phase, before the real exploitation began, these guys were ready to pack their bags and hit the road.

And I understand why they wanted to leave, too. Let's face the facts: right or wrong, a degree opens lots of doors. It always has. It always will. So when you've got one, your tolerance for eighteen year old tough guys screaming in your face is reduced virtually nothing.

That's not to say they couldn't handle the situation, of course. They simply figured: "Why should I put up with this twerp when I can land an office job anywhere, hire a whiplash smart paralegal to make life easy, and make twice the money I could ever hope to make in the maritime industry? To hell with my dreams of sailing the seven seas aboard a commercial vessel--I'll buy a yacht. But first I gotta ditch this nightmare."

Generally speaking, as these guys made their decisions, and they retrieved their wallets from the Commandant, there was already a credit card or two inside, and they'd max the first one out, happily, because that's what was necessary to arrange for a taxi to rescue them from the wilderness and drive them two hours back to BWI, which was where they'd max out their second credit card, happily, because that's what was necessary to arrange a flight home on a moment's notice.

SIU's Leadership wasn't indifferent about seeing someone who's formally educated quit the program during those first few days. Quite the contrary. Regardless of what they might say publicly, if asked, now, they wanted those guys to leave. Subtly, they probably even encouraged their departures. Why? The SIU Leadership has played this game long enough to know formally educated people are prone to stirring up what they consider trouble in the industry. At some point, they'll pull rank, so to speak, they'll whip out that degree, that clout, and they'll demand the Leadership improves work conditions, as they're supposed to. To SIU's Leadership, that's trouble.

While someone of equal intelligence who couldn't afford college tuition might ask the tough questions, might read the fine print, might study and understand statistics, might understand the numbers game, might dabble in the political arena, and, if provoked, might mobilize the masses to engage the SIU Leadership--someone who's holding a degree has everything to gain by engaging SIU's Leadership head-on, and probably will, sooner or later, especially after they've developed a kinship with their union brothers--and that likelihood doesn't jive well with the way SIU's Leadership prefers to conduct business.

If I'm wrong to say that weeding out those who were formally educated was deliberate, why hadn't the Leadership adjusted policy to encourage more formally educated people to complete the Program long before our arrival? For example, forcing students to discipline students doesn't fly with those who are formally educated--and everyone knows that, it's common knowledge. Had the Titled Twelve simply eliminated that policy, it would have alleviated most tensions within the apprentice student body, and more people who were formally educated would ignore those they couldn't get along with, and they'd complete the Program. For proof, simply refer to the "Up-graders" side of the Hotel.

Up-graders, as they were called, were sailors out of the fleet. In the fleet, they were Bosuns, they were Able-bodied seamen, Q-meds, Pumpmen, Electricians, whatever, but while at Piney Point attending classes, they were students: Nobody could pull rank. Wouldn't you know it, but as students, for the most part, they attended classes, they get along, maybe they even celebrated graduation with a little beer and pizza with their union brothers.

Military academies, like King's Point, for example, implement hierarchies, and while they generally work, there, one has to keep in mind that students' experience-levels vary, and those students are enrolled for a prolonged period of time: four years. This, of course, means the student body is composed of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors, with sea-time--that is to say, legitimate experience that students can validate amongst one another--interwoven into their perspectives of order. Also, King's Point, like the military, has trained professionals equal to Drill Instructors in place, apart from the student body, to maintain order from a perspective totally removed from the student body.

There were no legitimate differences in experience and seniority between one apprentice and another--so again I say implementing a hierarchal structure within the apprentice student body disrupted rather than encouraged unity, in this particular case.

This is not to say that those apprentices holding degrees were opposed to discipline--they had all the discipline the industry would ever require of them. What they didn't understand was why an eighteen year old tyrant straight out of juvenile detention had been slapped with a pin that read "Class Bosun" or "Chief Bosun" was granted authority to enforce policies he didn't likely understand himself. If apprentices were regarded as equal, those who couldn't get along would have ignored one another and gone about the business of learning their trade.

And so, to an outsider, establishing a hierarchy within the apprentice student body might have appeared to encourage stability, when in practice it pitted student against student, and therefore encouraged an anarchy even the SIU Leadership could barely control. Of course, that the School was "out of sight, out of mind," from society's perspective, which undoubtedly helped foster the Leadership's illusion of calm stability, that anarchy was contained, and therfore controlled, at least from the Leadership's perspective.

Within those first few days, we'd come to realize the Day Commandant and the Night Commandant had't received training directly related to disciplinary matters at the School--and I have no reason to suspect policy has changed. Generally, they did their best, but their direct supervision was limited to accommodate their personal lives. If you say: "Well, apprentices are adults, and therefore they shouldn't need direct supervision," try to imagine the chaos we'd live in if America obolished the Judicial Branch of the government, and did away with policemen, state and federal judges--those sorts of people. America is loaded with adults, we're everywhere, but it would still reduce itself to smoldering rubble overnight if we eliminated certain checks and balances designed to maintain social order.

And so apprentices confined to their "side" of The Hotel were for the most part required to fend for themselves for extended periods of time, especially at night and on weekends, so violence and general mayhem more often than not superseded student-enforced regulatory policies.

Because it was a hassle to jump the barbed-wire fence surrounding the compound whenever we needed booze to stave off prolonged boredom and spirit-crushing depression, which was "strictly prohibited," we'd round up whatever cash hadn't been confiscated days earlier and send someone to track down Security: when two people are paid just over minimum wage to pacify a hundred or more apprentices suffering from a worst case scenario of cabin fever, policy is irrelevant, and a few extra bucks earned on the side meant the difference between mild hunger and dirt-eating starvation. Their willingness to risk their jobs was probably the deciding factor explaining why the apprentice side of The Hotel didn't host violence eruptions more often.

At some point during those first few days, I recall being summoned to observe something disturbing in the "Chief Bosn's" private suite on the third floor. It was pitch black, so I couldn't see anyone--not that it mattered, I didn't know anyone yet anyhow--but I could hear one of the "females" moaning and grunting on the floor, and there was a line of frighteningly quite young men waiting their turn. When someone asked if I had a condom, I said no, and returned to my lumpy bed, disturbed, nauseated, certain there would be repercussions if I spoke out. Needless to say, I'd soon come to realize that such acts were far from uncommon around the compound. Human beings are sexual creatures by nature, but under such conditions as those I'm doing my best to describe, consensual sex turns into something altogether different. It's primal, hostility is involved, self-loathing, anger, resentment, it can turn very ugly very fast, so when the lights are off, and the elements mentioned are institutionalized, there's little difference between the School and the Fleet (the "White Ships" in Hawaii--cruise ships).

This was only a rumor, but for what it's worth, I'd heard that the SIU Leadership dragged the Apprenticeship Program out to nine months for the same reason McDonald's replaces their employees after ninety days whenever possible: after ninety days, according to Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation," the McDonald's corporation demands the US Government hand over $2,400 for each unskilled laborer they train, thereby reducing their labor costs to near-nothing at taxpayer expense. The incentive, as you probably already realize, is to fire an employee after ninety days, only to find a new one to train, and to keep that cycle--that taxpayer money--rolling their way indefinitely. Meanwhile, Ray Kroc's widow earns an estimated 7 million dollars per day. Yeah--she's obviously living hand-to-mouth like her employees.

As the rumor went, the SIU Leadership was wise to the same scheme, which sounded somewhat plausible, and the reason I say plausible was because the entire Apprenticeship program was broken into blocks of ninety days.

The only reason I doubt that SIU collected federal funding was because, once an entity collects federal funds, they're subject to federal scrutiny--like nasty audits, for example--and the Titled Twelve were known to minimize governmental oversight--and to exclude it completely when it came to financial holdings. Unfortunately, right now, with Government and maritime Capital interests directly intertwined (John Snow), I can hardly fault their concerns.
_____________________________________________________________________
FIRST PHASE

--During First Phase, as it was called, you were required to waste your first three months at Piney Point learning next to nothing that couldn't be taught in three weeks.

When taken as a whole, Seafarers International Union had mustered some of the finest maritime training instructors in the world--so it was neither the equipment nor the instructors carving this abyss between Capital and Labor in the maritime industry.

Nothing would make me happier than to name names, to compliment instructors who deserve recognition for their extraordinary efforts, but, since they do not play in the political arena, it's also my responsibility as an investigator who happened to attend their classes to express my gratitude subtly in order to protect their fundamental rights to privacy.

What I soon came to realize during First Phase, was that, when approached with discretion, most secretaries, both at the School and SIU's headquarters in Camp Springs, could and would provide a wealth of inside political information, as would many of the instructors mentioned, since over the years they had all fought their battles with the SIU Leadership.

While this will likely sound redundant to professional journalists and federal investigators, personally, I'd feel more comfortable if I said it anyway before we move on: the people who can help you the most probably will, especially if they know you're there to help them in return, and feel that there's a high probability your efforts will succeed, but because they have their own interests to look after between investigation and action, and rural Maryland offers so few job opportunities, it's important that you employ a liberal dose of discretion during your investigations. Otherwise, you might inadvertently hurt the very people you're trying to help. Approaching them after work and far from it would probably be a wise decision.

As reported in "St. Mary's Today" on July 2, 1996, page 26--a newspaper critical of the SIU Leadership I encourage investigators to examine closely:

"...According to extensive interviews with retired and active Seafarers and employees of the (then Lundeberg) School of Seamanship, the Union is now applying the worst methods of Big Business to their own employees, including contracting to a favored bidder while laying off 30 instructors at the School two weeks ago.

