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Thread: Union fees

  1. #11
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    Default Re: Union fees

    Quote Originally Posted by happy daze john in oz View Post
    Was it not Two Jags who was at one time involved with the NUS.
    If I recall a lot of the monies collected in union dues went to support the 66 strike.
    But what ever happened I have no doubt it was most likely illegal in the manner.


    yes two jags was into a few things mainly his secretary lol cappy

  2. #12
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    Default Re: Union fees

    Louis, You are talking to the deaf, dumb & blind mate.

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  4. #13
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    I never whinged as such Cappy , I just left. And told them the reason why. Some shipowners I had a lot of time for and was only because I had to, that I left, as they went to the wall. When I left the one involved in the NS disaster he followed me outside the office and offered more money to stay , that shows they weren’t too hard up. They paid what they wanted there was no standard , it was the law of supply and demand. Cheers JS....
    Last edited by j.sabourn; 8th April 2021 at 10:39 AM.
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    Added to #13 .. I already had a job lined up with Harrison of Clyde with better ships better money and more civilised To take up when I finished my tour on what I had to fill in for someone else in a hurry , which after a week turned into the worlds worse oil disaster. After 10 days ashore being interviewed by all the so called experts had to go back to sea for my own mental health to prove I was still ok to myself and also for an income to pay the bills. After being on the Sandhaven Johnshaven and Burnhaven these ships were sold , so went with Seaboard offshore who were also bringing in other supply vessels for other work , after a couple of trips there fell out with them over their treatment of a chief engineer , and another friend of mine was drowned at sea. So packed them in and went with Vector offshore and was master of their first ship which was American and converted in Sunderland which I was there also for the conversions. I knew by this times any stress I had was manageable so decided on new countryside to view , and chose Australia , and never regretted it. I could write a book about just the 5 years before. Emigrating . Never mind the other 45 years at sea. I have no regrets about going to sea, but do have many regrets and worry I may have caused family , but that’s the way life goes, and we’ve only got one to play with. Cheers JS...
    Last edited by j.sabourn; 8th April 2021 at 11:52 AM.
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    Default Re: Union fees

    I joined in 1957, stayed until 1963, I paid my union dues all that time , even took part in the strike in 1960, was on the Wave Ruler coming out of dry dock in Leith, the whole crew walked off as the ship was about to sail, the RN got Maltese crew to move the ship to Rosyth, we were all notified to return on board three weeks later, all the crew got DR’s for conduct we then sailed to Iceland for patrol work , the Union stayed away of the whole thing, I never had much time or need for the Union and it’s so called representatives, I considered the Union a waste of time, just a necessary evil.
    In this strike we kicked out the Union, some of us were even sent to prison, never forgave the Union for that.
    Last edited by Bill Cameron; 8th April 2021 at 11:48 AM.

  7. #16
    Lewis McColl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Union fees

    I was in Numast, what a waste of time that lot is/was. I resigned and they told me I would never work on a British flagged ship again. Well they obviously kept a check on my were abouts. Worked on plenty since telling them to stick it.
    Last edited by Lewis McColl; 8th April 2021 at 11:45 AM.

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    Default Re: Union fees

    In the 80's I was on a product tanker working on the west coast of Mexico and we were visited by our personnel manager and the numast representative. They were there to tell us that in order to save our jobs we were all going to put on offshore contracts and employed through a isle of man office, later changed to a Hong Kong office. The union man was extolling the benefits of the system, no class 1 national insurance payments, no company pension scheme, pay into your own private pension scheme..,yeah great eh!
    The numast rep got a fortnight's holiday at company expense in Mexico out of it, the numast rep assigned to Canadian Pacific also used to receive a company car along with the superintendent's. That was when I thought what was the point of paying my union subs, especially as they wanted more each year. As For.P. required you to be a numast member I was always getting letters from a Peter macewan telling me to increase my standing order to £xxx, and I would phone him and tell him when numast started looking after its members rather than lining there own pockets, then I would consider upping my subs.
    C.P. were,to me, a good outfit to work for, when they got out of the Shipping Federation we got some great pay rises but they had numast in their back pockets. Extra salary was welcome but we never got better than 2/1 leave and after 22 years, when we all were made redundant I got £1000 per year served. They made us all redundant and sold off all the ships, including long term contracts for veg oils and chemicals for well below book value in order to finance new buildings for carnival cruise lines, in which they were the major backers behind Mickey arison and also new builds for Nosira(Arison backwards) shipping. I went from C.P. to Ceres shipping (Seachem) the day we were made redundant as port captain for them (on more money) and then when they wanted me to move to either Houston or Singapore to stay working with them, left and joined Stolt tankers the next day, again on more money and 1/1 leave. Stayed with them from 91 to 2008 when I was medically retired.
    My wife's family are all ex miners and have yet to hear anyone have a good word for Scargills NUM.
    I am not a union basher in anyway, no doubt there must be some who do good work for there members but my personal experience has not shown that.
    Rgds
    J.A.

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    Default Re: Union fees

    #9 A factual account of recent Merchant Navy history is not whinging it is as stated; fact.
    As you were only at sea for a few years and not present when these events occurred your comments are not valid.
    Shipping companies did not cease to operate at this time, trading continued until the advent of containeration which brought an end to the British fleets.

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    Most ships today are specialised today. Even your passenger vessel can be classed as such. The days when you had to alter your ship to carry such cargoes as ore or grain are few and far between today.Ships carpenters have disappeared from ships a long time ago. Your geared bulk carrier was the last remnants we saw as the closest we knew as ships. As regards specialised ships in other walks of life some have never even known about. You have seamen today who are not considered to be fully adaptable to any vessel. Even in the 80s I was lined up for a job through a crewing agent and at the last minute it was cancelled , because they had just noticed I had spent the previous 10 years offshore. They said I would be out of touch.I could have told them just the opposite as offshore technology was far in advance of what they knew. So I just went out and saw someone and found my own job. Out here in Australia let me qualify the advantages by the union taking the place of the shipping federation , you were sighted and known to those placing you in positions , and if you were qualified to do a job then it was yours .None of this asking seamen if they had the experience , that may be necessary today, due to the absolutely lack of it in a lot of cases today, but 50 years ago it wasn’t. JS.....

    I could quote numerous cases offshore where the vessels I jumped from one to the next and as regards handling of such, from the old single plate rudder and single prop.No automatic steering , no gyro compass, .. to twin screw fixed prop. Pitch and bow thruster. ... to Becker rudders controlling pitch propellers and azimuth bow thruster .... to twin screw , no rudders as screws are azimuth , and azimuth bow thruster . And that is just scratching the surface and could be on any type at any time...
    Last edited by j.sabourn; 9th April 2021 at 12:21 AM.
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    Default Re: Union fees

    Very few ships sailing from Oz waters have Australian crew joining them now.
    Too expensive as the company would haver to pay them under Australian award rates.

    But the Unions here are always having a go at business companies saying look at how much profit they are making.
    But they fail to understand, or do not want to, that no profit means no jobs.

    Over the years their claims for wage rises very often without any real improvement has seen costs rise resulting in them demanding higher wages.
    A vicious circle with no end, and one that sees more manufacturing going off shore.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

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