Maritime Labour Convention To Go Into Effect in 43 Countries

By Pr. Marsh Drege

Executive Director, Seafarers & International House

On Aug. 20, 2013 the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, (MLC) went into effect for the 43 countries that have ratified it. It needed at least 30 countries to be ratified, which happened in August 2012.

Coordinated by the International Labour Organization (ILO), an organization recognized by the United Nations, which is like a union, the MLC provides comprehensive rights and protection at work for the world's more than 1.2 million seafarers. The MLC calls for “decent work for seafarers and secure economic interests in fair competition for quality ship owners.” The convention “consolidates and updates more than 68 international labour standards related to the Maritime sector adopted over the last 80 years,” according to the ILO. 

The ILO has been developing and maintaining labor standards since 1919, and has set forth many conventions over the years. A convention is an agreement or compact, particularly an international agreement. One of the most well known is the Geneva Convention. The MLC 2006 is the latest one to be ratified.

The rights and working conditions of seafarers are at the heart of SIH’s mission, and we support the MLC. However, the lack of the U.S. ratification is disheartening. The United States isn’t among the 43 countries that have ratified it, which means, the MLC won’t be in effect when ships come into our ports.

We do understand, however, that the United States supports the MLC and wants to ratify it, and it’s just a matter of time before it will be done. Governmental red tape and bureaucracy has held it up. It most probably will be voted on and approved in the next year.

The ratifying countries where it will go into effect on Aug. 20 are: Antiqua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Greece, Kiribati, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Russian Federation, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo, Tuvalu, and Vietnam.

Maritime law is very complicated because ships travel the world and standards and regulations vary from ship to ship, country to country, and port to port. We at SIH are happy that the MLC 2006 is going into effect in many countries in August, and implore our legislators to ratify it soon for the United States.

SIH will continue to advocate for fair and safe working conditions and benefits for the seafarers, without whom we wouldn’t have access to all the goods and products made around the world.

If you’d like more information on seafarers rights, or would like to discuss what you can do, contact Chris Roehrer at cvr@sih.org. Visit www.sihnyc.org for more information.

-- The Rev. Marsh Drege is an ordained minister for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

About Seafarers & International House

SIH is a mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  It was founded in 1873 as an Augustana Lutheran mission from Sweden on the premise that we are all called to welcome the stranger. Working at sea or immigrating to a new country is a lonely experience, and SIH welcomes these seafarers and asylum-seekers with pastoral care, hospitality, social assistance, advocacy and prayer, seeking to nurture the human spirit, and foster human dignity. SIH serves in the ports in New York/New Jersey, Connecticut/Rhode Island, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The chaplains meet incoming ships, provide phones and Internet connections for the seafarers to call home, and take them into town to shop, sightsee or get a bite to eat. SIH also provides overnight accommodations, counseling, social work and support services to asylum-seekers at its offices and guesthouse at 123 East 15^th St. in Manhattan.  Its website is www.sihnyc.org.

Be a generous Tipper

Be a Generous Tipper on Your Next Cruise

By the Rev. Marsh Drege,

Executive Director of Seafarers and International House

Tipping on cruise ships is often the subject of confusion. Travelers often don’t know how much to tip, who to tip, or when to tip. Sometimes, the cruise company includes a gratuity on the final bill. Even then, people aren’t sure whether it’s enough to cover a job well done, or whether they should give extra. 

When the Carnival Cruiseline’s Triumph was in the news recently for breaking down, it reminded me again of the confusion surrounding tipping policies. While most luxury liners provide upscale accommodations and wonderful vacations, the working conditions and wages for the staff are very often less than desirable, and the crews depend on tips.

Not many people realize that the average pay for the hotel and service staff on cruise ships is as low as $1.20 cents an hour. With the addition of tips, staff can earn from $1,000 to $3,000 a month, which is considered a good income back in their native country. If they had to depend on hourly rate, they barely make a living.

The pressure to tip cruise staff is more prevalent than ever, according to Frommers, a well-known travel guide company. “From porters and bartenders to fitness instructors and massage therapists, who should you tip, and how?” says the company’s website, Frommers.com.

Cruise ship companies will justify paying their staff a low hourly rate by arguing that the crew is getting room and board included, in addition to worldwide travel exposure. But this argument is misleading. Yes, life onboard a ship can give a worker broad travel experience, but it also can be very lonely and disenfranchising. Port chaplains greeting arriving ships at U.S. ports, often report that the crews are depressed and tired. They long to get on land and to have a quick bite to eat, call home, shop for sundries, and just talk to someone other than the people they’ve been onboard with for six to eight months.

When traveling this year, please keep the crews in mind for the work they do to assure you have a great trip. In general, cabin stewards, butlers, dining room waiters and assistants, head waiters, bartenders, and excursion guides are tipped, in addition to anyone who provided a service. The general industry standard is a total of $10 to $12 per day. For two people traveling, that would amount to a tip of between $140 and $168 to cover all services during a seven-day cruise. Fifteen dollars a day is considered generous and much appreciated by these hard workers. Beverage bills usually have 15 percent tacked on.

Beginning with the porters who load bags on the ship, getting roughly $1 tip per bag, to the spa staff giving massages and facials, and getting 15% to 20% cost of the treatment, there is no shortage of tipping opportunities aboard a ship. Be sure that tips aren’t already included in your bill.