The laid-off employees were told to apply to the new company with the contract for employing educational instruction at the training center. All but three were hired, say sources, but those three have families and homes and mortgages and now they have no jobs. Their former co-workers have diminished benefits and lost all of their seniority. The former employees of the [School] also have to join another union run by Seafarers boss Mike Sacco. This new union they are working for is called United Industrial Workers..."

The author goes on to state: "...In 1991, the FBI offered to put this writer into the federal witness protection program after they learned of a murder plot being hatched by Union officials. The preparations for murder took place after this writer and the FBI had learned of three alleged murders which reportedly had taken place at the School..."
_____________________________________________________________________

There might be a lot of reasons why someone wouldn't want to attend the Paul Hall School of Seamanship, but even now I don't think fear should be one of them. You might not like it, for whatever reason, but I'd say there's a 99.9999% chance you'll survive the fiasco. Point being, it's time to move on...

In my opinion, Fire-fighting, First Aid and Lifeboat--all of your '95 STCW classes--were the only classes we were required to take during First Phase worth our time; now you can take these classes at private maritime schools across the country at minimal cost, whereas with SIU you'll fund the enormous cost of the School year in and year out via involuntary paycheck contributions whether you spend what little time you can afford to get off a ship attending classes at the School or not.

Union Education, on the other hand, taught next to nothing regarding the history of the organized labor movement in the maritime industry, but instead focused on creating unrealistic expectations for apprentices new to the industry: "You're going to make more money than you've ever made in your lives! $6,000 per month, easy!" slick-talking Steve bellowed at my class repeatedly. But then, when you consider that the average age of my classmates was somewhere between 18 and 23, and their employment history alternated between McDonald's, Burger King, and the military, well, okay, yeah, sure, Steve wasn't exactly lying. He simply wasn't telling anyone that they could earn comparable money at Olive Garden if they were willing to work 360 hours per month, a fairly typical work-load for SIU sailors.

Interestingly enough, it was Steve (omitted) who haphazardly informed apprentices of SIU Leadership's ultimate goal: to eliminate SIU's "competition," as he put it. Meaning, of course, alternative maritime unions. How? By reducing labor costs at the Membership's expense. Surprised that he was willing to discuss such an anti-Labor agenda publicly, I asked, "By how much?" at which time he realized his mistake and dodged the question the only way a man of his caliber knows how: by ignoring it.

Historically, Old School maritime Capital interests and the Department of Defense have recognized the importance of supporting a limited variety of maritime Labor organizations. Quite simply, policy-makers identified and recognized the dangers of concentrating too much power in too few hands--they didn't want to put all their eggs in one basket, so to speak. This is a policy ship management companies relatively new to the market ought to consider, implement, and encourage, perhaps by diversifying fleets for a predetermined time limit while it's still possible, then signing long-term Labor Agreements with one Labor organization or the another based on cost-performance analysis.

Licensed (officers):
1.) Masters, Mates and Pilots (MM&P) for Deck department.
2.) MEBA for Engine department
3.) American Maritime Officers (AMO) for Deck, Engine and Steward department ratings.

Unlicensed (non-officers):
1.) Sailors Union of the Pacific (SUP) for Deck ratings only.
2.) Marine Firemen Oilers and Watertenders (MFOW) for Engine ratings only.
3.) National Maritime Union (NMU)
4.) Seafarers International Union (SIU) for Deck, Engine and Steward department ratings.

Not surprisingly, Capital interests, government interests and even Labor interests--meaning Members, not necessarily Leaders--have benefited from moderately free forms of Labor Management.

From Capital's perspective, if, for whatever reason, Seafarer's International Union, for example, was unwilling to cooperate and negotiate fairly, or if they were unable to provide a quality workforce consistently--I'll say that again: consistently--then at present Capital interests still have the option of allowing present Labor Agreements to expire with the intention of tapping alternative, more suitable and cost effective labor pools within the American labor market: Sailors Union of the Pacific and/or Marine Firemen Oilers and Watertenders, for example, or vice-versa.

From the Government's perspective, it's more of the same.

From Labor's perspective, when there's moderate competition between labor organizations, it's in one labor organization's own interest to negotiate competitive Labor Agreements on behalf of their Membership to avoid losing quality Members to alternative unions that offer better protection and/or higher pay.

At present SIU's Membership is able to obtain Labor Agreements from friends affiliated with Sailors Union of the Pacific and Marine Firemen Oilers and Watertenders Union in order to make those comparisons with regards to language and pay structure within their own Labor Agreements. George Orwell once said, essentially: "The poor don't know they're poor until they have someone to compare themselves to," and according to what Steve was implying, that comparison is precisely what SIU's Leadership intends to eliminate.

And therefore, as it stands, if through democratic means the SIU's Membership cannot replace the present SIU Leadership with a Leadership they feel approaches the negotiation process with their interests in mind, then, ironically, it's in the SIU Membership's interest to do whatever's necessary to keep SUP and MFOW both afloat and independent for the time-being, even if that effort includes withholding SPAD contributions from SIU to deliver to SUP and MFOW, to keep that pressure on, to keep that comparison possible, because if the SIU Leadership's "competition" is successfully eliminated, if they overpower and monopolize Labor interests here, Canada, and Puerto Rico, then I'm firmly convinced the SIU Membership, the SUP Membership, the MFOW Membership and, indirectly, Capital interests, will suffer all the more for it.

Why do I include Capital interests? We'll get to that in a moment.
_____________________________________________________________________
SECOND PHASE

--As an apprentice, you'll waste your next three months aboard a ship, where you'll be worked like a slave for one month in each of the three departments, Deck, Engine, and Steward's department, during which time you won't be protected by any of SIU's Labor Agreements, inadequate as they may be.

For years the SIU Membership has demanded the SIU Leadership provide apprentices protection against labor abuse aboard their "training ships," but the SIU Leadership and the Companies they work for already have a suitable arrangement to accommodate their needs: Fuck the apprentices and the Membership's call for apprentice-protections.

And so, year in and year out, hundreds of SIU apprentices are sent out into the fleet to fend for themselves with no legal protection whatsoever, except maybe verbal assurances that the SIU Boatswains aboard will look after their interests. (Yeah. Right. If he's "permanent," he'll likely be the crimp who exploits you first.)

I was paid, if I recall correctly, $24.00 dollars per day in exchange for an eight hour workday, and $8.00 per hour everyday for "mandatory overtime," which made sense: from the Company's perspective, I was so incredibly cheap to have around that making overtime mandatory was a logical decision. Hooray for the Company! Bad for me.

Some Captains don't exploit the apprentices as much as the SIU Leadership permits them to. The first Captain I worked for, for example, while aboard my training ship, was not a "Company bitch," as sailors often refer to blindly pro-Company captains--the kind who convince themselves they're Management (they're not; they're labor): he worked me like a dog, he expected me to perform every task the Able-bodied seaman aboard performed, which was a completely unrealistic expectation at the time, but at least he did me one favor: he based my pay upon a 40 hour work week.

Classmates of mine, however, were not so fortunate. They worked for Captains who were prepared to reduce their apprentices' already miniscule paychecks even further.

To do this, instead of basing apprentices' pay on a forty-hour workweek, these "Masters," as this sort demand to be called, opted for the more brutal of their two options--the fifty-six hour work week--because apprentices are not entitled to Vacation Pay (we'll ravage Vacation Pay shortly).

This eliminates sixteen hours of payable overtime per weekend from the payroll for every apprentice they have aboard (often times two apprentices per ship are furnished for exploitation). The apprentices are going to work those sixteen hours--I guarantee it. They're just not going to be paid overtime for those hours. They'll only be paid their daily base wage--again, $24.00 per eight hour workday--and four hours overtime after that, assuming they work the full twelve hour day.

Over the course of the three months apprentices are required to remain aboard before they're permitted to suffer through an additional three months at Piney Point, this decision alone reduces their pay by roughly 60 percent (one can safely assume these "Masters" require the apprentices to work twelve hours per day, every single day, for a minimum of three months straight), explaining why some apprentices earn $9,000 aboard their training ships, while the majority earn only $3,000.

If you're thinking, "That's illegal, that's less than minimum wage!" remember that ships operate under admiralty law--they're not bound by domestic labor laws--so those who operate them are not required to pay sailors anything at all, if you can believe that. Who works for free? Lots of people will, actually: the entire Third World. Why? Because on a ship you're typically provided some food--fish heads and rice, that's about it, if you're aboard a typical "flag of convenience," like Liberia, Panama, the Bahamas, Cyprus, Monrovia, even Mongolia. You're also provided some shelter. But here's the biggest incentive of all to work for free: the opportunity to jump ship in America!
_____________________________________________________________________
MAERSK: ENSLAVING AMERICANS AT AMERICA'S EXPENSE

From Tradewinds (2005):

Denmark's AP Moeller-Maersk is leading a
behind-the-scenes drive to legalize "riding gangs" of
foreign workers on US-flag vessels, first in
HRR 889, and now in S-1280.
The move has drawn fire from the US Coast Guard (USCG)
and most labour unions. Seafarers International Union
and American Maritime Officers have yet
to oppose the effort publicly.

If Maersk gets their way, and they're able to marginalize the Jones Act, which is before the Senate now, they'll soon replace every non-Watchstanding American sailor with foreign nationals they've plucked from whatever labor market is cheapest--an unethical business practice which, by the way, SIU's Leadership has not opposed publicly, unlike every other American maritime Union. From what I gather from friends presently at Piney Point, the SIU Leadership hasn't even bothered to inform the SIU Membership what Maersk is up to via the "Seafarers Log" (Sounds to me like A.) somebody received a brown bag full of "hush money.", or B.) somebody's considering retirement, as they ought to be, and therefore couldn't care less what happens to the union after they're gone, or C.) Both A and B are correct. You decide.).

