 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
If you would like to be
notified when this site is
updated, follow the below.
Your email will be kept
strictly confidential.
notified when this site is
updated, follow the below.
Your email will be kept
strictly confidential.
|
| This site is sponsored by Sarai Transportation Offering excellence in Management & Service for the Towboat Industry. |
If you like this site and would
like to help keep it alive
consider making a donation:
like to help keep it alive
consider making a donation:
|
This site owned by towboater.com at towboater.com. |
towboater.com
I have been a licensed mariner for well over 20 years now, and I cannot believe some of the new rules and regulations the United States Coast Guard and companies are now handing down to us. All you have to do is travel down Interstate 10 along the Gulf Coast and you will see huge billboards from Inland and Offshore companies seeking entire crews for their vessels, pick up any newspaper now days, and look at the “Help Wanted” ads, you will a significant number of ads from these companies as well. All along the ICW in Louisiana, there are flashing signs from companies offering top dollar and what they perceive as good benefits, attempting to attract mariners, and even some companies have gone and placed huge stickers on their barges, as well as others hanging 4’ x 8’ sheets of plywood in trees alongside the canal and the LMR. It is no secret that there is a shortage of personal in the maritime industry, just as there is a shortage in the American workforce. Terri Pringle with the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission publicly stated that, “Companies are desperate to find employees”. In an April 2006 survey of human resource executives, two-thirds of those answering said, “ Retaining workers is becoming more difficult”, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago based outplacement firm. As a result, employers have been forced to turn to methods other than salary raises to keep workers, including enhanced benefits, tuition reimbursement and additional training. Truer words have never been spoken. As of last week, I spoke with various captains that stated their wages have gone up, but their benefits still needed a boost as well. A leading member of AWO publicly stated that there is not a problem finding personnel to put on their boats, the problem they were having was retaining those people. Trip pilots are making in excess of $500.00 a day now, depending on the size vessel and tow you shove, while regular employees are making much less than that per day. I understand very well that trip- pilots do not have the advantage of having paid insurance, 401k plan and other benefits, but working as a trip pilot, a person can afford to buy their own insurance and invest in a defined retirement plan. I feel if the companies can pay a trip pilot those type wages, why can’t they boost full time employee’s benefits some. And then we have the USCG breathing down our necks. I just finished reading and rereading the draft of the Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circular (NVIC) # XX-06, which will replace NVIC 2-98, which provides guidance for evaluating the physical and medical conditions of applicants for Merchant Mariner Credentials (MMC). In this NVIC, there are now two-hundred-two (202) conditions that are potentially disqualifying for issuance of MMC and the appropriate supplemental tests and evaluations for requesting waivers for disqualifying conditions. The final determination regarding issuance of all MMC lies within the Coast Guard. Now, it seems not only do we have the AWO and some of its member companies trying to destroy the American Merchant Marine Fleet, which includes Inland and Offshore, but also the USCG is trying to do their part as well. The NVIC goes on to state that “All members of a crew must be medically and physically fit to perform their duties not only on a routine basis but also in an emergency”. A medical condition is considered to cause “significant functional impairment” It impairs the ability of the applicant to fully perform all of the physical abilities listed in the NVIC, or otherwise interferes with the ability of the applicant to fully perform the duties and responsibilities of the MMC applied for. Over the years, many new rules and regulations have come into effect, but none of them had or will have the impact that NVIC XX-06 will have upon the Maritime Industry. We have seen the USCG impose user fees on us, required Radar Endorsement, Vessel Security Training, as well as many more and much more training to come in the future. But, NVIC XX- 06 will be putting some of us “OUT” of the industry forever. The companies realize that within the senior crew members is where the experience lies. They are having a very hard time to find fresh meat for the industry, and the ones that are in the industry, companies and the AWO are scrambling to get those individuals trained for the wheelhouse. But, even so, with the new Steersman/Apprentice License, it will still take them at a minimum 3 ½ years to qualify for a Master’s License, and just how many Senior Mariners will either be retired or forced out of the industry because of this new NVIC and are the AWO, AWO Member Companies and Non-Member Companies going to sit idly by and let this happen? I feel all maritime groups, companies, unions, associations and mariners should ban together for once and try our best to come to a neutral ground and help one another for a change. Not only is the NVIC going to effect the working mariner and the companies, it will also effect the mariners family and all they have worked for their entire life. The companies will be affected by this because they do not and will not have anyone to replace the mariner with, which will then create a greater shortage of qualified crew members. Some of the conditions that are listed in the NVIC are some things that almost every mariner over the age of 45 lives with everyday of their life, be it Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Irregular Heartbeat or just can’t blow long enough or hard enough through a tube. These are just a few of the things that could disqualify a mariner from receiving their MMC. If you are fortunate enough to get a medical waiver, you have to spend hundreds of extra dollars for the tests that the USCG will require you to have. The USCG has also publicly stated that 5% of all medical waiver requests are denied. There is the possibility that you may lose your license for a few months, or forever, while they consider giving you your license or not. In the mean time, you are sitting at home with no check coming in, and the company either scrambles to find a replacement or lets a boat sit idle because they cannot find a crew for it. As for the fresh meat in the industry, companies are now offering $100.00 - $120.00 per day for an inexperienced deckhand that has to work a minimum of 12 hours a day and sometimes as much as 24 hours a day. Any young man in his right mind would look at that and laugh and think, “why should I do that, when I can get a job at Wal-Mart for $10.00 an hour stocking shelves, being home every night and good benefits?” The AWO and companies alike need to wake up and see what is going on around them. Day rates for vessels are at an all-time high, the cost of inflation has risen drastically, gasoline now exceeds $3.00 a gallon, and our wages and benefits have remained basically the same as 5 years ago. If the companies and the USCG continue on this path, the United States will have the best regulated non-existent merchant marine fleet in the world. Gary Hensley Mobile, AL. Responses to Capt. Hensley's submission are welcome and will be printed. Send all correspondence to . Please type "Where will it end" in the subject line of your emailed response. -editor |
