Who’s looking forward to Monday morning?
I am!
Thank god I’m going to work tomorrow morning! I’m scheduled for a grand total of 3 days of work this month and hope to hell I get all 3!
I’m not eligible for any unemployment assistance, even tho I’ve paid into it for over 40 years. Now, when I really need it, I can’t get it, simply because my last job was with a foreign company (for a year and a half). A job I took mostly in order to get ‘insurance’ which is now mandatory according to ‘Obamacare’.
So, now that I’m laid off, I can’t qualify for any of the programs I’ve been supporting for over 40 years. And people wonder why so many Americans are pissed off?!
So, I’m very thankful I can get ANY work at this point. It’s not much, but it’ll pay the gas to get to and fro, it might even take care of the electric bill (tho it’s summertime now and I seriously doubt that- AC running 24/7!).
I know most people are happy to see the gas prices so low (not nearly as low as they should be), but since my job is tied to the price of oil, I’ve been wishing it higher for months now. It’s been creeping up slowly, and I’ve heard that some land rigs have been starting up again.
Offshore drilling needs a stable price and it needs to be higher than where it is now. I’d guess around $80/bbl would start work up again. I’ve been working in the offshore oilfields for the last few years. Simply because that’s where all the work was.
I’ve been trying to find work on ANY kind of vessel since I’ve been laid off, but all the available openings have already been taken by people laid off before I was. It doesn’t help at all that the US Coast Guard keeps restricting our licenses so that we can only work on very specific types of vessels.
Basically, the rules we have to work by now state that if you don’t have so much time on 1 type within the last 5 years, you can’t work on that type of vessel any more, ever. At least not until you go through a time consuming, expensive, ‘training’ rigamarole. They treat you like you’ve never been on a boat a day in your life before! It doesn’t matter at all if you’ve previously spent 20+ years on one type of boat, say a towboat, and then you went fishing for 5 years. Doesn’t matter, you start from scratch to go back on a towboat!
Companies just refuse to hire you if you don’t have the exact, specific, ‘training’ and certificates they insist on. Even tho it would take less than a week of time onboard to re-qualify. Nope, they won’t let you on til you have it already. Catch-22 in action.
My original license said “Freight & Towing”. Since I haven’t worked on a towboat in the last 5 years, my license now says “Steam & Motor” and I’m not qualified to work on a towboat. Not until I get a TOAR. That takes a minimum of 30 days onboard a towing vessel. There is VERY little in that assessment that a licensed mariner isn’t already completely proficient in. The only items are those specific to a tug and tow (about 10 things on the list).
All the towing companies I’ve talked to since I’ve been laid off want me to spend at least 2-3 YEARS on deck before even considering upgrading me to tankerman (I job which I previously worked for over 13 yrs). I need 2 transfers to get back that license (tankerman PIC), but without it, I can’t get onboard a vessel to get those 2 transfers. See what I mean?
Smaller and smaller boxes we’re shoved into. Is it any wonder they’re having a hard time finding qualified mariners? (They say this, yet hundreds of thousands of us looking for work around the world).
What a paradox!
All I know at this point is that I’m very happy to be going to work in the morning for a change.
Anybody else been out of work for a long time? How did you survive it?
Dead end situations are not created simply to frustrate people. Generally speaking, whenever you encounter a “Catch 22” someone is making a profit from it. Who benefits from the roadblocks in your licensing procedures?
Absolutely Rick!
The ‘training’ providers have MUCH more influence with the people who make the rules than just a bunch of scurvy seamen!
They’ve sold the companies a bill of goods, promising they will make us ‘safer’ with their expensive ‘training’ (all stuff we’d learn our first week onboard). The companies LOVE it, they get cheaper insurance rates and now anything that happens, they can say – it’s not OUR fault, he was TRAINED and he screwed up. It’s HIS fault! Saves them TONS of $$$$$, even after some (few) of them pay for our ‘training’.
And of course, the USCG, like the rest of the government agencies, is a revolving door. When a government employee wants to move on, they get a cushy job with one of the companies they’ve previously been regulating, as an ‘advisor’ or some such.
Wonderful all around. For everybody EXCEPT the seafarers who all this shit is being sold as a benefit for!
And don’t forget, since the STCW promises ALL seafarers, everywhere in the world now have the EXACT SAME ‘training’, a company can hire an entire shipful of Philipinos for the cost of one American AB! If you don’t think that has something to do with it, I’ve got a nice bridge in AZ I’d like to sell you!
Glad to hear you’ve got some work, even if just a few days.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed to get all 3 days! Every little bit helps!
You poor thing. I sure feel for you.
Thank you Cee.
I’m just so glad I was able to prepare at least a little bit. Feel sorry for all those people who didn’t save up! SO many people are REALLY hurting.
The training school mafia is doing great business.
Cap, the Eastern seaboard tug companies don’t have that insane advancement process. If you can get a TOAR done (there’s a guy in FL who teaches it with his own boat, and will evaluate you for a reasonable price- I’ll look for the link), most of them will hire you as a mate evaluee, right off the bat.
Inland companies that don’t pay have that indentured servitude period. It’s a damn scam.
Hey THANKS Paul!
You’re right, those companies didn’t pay much, and I agree, it’s a scam. I just really don’t think a master mariner needs to spend 2-3 YEARS on deck to learn what needs to be done. It really kind of pissed me off.
Are any of those companies hiring? Worth being hired by??? Do you have to live nearby?
I’m looking at anything right now, but I’m also concerned that if I leave DP I’ll lose THAT certificate and then I’d really be screwed! I won’t be able to work on anything but fishing boats then (and there’s no work there now either). I was very lucky to get into DP when I did. They’ve made it almost impossible to get a DP certificate the ‘proper’ way, and then instead of fixing whats wrong with the scheme, they’ve made it to where plenty of us old timers will get run off! Only made things worse, a lot worse for everybody!