Let's not forget that while American-taxpayers are forced to watch their public school system collapse due to lack of federal funding--their tax dollars--they're still required to pay the labor costs for twenty-four Danish-owned vessels (Maersk and P&O Nedlloyd) via MARAD's Military Security Program.

The following article is from the Friday, December 17, 2004 edition of Tradewinds:

"MARAD," announces the author, "has made it known who the winners of $1.7 billion in subsidies are.

"Tradewinds has learned that US authorities have told ship operators this week who is likely to get $1.73 billion in vessel operating subsidies.

"Established players dominate the renewed Maritime Security Program (MSP). Only two new companies are joining the exclusive subsidy club, New Orleans-based Intermarine and Long Island's Liberty Maritime, with a single subsidized ship each.

"Of money provisionally allocated so far, some 80% will go to non-US shipowners.

"The subsidies run for ten years under the MSP and are meant to equalize US operating costs with those foreign competition so as to keep a fleet of commercial ships in international trade under the US flag.

"Over 10 years of subsidies are worth $29.8 million per ship. For the biggest participant, Maersk Lines Ltd, this equals well over a half-a-billion dollars.

NOTE: Remember that only 24 sailors crew one ship at any one time, so labor costs were minimal to begin with. Now, from Maersk's perspective, they're free. Of course free is a matter of perspective: The American taxpayer is required to foot labor costs for this Danish-owned company.

"US sources tell Tradewinds that the US Maritime Administration (MARAD) has told operators that all 47 ship slots currently in the MSP will be "grandfathered," or allowed to remain with the owners that hold them.

"In addition, eight dry-cargo vessels will be brought into the program.

"For the most part, MARAD is offering operator a good deal less than they were asking for, as a matter of arithmetical necessity. Some operators have indicated that they would turn down fewer than some minimum number of subsidy slots as insufficient to make US-flag operations worthwhile.

"Reports pieced together from Various sources indicate that MARAD is offering the following line-up: The operators keeping their current slots are Danish-owned Maersk Lines Ltd with 19 ships, [American President Lines] (Don't let the name fool you: it's not American-owned) with nine, P&O Nedlloyd (Maersk-owned) with five, and Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) with one.

"Several participants will be increasing their participation. CP Ships (Lykes Line) will gain subsidy slots for two ships, making a total of five. International Shipholding Group (Central Gulf) will go from seven to eight. American Roll-On Roll-Off owned by Sweden's Wallenius and Norway's Wilhemsen, will double its present three slots to six.

"Newcomers Liberty Maritime and Intermarine will be granted one new slot each.

"US citizen owners account for only 11 of the 55 slots whose winners have been leaked.

"In addition, many of the US-owned participants are relying on foreign-partners for tonnage. Liberty Maritime is thought to be partnering Japan's Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and Tradewinds recently reported that International Shipholding is flagging in two P&O Nedlloyd containerships for charter back to the Dutch-owned company.

"No mention is being made of how the funds appropriated for five newbuilding products tankers will be used. The US Congress has only appropriated construction subsidies enabling the building of the equivalent of one-and-a-half tankers.

"Predictably absent from the list is Charlotte, North Carolina-based United States Ship Management (USSM), which is locked in a court battle with Maersk over rights to operate 19 ships under the MSP."
_____________________________________________________________________
IMAGINARY SAVINGS

Maritime Capital fears capital flight when investors hear Management discussing wage adjustments--and this is a real possibility. But as we've seen time and time again, if it happens, it's more often than not short-lived. As soon as Labor costs re-stabilize, investment capital returns to pre wage-adjustment levels, and everyone lets out a sigh of relief. And we're talking moderate wage adjustments, people, not suiciding the Company.

In the final analysis, we're talking about modifying a system, removing redundant parts so that it functions properly. Overhauling this system is neither necessary nor advised.

More and more investment firms like Hodges Capital Management are taking what might be considered a progressive look at exactly how wages are structured. If a CEO's pay is out of sync with his (or her) work force, they hold back, fearing the next Enron implosion. To date, their investment philosophy seems to be serving them well, especially in the last three years:

Performance through 9-30-05:

1 Year
+35.87%
3 Year *
+38.98%

5 Year *
+9.63%

10 Year *
+12.26%

Inception **
+12.94%

Performance through 10-31-05:

1 Year
+29.52%
3 Year *
+36.74%

5 Year *
+10.13%

10 Year *
+12.58%

Inception **
+12.60%

Time and time again, as indicated in countless academic studies, short-sighted Mangers, especially in the retail industry, implement two specific labor management policies that cost Capital interests ridiculous sums of money: underpaying employees through union demolition (or undermining their interests via less conspicuous means).

Despite maritime Capital interests' most aggressive efforts to control lost man-hours, deliberately reduced productivity, frivolous lawsuits, delayed turn-around time during port visits, et cetera, they're losing that battle.

One reason they're losing that battle is because ship management companies charged with managing Capitals' interests are allegedly signing substandard Labor Agreements everyone at the contract negotiations table know won't work--and it's not difficult to imagine how and why this takes place: ship management companies' loyalties rest with themselves first, Capital's interests second, and so if front-end cash persuades them to sign substandard Labor Agreements with corrupt labor leaders who know they'll see their payoff on the back-end--well, that's likely to happen.

When taken at face value, signing substandard Labor Agreements is easy to justify, considering that ship management companies are able to return to their employers and say, 'Look, boss, we reduced labor costs by applying this mechanism here, so you'll save this many hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for the duration of these Agreements,' while those who grasp human nature know those savings will manifest elsewhere as costs: increased travel expenses, for example, reduced productivity, overtime paid but not necessarily worked, job-related injuries, lawsuits, damaged/lost equipment, and the list marches on.

Those who win: parasitic ship management personnel on the take, and corrupt labor leaders (I'm not cynical enough to believe that every single ship management company on the market is selling out maritime Capital interests, nor do I believe the entire SIU Leadership is corrupt--just the key players). Those who lose: sailors, in terms of pay and working conditions, investors and Capital interests--except that Capital interests and investors stand to lose the most: with 14-26 sailors crewing 1,100 foot oil and chemical tankers, labor's cheap, but mishaps like spills and fires, for example, are fantastically expensive, especially when stock value takes a significant hit. Increasingly more common, when there are sailing time delays, these delays--these hidden costs--cost maritime Capital interests roughly $10,000 per hour for each tug made fast to the vessel, plus whatever port facility operators charge, then deliberately engineered delays staged by disgruntled sailors who feel they're being nickel-and dimed for their efforts via pro-Company Labor Agreements are especially costly to investors and Capital interests.

To better illustrate what I mean by deliberately engineered delays staged by disgruntled sailors, allow me a moment to explain motivational differences between SIU sailors I worked alongside while aboard the Horizon Reliance, and SUP sailors I worked alongside while aboard the President Grant.

First off, undocking and docking ships is fantastically dangerous, even more so when unlicensed personnel operating mooring winches, for example, are inexperienced and/or incompetent, it's late, everyone's regular sleep schedule has been disrupted by the port visit, so everyone's tired and therefore they're in a generally foul mood. When the ship surges unexpectedly, and this happens all the time, lines take a strain. If sailors deal with them properly, nothing happens. If sailors don't feel like risking their lives to prevent that $10,000 plus line from parting, they stand back and watch it happen. Again, the inherent dangers involved with docking and undocking a ship are considerable: people are cut in half, they're dragged through steel roller chalks no wider than a shoebox, they're killed in all sorts of horrible ways that require no further description.

While I worked aboard the Horizon Reliance, the sailing board time was almost a running joke: the ship almost never undocked on time, partly because one of the two permanent captains aboard routinely slashed the half-hour "call out" down to nothing. To sailors who are about to operate equipment powerful enough to muscle a ship into place, a half an hour call out is important--they need to have their wits together.

If you're unfamiliar with maritime jargon, a call out means you're notified that you have thirty minutes to roll out of bed, throw on some clothes, drink a cup of coffee, pull it together, and report to your work station, alert and ready to proceed with the undocking/docking operation.

Call outs are generally recognized in all Labor Agreements, but if Management and the officers aboard the ship you're working aboard know it's highly unlikely a port agent will visit the ship upon arrival in an American port, because it's not the end of the quarter, and therefore the port agents won't come aboard to collect union dues, then all sorts of labor abuses arise. Ignoring the half hour call out is just one of a million.

There's an increasingly common saying aboard SIU-contracted vessels: "The less [the Company] pays you, the worse the officers treat you." If you think mistreating your secretary will encourage her to work harder, faster, try belittling her, or screaming at her, and see how well your day goes from there.

Okay, so back to my experience aboard the Horizon Reliance. You were "called out," either by phone call or knock on the door. Instinctively, you maneuvered to the edge of your bed and began putting on your socks, and right about the time you realized you're aboard a ship, some pro-Company flunky was pounding on your door with both fists because the captain was throwing a temper tantrum on the Bridge, demanding that everyone report to their undocking stations immediately over the radio. Great way to start your workday at 0200 in the morning, right?

So two minutes later you're still getting dressed while trying to figure out where you're going to hide for the next half hour, because it goes without saying: You're a sailor, you're entitled to a half hour call out, it's a matter of life-and-death safety, and you're going to get it whether the captain, the SIU Leadership, or the Company likes it or not. So you were fuming mad, you grabbed your work gear and hid out in one of the tunnels, where abusive officers weren't likely find you.

A half hour later, precisely, you bumped into your shipmates, who'd also been hiding, and you reported to the gangway. You were still fuming mad, the Mate was storming around, not talking to anyone, because the captain's ticked off that the Pilot is late (Pilots aren't stupid, they know how this works). Up until now, language used in the Labor Agreement has had little to do with anyone's mood.

