What's happening with P&O ferries

[John Pruden]

time for all union delegates earn their pay P/O liverpool are disrupted today and it could last a long time{and so it should} jp

[cappy]

john it is a hard time for ferrymen .......the union will rattle sabres......call out dirty tricks .....blame the capitalist world ....but all will be in vain.....as the proverb says the writing was on the wall ....a loss on capital invested by a foriegn company from a foriegn country owes no loyalty except to itself ......the union is sadly as in other cases of the past capable of nothing .....perhaps a pay back of union dues for each year served by the seamen would be appropiate .......sad times for all concerned cappy R683532

[vic mcclymont]

A Lawyer who specialises in Industrial Law has stated that the P&O action is in breach of Industrial law.
Vic

[Keith Tindell]

This has been going on for some time, every effort is being made to open the door to the cheap labour that was abundant when we were in the EU. The petrol crisis was engineered to get in cheap lorry drivers from Europe, they tried to put a scare in with the turkey farmers saying that there would be a shortage due to shortage of labour. We should all start a campaign to get cheap politicians from Eastern Europe, lol.

[j.sabourn]

And pay them by results. Whenever the word Union is mentioned it conjures up visions of cloth capped Andy Capps, this in lots of cases is untrue. The Numast so called Union was originally the MNAOA as many know , the end letter being an A stood for Association , then they were called Numast and Union re-appeared in their title . However whatever they were called I never saw any industrial strife caused by them. If employees had an altercation with the owners , then they supplied lawyers to fight your claim, they supplied compensation if your certificate was compromised . When I took absence of leave from them on emigration , they had started or were trying to start individual groups from different company’s to negotiate themselves their conditions of service and they supplied the legal advice only. How this worked out if it ever did I have no idea, maybe others know. Something at least should have been there On The demise of the BSF , even though they were far from perfect. Myself I am against any shipowner being able to use a persons nationality to pay wages that benefit themselves to such huge differences in salary’s . There are many that decry the Australian maritime unions , I accepted their conditions and was thankful for them , they were at least fair in the ratios they were paid out to. their employees regardless of nationality. Seafarers have always been manipulated and it was a change to see a proper wage for a proper job, regardless of who you were . JS

[john walker]

I have a sense of Deja vu when I first read about this story. I remember in 1988 the N.U.S. going on strike over a similar employment dispute with P&O, when it was still a British ferry company/ shipping company. The outcome of which I can not remember but doubt the outcome was beneficial to the seamen. I also remember working on a Foreign flag roro ferry on a short term charter to P&O in 89 which was running between Portsmouth and Le Havre. The catering staff of all the P&O ferries were told that they were all being made redundant on arrival back in Portsmouth and that the catering onboard was being outsourced to one of the large British catering companies. Lo and behold when they arrived back in Pompey there were coaches with British stewards, cooks etc. waiting on the quay. To my knowledge none of the new caterer's had a maritime background which was not considered necessary. I did hear at a later date that the company had problems with the Department of Transport as there was not enough crew onboard with certificates of efficiency as a life boatman. I think the ferries are now registered in Nassau so what certification is legal I have no Idea. I expect the Maritime and Coastguard agency will be looking at that. Nobody has mentioned what nationalities the new crews are, I for one will be interested to see the outcome of this sorry saga as it is fast becoming a new low in the annals of the history of the British Merchant Navy.

[Keith Tindell]

Most of us have lived through a period when the unions were strong, and some strikes were laughable, but P@O are showing what happens when the pendulum swings too far the other way. Surely the marine safety agency have a say in these crews who as i understand it, are being trained now. We will have to wait and see who these crews are, and where from.

[Tony Taylor]

I have a sense of Deja vu when I first read about this story. I remember in 1988 the N.U.S. going on strike over a similar employment dispute with P&O, when it was still a British ferry company/ shipping company. The outcome of which I can not remember but doubt the outcome was beneficial to the seamen. I also remember working on a Foreign flag roro ferry on a short term charter to P&O in 89 which was running between Portsmouth and Le Havre. The catering staff of all the P&O ferries were told that they were all being made redundant on arrival back in Portsmouth and that the catering onboard was being outsourced to one of the large British catering companies. Lo and behold when they arrived back in Pompey there were coaches with British stewards, cooks etc. waiting on the quay. To my knowledge none of the new caterer's had a maritime background which was not considered necessary. I did hear at a later date that the company had problems with the Department of Transport as there was not enough crew onboard with certificates of efficiency as a life boatman. I think the ferries are now registered in Nassau so what certification is legal I have no Idea. I expect the Maritime and Coastguard agency will be looking at that. Nobody has mentioned what nationalities the new crews are, I for one will be interested to see the outcome of this sorry saga as it is fast becoming a new low in the annals of the history of the British Merchant Navy.

The three P&O vessels in Dover are registered in Cyprus

[j.sabourn]

When in a previous post I described a vessel which I considered unsafe and walked away from in Japan with all the accompanying problems that came with such. I will not dwell on those suffice to say I made little money over a period of 11 months . My wages on paper was 32 pounds a day. The Chinese crew were on 27 pounds a month . I was paid more in a day than they were in a month. Being very much younger in those days I was assured by older heads this was the way of things , today I think it is an utter disgrace , and people have the cheek to refer back century’s to the slave trade .They should be wizened up and told the slave trade is still with us. JS

[j.sabourn]

#18 I think the last British registered ship I was on think it was about 2016 was the ferry between North and South Island New Zealand and she was registered in Portsmouth. Doubt if still running still is. Maybe someone down there knows ? JS..