P&O Ferries

[Jim R Christie]

P&O Ferries have been rightly condemned from all sources for the treatment of their crews. Politicians raising objections in the Commons and TV studios, apart from angry words what action has been taken ? The answer is none. In a month or two this story will be forgotten without changes to UK employment laws being made to stop this happening again.
A large percentage of the blame for UK seafarers losing their jobs lies with the officers of P&O Ferries. They must have agreed to sail with the replacement crews and agreed to train them. Just a mention of strike action on their part would have stopped this taking place. Perhaps a little bribery in their contracts ?

P&O - in desperation- offered some of the British Masters and Chief Engineers a payment of £20K each on top of their wages and redundancy payouts to come back and get the ships sailing again.
They need the Masters for their port knowledge/pilotage experience and the Chiefs for their knowledge of ship systems.
Everyone else has gone.

[cappy]

ref 20##well john it was a one horse wire what would happen .....the union are capable of nothing in the long term as usual ......the rattling of sabres.....comes to nothing .....the vessels are now starting to sail ......regardless if they are safely crewed or not ..in all reasoning anyone who expected any other out come is living in cloud cuckoo land... for better or worse this is the world we live in .....it appears when the crap hit the fan officers and crews walked away .....did they have another option....probably not ....such is life .....cappy R683532

- - - Updated - - -

ref 20##well john it was a one horse wire what would happen .....the union are capable of nothing in the long term as usual ......the rattling of sabres.....comes to nothing .....the vessels are now starting to sail ......regardless if they are safely crewed or not ..in all reasoning anyone who expected any other out come is living in cloud cuckoo land... for better or worse this is the world we live in .....it appears when the crap hit the fan officers and crews walked away .....did they have another option....probably not ....such is life .....cappy R683532

[Julian Norman]

It's being reported that the European Causeway is adrift off the Antrim Coast due to mechanical failure. Tugs sent to tow her in to Belfast.
Chickens coming home to roost, you reap what you sow and you pay peanuts and get monkeys all come to mind. Not much sympathy I suspect.

[Keith Tindell]

I expect the chief engineer was an ex bike mechanic, funny you never here of senior management coming from Romania or Philippines etc, would be lovely to hear of their jobs being out sourced, kt

[James Curry]

Why did the dockers not back the P&O crews when the axe fell. They should have refused to load /unload the ferries.
31 defects were found on one of the ferries. I expect any surveyor worth his salt could find as many defects on a brand new building. It will never be revealed what the problem was on the European Cuuseway.
Regardless no doubt the public will still use P&O and the seafarer as usual will be forgotten about!!!!! That is ofcourse until there is a war closer to home and no doubt rapid training programmes will be introduced as usual Profit before people.

[j.sabourn]

During one strike pre war I believe it was reported by the media that Churchill who was a member of some government ministry probably in the Liberal ministry at the time wanted the police to be armed and to shoot those causing any disturbances among the strikers at the time Maybe have been the General Strike. Read this somewhere either in book or old paper form. As regards the dockers going out in sympathy this would of happened in Australia when first came here in 1991 but very much doubt it would happen today , such a dislike of union power has been built up by government and media alike against union power over the years when a Liberal government got in, in power here. whatever one believes in the unions do not hold any large control here at the moment. To break a union all you have to do ,is cause dissent among themselves and the term union disappears . This has been done mainly by bad propoganda by government and media alike , the power of a union only exists with agreement among themselves of any aims they may have. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

John.
Men make up the union not the executive or the office bearers, it you have strong delegate system you are ok, that is why out here they attacked the delegates, sacking them when they had to opportunity, with the anti union members who disliked having to pay for job protection, which is what it is. The union movement in Aus wasn't struck down by Govt it was struck down by scabs.
Des

[j.sabourn]

# 27 Des I have and was a member of the MNAOA at 16 , later Numast. This was because I was advised by mentors for legal representation if needed in any future court or other cases , I only employed legal representation the once in all my time at sea , but was nice to know it was there if needed. On coming to Oz to live in 1991 I had to be a member of the Merchant Guild as was a closed shop. My feelings where neutral about this , but I believe it was only because I was a member of Numast that I was allowed entry into the Guild. Even then there was an outcry from some of the membership on how fast I was implemented into the Guild where some had to wait years. Once in however saw what they had obtained for their membership. There were still some however who decried unions , my answer to them would have been ok then you don’t get union made increases and go elsewhere and seek employment , in 1991 one had to be a permanent resident or citizen in Australia to be employed on Australian or Australian managed shipping , and I learned to keep my mouth shut and go along with the law of the land, seeing nothing wrong in principal with that. If I remember right before citizenship I paid tax on every dollar I earned and had to wait for 3 years before obtaining a tax file number . But it was all worth the time and effort , as were the last 11 years of my working life and was way ahead of the previous years elsewhere. Today however think things have stalled or gone backwards. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Here in Oz back in the 60's about 95% of the workforce was in a union, now less than 11% are.
The NUS had to amalgamate with the CFMEU to survive a couple of years ago.

That is a union that did the most damage to the image of unions by it's actions on building sites and the like.
A number of builders went bust here in Victoria due to their actions and no work for those who lost their job.

Not all unions are bad but the CFMEU and at one time the Electrical one certainly did nothing to enhance their reputation with the average person.

Now with most big companies going to enterprize bargaining for wages and conditions there is little use for unions now.

[Julian Norman]

I too was a member of MNOA then NUMAST mainly because it was a closed shop and I had no choice. Only time we had a need for the Union official to visit the vessel he didn't have a clue. No sea experience. Stopped paying subscription as soon as I could. Only good thing was the monthly publication.