Undocking a ship is predictable down to the minute. It should take no more than two hours--maximum--to perform a ship-wide security sweep, raise the gangway, secure it, raise the aft mast, secure two tugs, take in the mooring lines--which, if they're the big hawsers, is back-breaking work, especially if they drag through the water--take in the wires, hand-stow the mooring lines below, secure the anchors for sea--and somewhere in-between all that let go of the tugs. And if the longshoremen tossed all the gear--heavy steel "pineapples," lashing rods, et cetera--around, the Mate had the option of organizing the deck, too, which he often did, figuring: Hey, they're not allowed to pyramid their overtime, so I'll get them to do every little job I can think of now so that I don't have to worry about it in the morning. Who cares if it's dark and they can't see what they're doing?

While you were performing all this work, you're thinking about the inadequate Labor Agreement back in your room. Here's what SIU's 2001-2006 Standard Freightship Agreement says about docking and undocking in Section 14, pg 26, Docking and Undocking: "All hands, when available, shall be used to perform this work." That's it. Pretty vague for a Labor Agreement that's supposed to prevent labor abuses, wouldn't you agree?

One of the two permanent captains aboard the Horizon Reliance had a nasty habit: While you were still outside stowing lines, working your tail off in the rain, he'd call the mate on the radio and tell him to knock everyone off. In other words, now you were working for free. Since the safety of the ship required the work to be done, you'd finish working, but if you wrote in overtime, the Chief Mate would dispute it until he flew off into one of his juvenile rages. Your only hope was that the permenant Bos'n aboard, who would occasionally try to help you out, would step forward on your behalf and negotiate a compromise--which really meant: You're going to lose, but if you shut up and let me talk to the Old Man, you're going to lose less.

Needless to say, when sailors are mistreated, they become very, very expensive to have around. Suddenly all kinds of gear and tools find their way to the bottom of the ocean.

Since most ships carry a million dollar (or more) deductible on their insurance policies, unless I'm looking at one specific Company's financial records, there's limited data available to point to and say, "Look, if Capital eliminates current labor management mechanisms from the equation, you'll raise sailors' wages here, and if you allow them to work under Labor Agreements they perceive as fair, they'll be content, they'll follow orders, they'll stick around, so you can expect to save X-amount of dollars annually, which will materialize here, here and here," so I'm incredibly frustrated at the moment, because those who will likely seek to crush reform efforts will describe my observations as unsubstantiated, baseless claims.

(continue working here)

THIRD PHASE

--then you're going to waste yet another three months back at School complaining about how much television you've watched since you're still not permitted to stroll off campus to admire all the pretty trailer parks rural Maryland has to offer whenever you're not screwing off in class.
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INDOCTRINATION INTO MODERN SLAVERY COMPLETE

--"Forth Phase," as they call it, is the exception: you must agree to be worked like a slave for just over minimum wage (shore side) for four months before the union will finance your airfare back to the School and provide accommodations while you "upgrade," from DEU to Oiler, if you decide to go into the Engine Department, from Ordinary Seaman to Able-bodied seaman, if you decide to go into the Deck Department, or from Steward's Assistant to Chief Cook, if you decide to go into the Steward's Department.

What's amazing is that 80% of SIU's sailors are willing to write-off a full year as a total loss within two years of completing the Program.

If that statistic alone doesn't tell you there something's going seriously wrong in the maritime industry, then you might as well stop reading now.
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Sailors spend huge amounts of money just getting a job, even more so now than they did twenty years ago, especially if they sail off the West Coast. Reason being, wages are falling, the cost of living is rising, so nowadays few SIU sailors can afford to live in, say, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Seattle (three cities SIU maintains Hiring Halls).

Fifteen and twenty years ago, sailors--more specifically, SUP sailors--could afford to buy a decent home in those cities. Not anymore. Not when a small home in the "worst" part of Compton can easily run upwards of $300,000. So, instead of residing in the United States, many sailors turn to the Philippines, Brazil and Venezuela are increasingly popular, as is Costa Rica--all of which are beautiful countries, but let's not entertain illusions: that more and more sailors are living abroad is not entirely by choice, but rather by necessity.

So, on top of the bills sailors have at home--mortgages, children, maybe a car or two, like everyone else--today's sailor also has to budget how much it will cost to fly from home to the whichever Hiring Hall they hope to ship out of. That's an expensive commute to work, because now, on top of paying their mortgages, their phones, electricity, water, whatever bills at home you can imagine, you also have to factor in the cost of a hotel room, tons of fast food, transportation, while "playing the hall," and this can easily go on for months, because here's the real problem: there might not be any jobs available in the Hiring Hall.

It's not unheard of for sailors to spend months living in a San Francisco flop house, surviving on a sandwich per day, maybe a pack of cigarettes to kill the hunger, making their way to and from the Hiring Hall on foot, hoping today will be the day they secure a job. Nor is it unheard of for sailors to spend themselves so far down a hole they can't afford their hotel room anymore, much less a meal, and can't afford to get home, either, so now they're really stuck. The maritime is a feast or famine industry, and the feast isn't all it's cracked up to be.

It's not a cycle anyone working on the beach can understand without suffering through it once themselves, and I strongly encourage you not to. Whatever numbers the SIU Leadership spoon-feeds the young and easily persuaded apprentices are straight up...well, let's just say they're not entirely truthful.

To put this into a monetary perspective, in 2003 and 2004, I was more the exception than the rule, in that I actually maintained a home in the United States, near Oak Brook, Illinois, where more than one shipping company is headquartered (I maintained it--paid for it--but I only got to live there a few weeks per year). In 2003, I spent $15,229 above and beyond my bills at home to ship out with SIU, according to financial records. In 2004, that number jumped to $19,917, partly because I was scared shittless SIU port agents in Houston might force me to take another job aboard a "gray hull" carrying military cargo back to the Middle East, so I sneaked off to the West Coast, where I had heard more jobs aboard commercial container vessels were available (you can't imagine how ruthless and cunning some of these ship management companies can be until you're at their complete and absolute mercy en route to the Middle East, but I'll detail the misery and rage involved with my experience aboard the Cape Ducato another time).

If you were earning, say, $35-40,000 per year at your job, but spending $19,000 per year on the commute, how long would it take you to realize it's time to find another job? Not long, I imagine. A minute, maybe two? But, in a way, sailors are akin to gamblers, and they always hope the next ship pays just a little bit better than the last. Most of the time they lose.
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SIU Labor Agreements were standardized, a long time ago, but not anymore, and part of that reason is because, I believe, the SIU Leadership couldn't "brown bag" labor negotiations as easily if the numbers involved were universal throughout the SIU fleet.

NOTE: Michael McKay, the president of American Maritime Officers, and close affiliate of Mike Sacco, the president of Seafarers International Union, was recently indicted for labor racketeering, along with a long list of other charges, as was his brother, Robert McKay, AMO's treasurer, which surprised absolutely no one in the maritime industry. So, prior to the indictments, do you think Michael McKay and Mike Sacco might have compared notes? Ask the Members of either union what they think, and I imagine the answer will be a resounding yes.

The problem with "brown bagging" one Labor Agreement negotiation, especially if it's early in your political career, is that everyone you'll negotiate with from that point forward has power over you--because it goes without saying that real Power in the maritime industry gets together and discusses business at, let's say, Pinehurst Resort and Country Club?

(To answer your question, Mr. Sacco: Yes, I'm quite familiar with Pinehurst's wealthiest long-term guest. She's a fascinating lady. Very, shall we say, insightful, exceptionally illuminating, too, especially if you're a charming young man who's happy to sit and talk politics every once in awhile).

In other words, if you've ever sold out the Membership, even once, you've signed your pact with the devil already: you're expected--required--by Capital interests to sell them out again.

If you don't, or if your services are deemed no longer necessary, one way or another, you'll be shown the door.

Let's hope you don't slam it on your way out.
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THE WRONG WAY

If you were seated aboard a 747, and, just before take off, the flight attendant announced: "Less than 20% of our pilots have been flying more than two years," would you sit still? Me neither. I'd jump up and sprint toward the door along with everyone else, because when pilots are inexperienced and/or incompetent, 747s go down, and hundreds of people die--and I wouldn't want to die with them. Worse yet, when ships go down, as documented later in this blog, those hundreds of dead people rapidly turn into thousands. Or they slam a ship full of, say, Benzene into the rocks while navigating through the narrow inlet at Long Beach, for example, and now the entire West Coast realizes just how bad the Exxon-Valdez disaster really was--excuse me: IS--and millions are affected, as one tourist-based economy after another collapses.

The point is: It's in our nation's best interest to ensure sailors responsible for the safe navigation of ships carrying some of the most lethal toxins known to man in and out of American ports are paid enough to justify a life at sea--and to have a vacation once in awhile.

Here's how it works while aboard a ship that's sailing deep sea:

While aboard ship, sailors are required to work a minimum of eight hours per day, seven days per week, thirty days per month--and that's what accounts for their daily base wage. If you're an Able-bodied seaman, the person directly responsible for driving the ship, for eight hours of work, you're going to earn--with SIU--a staggering $70-80 per day. Wow. Amazing. Hooray. That breaks down to a whopping ten bucks an hour (and consider the responsibility!). God knows John Snow would have bankrupt CSX had he bumped an ABs hourly wage up to, say, $30 per hour, which is what a Union plumber in Chicago earns. That's sarcasm, by the way.

