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2nd May 2022, 08:06 AM
#61
Re: P&O Ferries
I have a friend her son 40 years P&O ferries from engineroom rating to C/Eng. Got a phone call as he was home on leave. Your sacked we have packed your personal belongings and they will be posted to you. Gets his redundancy letter a few days later. Terms were we will pay you 20 years service redundancy payments take it or leave it. He was given until the end of the week? to return acceptance letter. He asked why 20 years and not the 40 years he had been with the company. Reply was 20 years is the maximum we will pay.
Two weeks ago he got a phone call. We will pay you a resigning bonus of £20,000 and gaurantee you 12 months employment. No doubt the plan is he would be training a new C/Eng to take over his job.
People talk about unions. The sea farer has never had a decent union he has been shafted by the likes of the then shipping federation and some ship owners.
The days for the need for a decent organised union are back again. This has been brought about because of the actions of unscrupulous employers. Employers and employees need to work together , no profits no jobs. Common sense has to be the rule.
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3rd May 2022, 12:38 AM
#62
Re: P&O Ferries
#61. The UK although it built an Empire through its shipping and seafarers is looked on by the general public mostly I found as third rate citizens , due a lot I would imagine by ourselves giving the impression it was all fun by Jolly Jack with no responsibilities apart from a good time and seeing the world for free. It must me the only seafaring country in the world which has the mistaken impression that the bulk of its citizens hold. It was a hard dangerous life as those who usd it as a profession all their working lives will soon tell those willing to listen , but is easier not to. It was a livlihood for many of us and not playtime. You can go on this site alone and probably count on one hand the number of seafarers who went the full term. Why ? Mostly for the simple reason it made no allowances for elder seamen with families or earnings to keep such in any sort of real comfort. It relied on getting its crews at an early age and brain washing them to their own way of thinking. Bars on ships and a few comforts came too late to attract , and taken them away they went back to stage 1. Attractions at sea today are purely money related , and they fail dismaly in this compared with other land based careers. Cheap labour will come and go , and the shoe hopefully may once again be found to be on the other foot. That will be the time to turn ones back on the employer of cheap labour by people who have no means of recourse at present. JS
Last edited by j.sabourn; 3rd May 2022 at 01:06 AM.
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3rd May 2022, 01:48 AM
#63
Re: P&O Ferries
You are right there John, when I think of the very cheap way we lived aboard; and the good times ashore in foreign places, a smell of an oily rag comes to mind, but we still managed to have had a good time.
It seems it has reverted to the same cheap way at sea, except for one glaring thing, foreign places these days are not only not cheap, but far far and away to dear for the wages they are paying today. It is OK for people to say that these people send their money home and it is enough to keep the family in a poor country, but what a way to do it; in these: so called modern times.
Des
R510868
Lest We Forget
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3rd May 2022, 06:43 AM
#64
Re: P&O Ferries
There were many reasons in the 60's and 60's why many men, ad some ladies went to sea.
Some for adventure no doubt, top earn a living for the family, to see the world maybe.
To try a new career, to escape the real world maybe.
For those of the Gay brigade a chance to get away from UK percecution.
The reasons are as varied as the days of the week, ask any one why and you will get dozens of answers.
But for each their own, and not for others to judge.
I went for the grog and the females, like a lot of us did.
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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3rd May 2022, 07:25 AM
#65
Re: P&O Ferries
dont think anyone went for the money des ...it was for adventure and for many a roof over there head plus three meals a day....the world seemed still young ...no telephone home ....not knowing when you would get back ....cheap ciggies ....and oh the honkkey tonks of the world ....young mens dreamland .....i can still recall my ist foreign port in dec leaving the tyne..... and curacao for fresh tomatoes lettuce the colour of the land the small vessels scudding about .....sailing up the main st .....getting sick drinking rum ...no happy valley .later on a shell tanker ......the panama canal oz japan africa good belly filling food bronzie ....money ...home 9 months later .oh happy day.....as for a container wouldnt go aboard one ....the friends made the little vessels everards cories etc ....it was all a dream come true ....but it couldnt last ...and it didnt ....but we had it ....and nobody can take that away....cappy R683532
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3rd May 2022, 08:18 AM
#66
Re: P&O Ferries
So true Cappy, as a young man, the excitement of joining the ship, and finding out where we were going, the money we were on was only beer coupons anyway, we were supplied with every thing we needed. only thing missing was female company.
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3rd May 2022, 10:58 AM
#67
Re: P&O Ferries
#64. John I like many others when left school at 15 and living in the NE of England there were the big industries of Coalmining, Shipbuilding, The Fishing Industry, the MN, which employed thousands and thousands of men and women. In a short spate of years these industries were taking a nose dive for various reasons , some of these industries which had been sacrosanct for generations were literally given away to third world countries , and no matter who one wants to blame the unions the government fifth column communist agents or Uncle Tom Cobbley an all . I can only speak for my own feelings of the only industry I worked for all of my working adult life and that is Shipping. Much as I don’t like to say it I think in retrospect big mistakes have been made in political bad decisions. I think the better way to have gone ahead would have been to nationalise shipping and put it in the hands of national defence . Other industries I can’t speak for , there was a period when most will recall when a short period the party in power tried to bring in a merchant navy reserve , this had a little Success , but what was the use of that ? Having the men but not the ships. This is when the shipping world should have been nationalised , and the shipowner being only the managers and paid for their services. Politics is only an optical illusion as far as I am concerned . The first obligation of any government is the protection of the country and looking at the so called might of the armed forces by numbers alone is not very encouraging . Too late now was the cry. And will be at the next dissention between the ignomous world heads which are distorted at the best of times . Cheers JS
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3rd May 2022, 10:36 PM
#68
Re: P&O Ferries
#50 I’ll bet that was Mary , Cappy knew she had other attractions apart from her wooden leg. I’m still waiting for the wife to sew three buttons on my shirts, will finish up having to do myself. This women’s lib has been allowed to go too far. Cheers JS
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4th May 2022, 06:27 AM
#69
Re: P&O Ferries
Yes we were the lucky ones. Where else could you see the world, get as much grog as you wanted ashore, get your leg over in so many different countries and some times even get presents from the ladies. A room by the sea, early morning call, food and get paid a pittance for your services to the company.
I see containers coming into Port Melbourne and out the same day.
'Very little shoe time for any crew so no grog in the local pub, no leg over any where and as for sight seeing, well they do get to see the sea.
Then they sing,
Oh I do like to be beside the sea side, I do like to be beside the sea and in comes Billy Cottons band show!!!!!!
Last edited by happy daze john in oz; 4th May 2022 at 06:29 AM.
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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4th May 2022, 07:17 AM
#70
Re: P&O Ferries
Hi, the name changed in 1985. I can recall a newspaper colleague going to work for the MNAOA paper at about that time. https://www.nautilusint.org/en/our-u...e-are/history/
Originally Posted by
j.sabourn
#30
Julian according to your CV you are surprisingly young to remember the MNAOA , can you remember when their title was changed ? Know it was the Numast in 1975 and well before that. NUMAST again for those who don’t know stands for National Union Marine of Sea and Air Transport . Cheers JS
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