Aw-Bless their cotton picking socks

[John Arton]

Gosh
wouldn't half like some of what these guys get!!!
http://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=9443...5001&c=4809628
rgds
JA

[Captain Kong]

At those salaries, I guess we could muster up a scab crew on here to take out those Tugs, 210,000 to 312,000 Dollars,
and only four weeks on at that.
It makes my £10 a month Deck Boy wages look small.
Tell them , the `Over The Hill Gang` are on their way.
Cheers
Brian

[j.sabourn]

As a past member of the Union of Australia I can truthfully say that the conditions of the Australian MN exceeds all those others I have been with. As regards the British Shipowner, in comparison apart from one who incidentally was a Jew, I consider near the bottom. You will find most trade unions in Australia have a background originating in the UK. So if any seaman is trying to do a comparison study between the two the gap is too large. Maybe the NUS is the reason why the Seamans Union here was so strong, as once bitten twice shy. By belittling Australian Seamen, thought should also be given to some of these big company directors receiving huge sums of money, just to put their name on the letterhead of some Company. The high wages which so many are envious of does not just apply to seafarers it applies to all FIFO workers, there was a post on this not so long back. The seamans union out here the same as any other union will be belittled by the press in the campaigns to get rid of. No capitalistic newspaper and a conservative government wants such to flourish as takes a lot of their mostly unwanted doctrine out of their hands. People have to be represented and until a better way is found there will always be a place for Unions. I can remember in the UK when the first 1000 pound wage packet was reached by some builders labourer, and the furore the press caused why could an uneducated man make so much. He put the hours of work in and earned not like some sitting on a Board of Directors and making a couple of hours appearance in evey month and picking up a Kings ransom. You will find in Unions you also get the bad hats, the same as you do in politics, unfortuanetly due to media coverage, the bad guys in the union always get the bulk of the bad press, whether true or not. Cheers John S

[j.sabourn]

Ref. to above. I am not a union lover, but will always agree there is a place for, as long as the membership have control. The only big drawback the MUA have out here is that there are too many unions involved. They should of learned from the past this is how the shipowner managed to keep conditions back, Divide and Rule. There should be one union for all seamen. This was the ultimate mistake made in UK shipping and the shipowner used the so called class system to his own advantage. However he knew when to bale out, you will rarely see a poor shipowner of the past couple of generations. JS

[j.sabourn]

Captain Kong.... Brian Should imagine that Douglas Mitchell would know you friend Tony D.... as he started out here on the coast I believe as AB. I only knew him in passing as he relieved me and I him on a couple of occassions. As Douglas says he knows most of the older seafarers from this area. Cheers John S

[happy daze john in oz]

Auatralia at one time, just like UK, had a very good merchant fleet ut like that of UK went much the same way. There are still some running but nothing like it was. ANL the main shipping company was sold off many years ago. The unions have created good conditions but at what cost?

[John Arton]

Average U.K. Salary = £26,500
Average OZ salary = $70000
Average Masters salary in the U.K. £555,000, deep sea, Near Continental and Offshore N.Sea
For a Harbour Tug Skipper Switzers, who seem to have the monopoly, at last viewing pay £35,000 p/a for skippers, no live on board.
So those Headland guys are on a real winner.
Do most of them live in P. Headland or down in Perth/Freemantle?
--------------------------------------------------------------
Just an added bit.
See Freemantle suffered some pretty serious weather recently with winds strong enough to break two ships from their moorings, one of them bashing into a rail bridge.
Hope all of you living down in that area came through it all with no damage or injuries.
rgds
JA

[Ivan Cloherty]

Master's average salary £555,000, wow! wish I was at sea now! tell me it's not true! please

[j.sabourn]

John the fleet may have gone, but those still employed in such are Australians. How may of the few British ships left can say the same. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

#7... John you have the person on site now to tell you as he says he worked on same but believe in Dampier. When I was working out of there they were on similar wages and conditions as supply vessel. Accomodation was supplied and a car a necessity for transport among so many of them to the Harbour area some way away. In 1991 my first job out here was master on the Pacific Dart supply anchor handling vessel owned by Swires but managed by a Fremantle Company. My Salary was 67,000 dollars a year, 6 weeks on and 6 weeks off. On a similar supply vessel in the North Sea would have been about 20,000 pounds a year. An AB at this time would of been on about 55,000 dollars a year the same 6 weeks on and off. However 1991 was 23 years ago. I have already mentioned the putrid wages and conditions re stand by vessels. Out here would of been on the same 67,000 dollars a year. When I retired in 2002 was on over 100,000 and a seaman on about 80,000 dollars. You seem to have the present wage scales which I dont. However do know there are all sorts of trades go north plumbers welders camp bosses etc etc. for the mining industry and such and all are on simialr salarys and to my knowledge always have been. There is an enquiry being called for of recent suicides re a few FIFO workers which were not seamen I might add. A lot of people will not leave hearth and home even to receive 3 or 4 times the national average and these are shore workers. Cheers John S