Okay, so we've got your Base Pay covered. At the same time, if you're aboard one of SIU's "best" ships, like the Horizon Reliance, you'll also earn what's known as Vacation Pay: 14/30. That means, for every 30 days you're aboard the ship, you'll earn an additional 14 days base pay toward your vacation. While that might SOUND good, remember that it's only about $40.00 per day, divided by eight hours, so it's nothing to cheer about (Twenty years ago NMU Members were earning 20/30, so things are getting better--for the companies, not the sailors, thanks to SIU Leadership's eagerness to undermine functioning maritime unions by signing whatever Labor Agreements ship management companies toss in front of them).

When confronted, SIU's Leadership will argue that SIU sailors and SUP sailors earn essentially the same base pay (an SUP Able-bodied seaman earns roughly $3,330 per month), because SUP sailors work a fifty-six hour work week, whereas SIU sailors work a forty hour work week, so therefore mandatory weekend overtime makes up the difference.

Don't you believe them! It's a trick!--a numbers game! See, the name idea is to keep sailors' base pay as low as possible--in SIU's case: roughly $2,200 per month for an AB blue sailing deep sea (SUP AB: roughly $3,100 per month). Since your vacation pay is based upon your base pay, that's why SIU's Leadership agrees to the forty hour work week. If SIU sailors stick with the industry long enough to realize they're losing hundreds of dollars per month in vacation pay, they raise hell about it. The problem is, for the Membership, anyway, the SIU Leadership's not listening.

To better explain how much of a difference this arrangement between the ship management companies and SIU's Leadership makes, allow me to illustrate: thanks to the Invisible Hand, I worked aboard the M/V Sealand Florida (Maersk) for six months straight. The pay, when compared to other SIU ships, was great, but by any other standards besides "flags of convenience," it was awful: $2,100 base, $14.83 overtime, 14/30 vacation, $7.00 per day pension. Because it was little more than Third World pay, sailors that had come and gone long before me had refused to work overtime, and therefore the ship was a disaster waiting to happen. Finally, it did. A bunker line had wasted away, and we had a major oil spill in one of the holds. Try wallowing around in 1,500 gallons of bunker C with a bucket and a shovel deep down in a hold for Third World Wages. Your most immediate concern is the poor bastard standing next to you gives up completely and lights up a cigarette. People tend not to work very fast for a Company they feel screwed them long before they checked aboard, so the clean up process--that immediate fear--stretched itself out to a full week.

After I was discharged, I returned to the Hiring Hall and filed for my vacation check. Three weeks later, the check finally arrived: roughly $5,000. Talk about an anti-climax to a long and miserable experience.

Soon thereafter I abandoned SIU and joined SUP, a legitimate, functioning union, and took a job aboard the M/V President Grant for three months the very first day I joined the union (half the time I worked aboard the M/V Sealand Florida).

The day I was discharged from that ship, I returned to the Union Hall--not Hiring Hall--filed for my vacation check, and that afternoon I had it in hand: $5,000. Big difference, eh? Huge, I'd say. With money like that, a guy could actually afford to take a vacation instead of scrambling back to the Hiring Hall to look for another job, one that wouldn't likely be there.

A reliable "inside" source informed me that ship management companies actually did pay 30/30 for vacation, and that SIU (all unions, actually) held onto that money until the sailors were discharged from the ship and filed for their vacation checks.

In other words, sailors were providing unions interest-free loans while they were aboard ships. If those monies were invested while that sailor was overseas, and they turned a profit, the sailors who had provided funding for that loan without their knowledge did not benefit.

After they were "discharged," they'd return to the Hiring Halls and file for their vacation checks. While SUP sailors can pick up their vacation checks the same day they're discharged, SIU sailors must wait two to three weeks before SIU releases half the money or less (these checks are disbursed by the union, not the Company). SIU keeps the other half or more to finance the compound in Piney Point, MD, the 3,000 acre spread Mike Sacco lived on at Membership expense, not to mention SIU's "corporate headquarters" in Camp Springs, MD--so only God, the Titled 12, their attorneys and accountants can ever hope to keep up with how Union monies are distributed.

Unions cost money to operate, there's no way around that. Shortly after I began taking a look at how SUP sailors compared to sailors throughout the industry, I realized that, for the most part, SUP's Membership was in favor of contributing a portion of their pay to help support the Sailors' Union of the Pacific. While there will always be people critical of their Leaders, generally speaking, SUP Members were for the most part convinced that their Leadership--Gunnar Lundeberg and Dave Connolly, Andy, and everyone in-between--was negotiating and upholding fair Labor Agreements on behalf of the Company and the Union.

Every single time I worked aboard an SUP-contracted ship, and we pulled into port, the Union's vice president--again, Dave Connolly, in San Francisco--was right there, waiting on the pier to see what needed to be done to keep the peace. Since everyone--Management, the Captain and Chief Mate, and of course the crew--knew he'd be there waiting when we docked, friction between the Company and the Union was kept at an absolute minimum. Everyone had a Labor Agreement in hand, so everyone played by the rules, and it worked. So if the Union required a portion of the SUP Member's Vacation checks to operate smoothly, few complained, and fewer still complained consistently.

However, when I was basically forced to contribute half my vacation check to help finance a union that, I believe, was deliberately mismanaged, I had a huge problem with that. Again, according to my "inside" source, a Port Engineer with MSC, for every dollar I saw in my regular paycheck, Seafarers International Union took a dollar for themselves BEFORE I received my paycheck, he alleged. Exact figures are hard to come by in the maritime industry--Companies won't provide them to sailors, and the Titled Twelve aren't exactly eager to do so, either--so I have yet to confirm his allegations were true, but I tend to believe him, and I'm still determined to find that documentation. If his allegations prove truthful, then quarterly union dues are the least of a sailors' concerns. They're almost a non-issue.

Moving on. Just getting your hands on a Labor Agreement while you were still back in one of SIU's Hiring Halls, contemplating whether or not you wanted to "throw in" for a job, was next to impossible, while I was with SIU. You almost had to threaten to call the Secretary of Labor's office before the port agent behind the counter would attempt to obtain a copy of the Labor Agreement with that particular Company from SIU Headquarters, and then you could expect to wait for hours before someone back at Headquarters faxed one out to you.

Why won't SIU's Leadership keep Labor Agreements in stock? Cost, they say? That's bologna. There's no legitimate reason for it. The Dispatcher with SUP--Andy--will provide you with a brand new Labor Agreement each and every time you "throw in" for a job while preparing your paperwork. There are literally stacks of Labor Agreements around the Union Hall--they're everywhere. So why won't SIU's Leadership provide Members with Labor Agreements to protect themselves?

Here's why: Because it's not required. As usual, they provided themselves with one of their far-too-common loopholes when the people they work for wrote the Labor Agreements. As stated in the Standard Freightship Agreement between Seafarers International Union and Contracted Companies, in Section 67 on page 22, it says:

"Section 67. Copies of Agreement to be furnished. Copies of this Agreement shall be furnished to the Master, Chief Engineer, Ship's Committee and all Unlicensed Personnel, WHEN AVAILABLE and requested."

Here's just one of a thousand better ways to write it: "...all Unlicensed Personnel."

Of course, that's written in the Labor Agreement sailors standing in the Hiring Hall contemplating whether or not to throw in for a job are trying to see. If Labor Agreements are not readily available, chances are the majority of the Membership will rarely have one at their immediate disposal.

And from what I gathered during my investigation, SIU's Leadership didn't want everyone aboard to have a copy of the Agreement to examine while filling out overtime sheets, just the key players, most of whom were "permanent" crewmembers, loyal to the Company and the Titled Twelve who put them there, not the crew: The Chief Steward, the Bos'n, and the Delegate aboard would have one, but just one each, so the delegate wasn't likely to lend you his copy when you needed it most. Besides, if you asked to see his copy, chances are you were about to "rock the boat," making his life difficult--since the Chief Mate and the Delegate stand the 0400-0800 and the 1600-2000 watch together, day in and day out, for months on end, the last thing he wants to do is solve overtime disputes between you and the guy he's caged up with.

This is yet another reason why investigators will find blatent inconsistencies in the distribution of overtime hours between people working in the same department: some people have a copy of the Agreement to point to, and they "write in" for overtime they deserve, while others--those who don't have a copy of the Agreement, those who are marginalized by their own Leaders--are left to weather their own storms.

SIU Labor Agreements are loaded with loop-holes, vague language, exceptions to the rule, so they're next to worthless to begin with, but at least they provide some guidlines. Without them, though, SIU Members are rendered completely defenseless by their own Leadership. So why won't SIU's Leadership help protect their Membership by providing them with Labor Agreements BEFORE they stagger out of the Hiring Halls and fly out to meet their ships?

Here's one theory--and it's only a theory: SIU's Leadership, the Titled Twelve, are crooked, crooked in a dangerous way, and therefore they have no real power at the negotiating table--that's why maritime Capital keeps law-enforcement agencies at bay (everyone knows SIU's Membership calls for investigations regularly). The Titled Twelve are there not to negotiate fairly on behalf of the Membership or to enforce Labor Agreements, but to "manage" (man-handle, if necessary, which I'll get to later) the SIU Membership, to incite fear and intimidation and keep unruly "union activists" in check while systematically reducing labor costs--that's their true function. If they ever attempted to negotiate fair Labor Agreements on behalf of the SIU Membership, ship management personnel--new money--would rise up and provide all the evidence the FBI and the Justice Department needed to lock up the Titled Twelve. But because the Titled Twelve have no such intention, they are permitted by ship management personnel, and therefore the Justice Department, to remain in power. Noam Chomsky spoke about this arrangement between "US interests" and the Mafia in his book "Understanding Power," which I've already quoted, word for word, earlier in this blog.

Before I return to the subject--wages and working conditions--allow me a moment to clarify my position: I no longer work in the maritime industry, so I have nothing to gain by "selling" SUP or "bashing" SIU's Leadership (not the Union Members). What I hope to accomplish with this blog is to help re-forge a relationship between maritime Capital and Labor--one that actually works, and I'm simply using SUP as a model for what actually works--and I want to pressure the SIU Leadership to make better managerial decisions on behalf of the people--the Members--who are counting on them to do so. After all, criminals or not, they're still in a position to help a lot of people--again, both Capital and Labor--but it seems to me they need a little nudge, shall we say, in the right direction.

Generally, I don't like to nudge anyone I believe is dangerous. I'd much rather cold-cock them, figuratively speaking, so let's get back to proving the SIU Leadership is either A.) crooked, B.) inept, or C.) both A and B...

Overtime pay, and when you're entitled to it, is a great way to prove that the SIU Leadership are the wrong people to negotiate fair Labor Agreements on behalf of the SIU Membership.

To cover all my bases, let's start with a small "mom and pop" shipping company operating on the Great Lakes called "American Steamship," which, when compared to a behemoth of a company, like Maersk, is miniscule--and yet they can still afford to pay their sailors a respectable wage.

American Steamship operates, I believe, thirteen or fourteen bulk carriers on the Great Lakes, each between six-hundred and a thousand feet long, but I'd have to double-check their website to be certain. Their ships carry iron ore pellets, gravel, sometimes a little corn, maybe some wheat, charcoal--products that are neither expensive nor potentially catastrophic for the environment. So they're not making fantastic amounts of money like, say, the oil industry.

I worked for American Steamship for four months last summer, during which time I realized there was high concentration of extremely competent "professional" American sailors working on the Great Lakes.

Generally speaking, because the wages on the Lakes are radically higher--$3448.93 per month base pay, $29.73 per hour overtime, compared to $2,200 per month base pay deep sea, and $14.83 overtime--the difference in quality between sailors who work consistently on the Lakes, and those who work consistently deep sea, is night and day. I mean, deep sea sailors who are lucky enough to land a "relief" job on the Lakes typically stand out like retards at a genius convention (Hmmm...maybe I was one of them! Ha ha ha!). You'd have to work amongst these men for a prolonged period of time to fully appreciate my assessments.

That's not to say all deep sea sailors are morons, either. Some, and they know who they are, are among the most professional sailors I've ever seen. But if they're non-productive, as foreign maritime Capital interests often declare when trying to rationalize why Congress should abolish the Jones Act, then they're non-productive because they're retaliating against forces determined to undermine them the only way they can: work stoppages and slowdowns. Nobody asks the Leadership's permission to toss expensive gear over the side of the ship when they're convinced the Leadership is a huge part of the problem.

If you spoke with the average Great Lakes sailor affiliated with SIU, you'd quickly realize this guy had options in life: He could have been a carpenter, or an electrician, perhaps an auto mechanic, or a skilled craftsman of some sort, but he chose to be a sailor. And we'd all better hope he's a good one, too.

Between the ever-changing currents and the small vessel traffic, navigating a ship up the Houston Ship Channel is a challenging and often times frightening experience, but navigating a thousand foot ship through the narrow rivers connecting the Great Lakes--now that takes skill, competence, prolonged concentration, a steady mind, and I'm barely scratching the surface.

There are sharp twists and turns in the rivers, like driving along mountain roads, only those roads are flat, of course, except now they actually move. There are sub-surface peninsulas, pre-dawn fishing boats, shoals, rocks along the shoreline--which might be less than a hundred feet off your port and starboard bow at one point--and there are wind gusts, shifting water currents, not to mention unpredictable weather: dense fog, rains, heavy winds that can easily blow a ship off course, and plenty of ice during the winter. But during the summer, there are pleasure craft to avoid crushing--thousands of them--and they seem to dart out of nowhere.

Off the top of my head, I don't know exactly how many ships have hit the rocks and sunk on the Great Lakes, but I've heard the number before, and it was a staggering: hundreds. The Edmund Fitzgerald is, without question, the most famous. The point is, sailors navigating ships on the Great Lakes damn well better know what they're doing--they better know what they're getting into beforehand--because if they don't, if they hit the rocks, the whole world's going to know someone just fucked up in a huge way. Since American Steamship operates only on the Great Lakes, and can't slip below the horizon the same way a salt water vessel can, they know it's in their best interest--everyone's best interest--to hire only the most professional sailors available. To ensure professional sailors stick around, they offer a respectable wage.

NOTE: And yet, even on the Great Lakes, multi-national conglomerates, like Du Pont Chemical, ship their lethal cargoes on "flags of convenience," because, hey, if one of these ships hits the rocks and pollutes what is arguably America's most precious resource--the largest fresh water supply in the world--for the next thousand years, do you think they want to be held responsible? Hell no, they figure. And so Big Oil and Big Chemical side-steps responsibility by hiring unknown operators who are experts at evading responsibility: mega-rich American and German folk who own and operate "foreign-flagged" vessels no government in the world will be able to track down in the event of a disaster).

If you don't understand the hidden dangers of "flags of convenience" operating in American waters--anywhere, for that matter--then I strongly encourage you to read: "The Outlaw Sea" by William Langewiesche.
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WHO'S DRIVING THE SHIP?

Those who live on the coast ought to take great comfort in knowing that whenever they see an SIU-contracted ship--be it an oil tanker, chemical carrier, whatever--bombing along the coast at top speed, nobody's driving.

Not comfortable with that? Why not? Oh, that's right: you use common sense.

I guess that explains why you're not dead. What I mean by that is, if you didn't use common sense while speeding to work this morning, maybe you would have engaged the cruise control, tied the steering wheel in place, and leaped into the back seat for a cat nap before work while your car continued speeding toward the inevitable--driverless. That would, after all, make sense, right?

Of course not. And the SIU Membership knows that removing the Helmsman (Quartermaster, Wheelsman, Watchstander, whatever SIU's Leadership calls them today) from the Wheel to work outside on the Bridge wings via Labor Agreement requirements is worse than country dumb: if/when there's a collision, that SIU Member knows he'll likely be among the first to die, along with all hands aboard, while the people ashore who concocted these Labor Agreements will shrug their shoulders predictably, and try with what little conviction they can muster to explain to the public why they forced the deceased to abandon his post in the first place. Only after the fact will the general public realize, too, that removing the Helmsmen from behind the wheel to chip and paint out on the Bridge wings via pro-Company Labor Agreements was a corporate-sponsored act of sabotage.

Like the majority of SIU's widely varied Labor Agreements, here's the language used to ensure AB Watchstanders do not stand a proper look-out while on Bridge watch in SIU's 2001-2006 Standard Freightship Agreement:

Section 7, page 25, Men Standing Sea Watches: "Men standing sea watches shall be paid overtime at the applicable rate for Saturday, Sunday and Holiday watches for all work in excess of eight (8) hours between midnight and midnight each day. No work except for the safe navigation of the vessel is to be done after 5:00 pm and before 8:00 am, Monday through Friday, and Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays without payment of overtime.

"B. Except as otherwise spefically provided, if a man standing regular at sea or in port on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays is required to do work other than routine work for the safe navigation of the vessel, they shall be paid at the rates specified in Article II, Section 21 (b), Penalty Rates.

"With the Following exceptions (SIU Labor Agreements are loaded with "exceptions" and "loop-holes"):

"1. Routine work for the safe navigation of the vessel.
"2. Cleaning quarters
"3. Undocking and docking
"C. If a man standing sea watches on Saturdays, Sundays or Holidays is required to handle explosives, clean holds, do longshore work, work ballast, do carpenter work, secure cargo, lay dunnage, handle mail or baggage, handle stores, use paint spray guns or sand-blasting equipment, tend livestock, handle garbage, remove soot from the stack, clean bilges or clean up oil spills, clean tanks or such work as defined in Article III, Section 34, Additional Work, he shall be paid only the rate as specified in this Agreement for that type of work."

In short, if you're aboard a fishing boat or a pleasure craft between 0800 and 1700 Monday through Friday, and it's not a Holiday, then get ready to move fast if you see an SIU-contracted vessel coming toward you at full speed: the AB you're counting on to maneuver the ship is out on the bridge wings chipping rust, painting, or whatever--but he's definitely not paying attention to you--and, because mates are required to perform mandatory overtime while on watch (ie updating publications, chart work, et cetera), he's not paying attention to you, either. God help you if your engine won't start.

Let's slam the brakes, throw it in reverse, and stomp the gas. Fifteen years ago, according to what an SIU Bos'n sailing out of Houston told me, SIU Labor Agreements did not force AB Watchstanders to work while on Wheel-watch--and it drove ship management companies stuttering mad. They couldn't stand that Labor Agreements permitted not one but two lazy AB Watchstanders to stand in one place eight hours a day and stare out the window at the ocean: one behind the wheel, another out on the bridge wing, regardless of the weather, and then they'd swap positions midway through the watch.

Now, staring at the ocean might sound rather pleasant, however, allow me to assure you, it's work, mentally and physically. Imagine it this way: draw an imaginary box that's approximately two feet wide and two feet tall on the floor. Step inside it. If you absolutely must use the head, you must first call your spouse and convince them to stand in your place. Otherwise, for the next four hours straight, don't move, just stand there and imagine you're keeping a sharp eye out for vessel traffic: chemical tankers, oil rigs (800 plus in dot the Gulf of Mexico), pleasure craft overloaded with drunken loonies who think it's hilarious to risk their lives, your career, and your freedom, slicing across your bow dolphin-close. Are your feet, legs and back beginning to throb yet? If not, don't worry, they will--and you'll have plenty of time to think about that pain.

What you probably won't realize while standing there in your little box in your den, or your office, or wherever, is that, ironically, while it's difficult to spot vessel traffic at night, it's a thousand times easier than it is during the day--and here's why: running lights.

During the day you can't see those running lights, so ships blend into the sea, as do oil rigs and tugs, and as for small vessel traffic--unless you notice their bodies float by while you're painting out on the bridge wing, you won't even know you killed them, because remember: the vessel you're driving is approximately the same size as the North Tower at the World Trade Center...was. There's an unbelievable momentum at work underfoot, it takes a long time for a ship to react, even if you're heavy on the rudder, so if you suddenly see another vessel emerge from a thick fog dead ahead of you, guess what: both ships are doomed, along with, what, forty-eight other people who are about to drown--and the rest of us ashore can look forward to an ecological disaster, and wait around for policy-makers who saw this coming to react predictably: "Why did this happen? How could this happen? We have to do something to prevent it from ever happening again!" Of course, by then it's already too late for rich folk living on the coast of, say, southern California--their coastal property is swamped with flavorful benzene right now.

If you recall seeing photographs of a Bridge setting aboard an American-flagged vessel on the cover of a magazine, the Bridge itself probably looked like it was filled with lots of high tech equipment--the kind that will mark a target the size of a milk carton two miles away. It goes without saying that there will be lots of people in the photograph, and they'll appear attentive to their surroundings, clean and professional. Like, the Captain will be in the window with a pair of binoculars wearing a white collared shirt and pretty gold bars, while the mate on watch will be taking a bearing or scrutinizing the radar, and then there's the Wheelsman, of course, who always appears ready to maneuver the ship on a moment's notice so as to avoid catastrophe.

It's deceitful propaganda, that's all. It's not even realistic propaganda--and everyone who works in the maritime industry knows it. The public, on the other hand, remains largely ignorant. They look at this propaganda and see all that high-tech looking equipment that's involved and figure the professionals operating commercial vessels couldn't possibly go wrong.

They're not mistaken, they're mislead.

Equipment aboard commercial ships--again, tankers, chemical carriers, LNG vessels, break bulk carriers, etc--is dangerous to rely upon entirely.

Take nuclear submarines, for example. Now they really do have all the newest high-tech gadgetry at their disposal--yet none of it prevented the USS San Francisco (SSN 711) from face-planting into the broad side of a subsurface mountain not far off the coast of China.

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DISPARITIES IN PROFESSIONALISM

As the maritime industry stands today, there are massive disparities in professionalism between the SIU sailors working deep sea and SUP Sailors--and here's a big reason why: money. Intelligent sailors investigate wages throughout the SIU fleet--throughout the industry--and follow the money. Morons stick with what's easy, and what's easy is finding a job aboard an SIU-contracted vessel operating deep sea that pays slave wages (cruise ships, for example, and oil tankers, chemical tankers, the lowest paying jobs in the American fleet, ironically enough, because, from Capital's standpoint, they're also among the most profitable ships to operate).

It's difficult but not impossible to measure the disparities in professionalism between disgruntled SIU sailors working deep-sea and SUP sailors (again, if SIU sailors working deep sea are non-productive, if they're not "professionals," it's largely because they A.) haven't worked in the industry long enough to master their trade, politically and professionally, and/or B.) they're retaliating the only way they can against labor management mechanisms that undermine their interests--at least presently).

SIU sailors working on the Great Lakes don't rank among the finest sailors in the world because they are the finest sailors in the world. If they've got competition for those bragging rights, deep sea, it comes not from sailors affiliated with their own union, but rather from sailors affiliated with Sailors Union of the Pacific.

When taken as a whole, Sailor's Union of the Pacific indeed represents the best of the best deep sea sailors, and because of recruiting policies they're implementing, they're getting even better, faster.

Until recently, the average age of an SUP sailor was 56 years old, which translates to an experienced, knowledgeable, and might I add "professional" sailor, one that has weathered the most vicious of political storms in the maritime industry.

The average age of the SUP sailor, however, is declining fast--and for all the right reasons, from maritime Capital's perspective. To begin with, when the 80% of SIU Apprentices mentioned earlier are considering their options--that is to say: abandon the industry, or locate a labor organization they find favorable--a sizable percentage are choosing the latter, and so they're abandoning SIU in favor of SUP, which naturally reduces the average age of SUP sailors.

Secondly, Military Sealift Command and Sailors Union of the Pacific are working on a progressive joint venture, one designed to revitalize their respective labor pools as manning requirements increase, both in the military and commercial sectors, and to do so in such a way that's appealing to those considering career paths in the maritime industry (unfortunately I'll have to wait to detail the MSC/SUP recruitment process until I receive recruitment literature from officials--but I have seen it in action, and since then I've discussed it at length with maritime Capital interests at the executive level, and the results are extremely positive, both for maritime Capital and Labor).

If maritime Capital interests in the commercial sector outside of those I have spoken with personally are weighing their options, if they're in the process of locating a labor organization that represents knowledgeable and increasingly younger sailors--strong backs, for lack of a better word--then before they rush to sign Labor Agreements with SIU, they might want to hold off until they've investigated what SUP has to offer.

Maritime Capital interests--or ship management companies, for that matter--have the option of throwing money at labor problems aimlessly. Something tells me SIU's Leadership won't turn it down. It's called common sense.

However, even if SIU wages were adjusted to compete with SUP wages, even if the language in SUP Labor Agreements was stolen, re-written, and implemented in SIU Labor Agreements, unless all maritime Capital interests operating under the American flag engaged in this hypothetical effort to correct problems plaguing the maritime industry en masse voluntarily--even if this policy shift was executed by force of law tomorrow--maritime Capital interests that want to correct problems and reduce if not eliminate hidden costs detailed throughout this analysis would still face a considerable lag time. Long-term problems would be diluted, not necessarily fixed, as SIU-affiliated sailors with union seniority abandoned lower-paying jobs in favor of higher-paying jobs, or alternated between the two indefinitely, while newly indoctrinated sailors attempted to do the same. If maritime Capital interests--or ship management companies, for that matter--want immediate results, they need to consider allowing current Labor Agreements to expire in favor of Labor Agreements with alternative labor pools within the American labor market, thereby eliminating that lag time instantaneously. While SUP sailors might appear to cost maritime Capital interests considerably more, those costs, all of them, including hidden costs not addressed on the bottom line, need to be reviewed and reconsidered: the additional labor costs to Capital's bottom line would be minimal, while the monetary additions to sailors' pay is substantial. And so, from Capital's perspective, it's really a matter of choosing the right labor pool managed by the right people, and thereby channeling the majority of those monies into the hands of those most deserving: the sailors themselves.

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The Costs of Financing a Union

With SIU, SPAD contributions were compulsory: monies were deducted from sailors' Vacation (supplemental income) checks for the Leadership to distribute as they saw fit. Typically, the Members themselves have had little if anything at all to do with how those monies were distributed (No, I don't agree with Big Arnold's proposals, but there has to be some way to fold the Membership's opinions back into the decision-making process, because, aside from using the Members to generate monies, the SIU Leadership has all but expelled them from the decision-making process).

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Minimum Union Overhead Means Maximum Union Efficiency

SUP FINANCES

The SUP is financed almost exclusively by membership dues. Other sources of revenue are initiation fees, voluntary contributions to the Union's General Treasury and to the West Coast Sailors newspaper, rental income from our buildings and a $2.50 per man day contribution from companies under contract to help defray the cost of operating our hiring hall.

The current dues, as determined by secret mail ballot referendum in 1998-1999, is $130 per quarter or $520 per year. No assessments, etc., can be levied without a secret mail ballot vote of the membership.

The officers' wages and benefits are set by secret mail ballot referendum and are paid out of the General Treasury. It is illegal under the SUP Constitution for any regularly elected officer to be paid by an employer. Union support staff are members of Local 3 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union and are also paid out of the treasury of the SUP.

Affiliation of the SUP

The Sailors' Union of the Pacific is an AFL-CIO union as an autonomous affiliate of the Seafarers' International Union of North America (SIUNA) which was organized by the SUP in 1938. Other autonomous affiliates of the SIUNA, which is the only federation of unions in the AFL-CIO, includes the Marine Firemen's Union and the SIU-Atlantic, Gulf and Inland Waters District.

Autonomy is key to our affiliation with SIUNA. The SUP membership makes all decisions regarding the conduct of our organization including bargaining and contracts. The SUP controls its own destiny.

The SUP is also affiliated with the Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO, also founded by the SUP; State Federations of Labor in California, Washington State, Hawaii, as well as AFL-CIO Labor Central Councils in many cities in those states.

By participating in these organizations, the SUP acts in concert and solidarity with the rest of the labor movement on issues common to all, ranging from bread and butter issues of wages, hours, and working conditions to those involving social justice.
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Substantial Returns via Quality Labor

Quality Labor is an investment that pays substantial dividends. At present, some--correction: most--ship management companies operating under the American flag claim they implement this philosophy by showering their labor forces with what, in reality, amount to meaningless awards, but behind closed doors they ought to realize they're in serious trouble if someone like me feels it's neccessary to conduct my own investigation and call the obvious to everyone's attention: on paper, a mismanaged labor force might look like a bargain, but in practice they're costing maritime Capital interests phenomenal amounts of cash through lost productivity, frivolous lawsuits, random acts of sabotage, and so on.

If--or should I say when?--Capital suffers another disaster caused by an inexperienced and/or incompetent sailor, like the Quartermaster on watch when the Exxon Valdez hit the rocks, then Management will be forced to admit the disaster was preventable, publicly and privately.

If sailors are paid what they deserve to be paid, if they're earning a decent living wage and feel as though they're being handled fairly, if they're working under Labor Agreements written in a language that protects them, not undermines them, then far more of them will make a career out of the maritime industry--and that alone will help protect Capital interests.

Even "professional" sailors who have since abandoned the maritime industry in favor of jobs "on the beach" will likely return. If criminals, such as the Mafia, have in fact been used as a wage management mechanism, then they've since become redundant, and by all means necessary they need to be eliminated from the equation. Once that happens, once SIU Members are able to re-join the decision-making process, I believe the system will naturally correct itself, in the interest of everyone involved, Capital, Labor, and the American people.

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HERE'S HOW SIU WAGES COMPARE:

Standard GREAT LAKES Bulk Cargo Agreement: AB Blue (Wheelsman)
--Based on a forty hour work week/16 hours OT for four weekends
--Base Pay:...................$3,448.93 per month
--Overtime Rate (OT):.........$29.73
--Penalty OT Rate:............$49.55
--Vacation:...................9 for 30
--Retirement..................

BREAKDOWN
--Average hourly rate:.$22.18, based on a forty hour workweek
--Minimum overtime:....$1792, based on 64 hours per month (weekends)
--Vacation:............$1064.99, based on 9 days vacation for 30 days worked.

TOTALS (when all is combined)
--Total hours worked:......224
--Average hourly rate:.....$28.56
--Total (before taxes):....$6406

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SIU Standard Container Vessel Agreement Deep Sea: AB blue
--based on a forty hour work-week/16 hours for four weekends OT
--base pay:............................$2383.97 per month
--OT rate:.............................$15.62 per hour
--Penalty OT ($48.03 on the Lakes).....$5.25 (deep sea)
--Vacation:................14 for 30
--Retirement...............$7.00 per day (in other words, you have to spend the vast majority of your life aboard a ship if you ever hope to retire--and you won't retire comfortable. SUP labor agreements, on the other hand, require that the Companies you work for put $25.00 toward your retirement--and that goes into a 401K that you control, not a pension plan that you have little or no control over.)

BREAKDOWN
--Average hourly rate:..$14.78 based on a forty hour work week
--Minimum overtime:.....$1002.24 based on 64 hours per month (weekends)
--Vacation pay:.........$1104.13

TOTALS
--Hours worked:......................224
--Average Hourly rate:...............$19.96
--Total per month (before taxes):....$4,472.37
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SAILORS UNION OF THE PACIFIC WAGES aboard MATSON NAVIGATION VESSELS:

Section 8. Wages and Overtime Rates

This wage scale is based on 40 hours at sea and in port for day workers, and 56 hours at sea and 40 hours in port for Watchstanders.

Rating
Bosn Freighter (Over 20,000 gross tons)

Monthly base wage: $4,247.33
Daily Base Wage: $141.57
Monthly Supplemental Wage: $2,042.70
Money Purchase Plan Daily: $25.00

AB Maintenance Man

Monthly Base Wage: $2,884.52
Daily Base Wage: $96.15
Monthly Supplemental Wage: $1,475.42
Money Purchase Plan Daily: $$25.00

AB [Watchstander]
Monthly Base Wage: $3,021.77
Daily Base Wage: $100.72
Monthly Supplemental Wage: $1,540.20
Money Purchase Plan Daily: $25.00

Ordinary Seaman Watchstander

Monthly Base Wage: $2,340.81
Daily Base Wage: $78.02
Monthly Supplemental Wage: $1,220.70
Money Purchase Plan: $18.51

"When in accordance with Appendix "A" vessels are manned with a Carpenter/Maintenance Man, the monthly wage of this rating shall be the same as that of a Carpenter in the above schedule for vessels of the same gross tonnage.

"The hourly overtime rate for all ratings except the Ordinary Seaman shall be $23.83 effective 7/1/02

"The hourly overtime rate for Ordinary Seaman shall be $17.87 effective 7/1/02.

The hourly cargo rate for all ratings shall be:
Effective: 7/1/02
Straight time hours: $17.87
Overtime hours: $29.45

"The hourly rates for men hired for standby work as provided in Section 43 shall be:
Effective: 7/1/02

Bos'n:
Straight Time Hours: $22.72
Overtime Hours: $37.42
Money Purchase Plan Daily: $25.00

Effective 7/1/02
AB:
Straight Time Hours: $21.29
Overtime Hours: $35.93
Money Purchase Plan Daily: $25.00

The hourly rates for men hired for shifting gangs as provided in Section 44 shall be:
Effective 7/1/02:

Bosn:
Straight time hours: $20.17
Overtime Hours: $33.55
Money Purchase Plan Daily: $25.00

AB:
Straight Time Hours: $18.99
Overtime Hours: $32.04
Money Purchase Plan: $25.00
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CHEVRON TANKERS
As of 02/06 wages are as follows:

Boatswain monthly base: $3,563 monthly
Overtime rate: $19.21

AB monthly base: $2,570 monthly
Overtime rate: $19.21

Ordinary Seaman: $2,154 monthly
Overtime rate: $14.93

No supplemental pay, but vacation paid 16 for 30 days; employees work on a 90 days rotation with all transportation to and from vessels paid by Chevron.

Pay rates based on 40 hour work week/OT paid for work over 8 hours per day and all hours on weekends and holidays.
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SIU SWEETHEART CONTRACT

Sealift Inc
68 West Main Street
Oyster Bay, NY
11771

Not all SIU-contracted companies pay their sailors as well as well--or should I say as or poorly?--as the SIU wages detailed above. While it may sound hard to believe, Sealift Inc, for example, actually pays sailors responsible for the safe navigation of vessels less than SIU's Standard Containership Agreement Deep Sea requires.

When you hear rumors of SIU port agents being forced to pull barflies down to to the Hiring Halls in order to meet manning obligations aboard "gray-hulls" carrying military hardware to our troops overseas--who are even more underpaid, as shall be detailed in another section of this blog--the wages detailed below partly explain why regular SIU often vanish just prior to a military invasion:

M/V Maj Bernard F. Fisher (Diego Garcia, FOS)

Daily Base wage (eight-hour day): $69.89
Overtime Weekdays: $10.52
Overtime Weekends/Holidays: $18.26
Vacation Pay: Info. unavailable
Pension: Info. unavailable

According to the 28-Feb-05 pay-stub an SIU Member furnished me moments before he abandoned the maritime industry and began his panhandling career in San Francisco, in seven days he earned:

Daily Base Wage (seven days worked): $489.23
Overtime Weekdays (20 hours worked): $210.40
Overtime Weekends (24 hours worked): $438.24
Travel Per Diem (three days travel): $209.67

Note: Travel per diem offsets earnings. You get in en route to a ship, and you get it when you leave a ship, unless, of course, you're fired--in which case you pay your own way home from, in this case, Diego Garcia, explaining why most SIU Members are highly reluctant to work aboard ships anchored off sandbars in remote locations.

Gross Wage: $1347.54 (before taxes)
Social Security tax (6.2%): $83.55
Medicare Tax (1.45%): $19.54
Federal W/H tax (M-7): 104.45
Cash advances: 100.00

Total Deductions: $307.54
Sub balance: $1040.00
Balance Due: $1040.00

Average hourly wage (for 100 hours in one week): $11.37
Note: Per diem deducted before dividing by number of hours worked.
Note: Vacation pay was not factored in (above), since it was not recognized on this pay-stub.

Normally "gray-hulls" pay considerably less Vacation Pay than commercial vessels. My guess is Vacation Pay aboard Sealift's M/V Maj Bernard F. Fisher is 9/30, but let's give SIU's Leadership the benefit of the doubt and say that it's 14/30: $978.46 per month. In this case, if the sailor works eight hours per day plus four hours overtime, plus twenty-four hours of overtime per weekend, his (or her) average hourly wage skyrockets to $17.19 per hour for 360 hours worked per month.

My neighbor's fourteen year old son averages more than that caddying at Chicago Golf Club.
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Comment received regarding SIU Break Bulk Carriers:

If Sealifts grey hulls are bad, try the break bulk carrying food aid, AB $56 a day, OT 9.59/hour, vacation 9/30, weekends are a second day of pay as opposed to 8hrs OT. Sealift food aid ships (PL480 acrgos) also carries "riders", who get off the ship in Caribbean ports spend a couple days in a hotel and then fly to the US. The ship will get into trouble coming into the US with the riders onboard. If there is a USCG inspection then the riders are given a day off and some money and the various places their names are are removed. The first SIU contract I worked was with DYN Marine 5 years ago, AB blue, $7.49/hr, same rate for OT, vacation was 7/30 nothing extra on weekends.

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SIU MEMBERS CONSIDERING LABOR STRIKE AGAINST SIU LEADERSHIP
...To be continued...

Welcome and WOW!

I'm actually still reading! Nice work Bonesman! You certainly do your homework!

And your blog has all the ingredients of what is discussed here on the pages of MfD...corporate profiteering...corrupt union officials...inequality...injustice...biziness as usual!

quote:

---

Unless--or should I say until?--I'm murdered for writing this, I'll make changes to it daily, even hourly: spelling, mathematical, grammatical, historical, language, et cetera....

Oh, and if I stop writing unexpectedly, chances are the bad guys got the drop on me.

---

If push comes to shove, the Canadian border may offer a safe haven, or "a port in the storm" so to speak!

HEY BONES HERE IS SOME ADVICE IF YOU SEE SOME FAT ITALIANS SNEAKING UP BEHIND YOU RUN
LOL LOL