Carnival Cruise Lines, for example, charges the gratuities for dining and stateroom staff to a traveler’s onboard account, according to its website, www.carnival.com. The total amount is $11.50 per guest, per day, for guests over 2 years old. For beverages purchases, 15 percent is automatically added to the bill.

Carnival uses the following tipping breakdown:

$ 3.70  - Per Day Stateroom Services             

$ 5.80  - Per Day Dining Room Services        

$2 - Per Day Alternative Services: distributed to kitchen, entertainment, guest services and other hotel staff members.

High-end lines, including Seabourn, Silversea, Regent Seven Seas, and SeaDream Yacht Club, according to Frommers, all have "no tipping" policies and add a gratuity on the final bill. Check the policy before you book the trip.

Seafarers & International House, a Lutheran advocacy group for seafarers and asylum-seekers, advocates for better working conditions and wages on ships, for both cruise staff and merchant seamen. We also advocate for the care of their spiritual, emotional and practical needs when the ships are in our ports in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

This year, let’s be mindful of those working on the cruise ships, and to be a generous tipper, when we can, especially if we are so blessed to be able to travel the seas on vacation.

More information may be gotten on our website, www.sihnyc.org.

-- The Rev. Marsh Drege is an ordained minister for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

About Seafarers & International House

SIH is a mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  It was founded in 1873 as an Augustana Lutheran mission from Sweden on the premise that we are all called to welcome the stranger. Working at sea or immigrating to a new country is a lonely experience, and SIH welcomes these seafarers and asylum-seekers with pastoral care, hospitality, social assistance, advocacy and prayer, seeking to nurture the human spirit, and foster human dignity. SIH serves in the ports in New York/New Jersey, Connecticut/Rhode Island, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The chaplains meet incoming ships, provide phones and Internet connections for the seafarers to call home, and take them into town to shop, sightsee or get a bite to eat. SIH also provides overnight accommodations, counseling, social work and support services to asylum-seekers at its offices and guesthouse at 123 East 15^th St. in Manhattan.  Its website is www.sihnyc.org.

Raising Awareness on the Unfair Detainment of Seafarers

By the Rev. Marsh Drege,

Executive Director of Seafarers & International House

In the workforce, we take our rights for granted. We know what our legal rights are, in most cases, and we well understand what is expected of us at our jobs. We know we’ll never be held against our will, detained without reason, or arrested without cause.

That’s not the case, however, for the thousands of international seafarers who work in the shipping industry. They are often detained, arrested, and held for months while the U.S. Department of Justice investigates a ship that is thought to have polluted international waters or broken a law at sea. In cases when a crime is suspected, the crew is met by U.S. authorities when it pulls into port.

Detainment can be confusing and frightening to the workers on ships, many of whom are from third-world countries and don’t have labor unions supporting them. They often have limited English, don’t know their rights, or feel that they can’t speak up for themselves. They work for shipping companies that are registered in countries other than the United States, where the employment standards are often substandard compared to our own. These crews are low-hanging fruit and easily victimized in these cases.

You might not realize that very few shipping companies register their ships in the United States. That’s because they can get a better deal and are able to hire cheaper, non-union labor if they register their ship in Thailand, or a dozen or so other countries. U.S.-registered ships require that the owners hire unionized labor, at a much higher cost to the companies. Bottom line: It’s cheaper for shipping companies to do business outside the United States.

In addition to working conditions and wages being deplorable for many who work at sea, their protection and rights are often non-existent. These hardworking seafarers – many of who get on a ship in January and don’t return home for 12 months – often are treated unimaginably poor.

SIH is often asked to minister to seafarers who are being held by the U.S. government. Sometimes, a ship is thought to have purposely or accidently polluted the ocean, or done something illegal, and the merchant seamen are questioned or become witnesses in the case, even though they have done nothing. Sometimes, an investigation is being conducted, and seamen are greeted by police or the Department of Justice at the port and detained. Our chaplains have ministered to several groups of seamen over the years who were held in this country for months on end, without much information as to why they were being held or even the language capacity to understand what they were told. They often don’t know what their part in the investigation will be except that they were part of the crew.

One of SIH chaplains, Ruth Setaro, who ministers to the New Haven, Connecticut, port, tells me that quite often, the detained men are housed in a cheap hotel with no access to transportation. They sit – day after day – watching TV out of complete bored. They are isolated and miss their families back home, and are scared that they’ll be implicated in some part of the illegal act committed by their employer. They don’t often understand what is going on, and have no information about when they can return to their ship or their home.

In the worst cases, the seamen will lose their jobs and be labeled unemployable because they are now seen as whistle-blowers or snitches, even though they’re not. Setaro says they are alone, scared and bored.

In these cases, Setaro is relied upon as the only support system for these men. She invites them to meals at her home, takes them shopping and to run errands, and often arranges for activities to ease the boredom. She has been known to host the men at her home for holiday meals with her family, as well as have them over for popcorn and a movie. In one instance, she arranged for a group of men to paint a church, as they often want to be active and hate sitting around.

Why should these innocent workers be held when the ship has been allowed to leave port? Wouldn’t a better solution be to let the workers return home and detain the ship and the company owners? The Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice will detain members of the crew as material witnesses, while releasing the ship. The ship owner has to pay for the accommodations and food for the crew while it is detained. The DOJ considers this to be a protective action by the shipping company of its seamen.

This is backwards thinking. Detaining innocent people because they can, while letting the ship leave the port and continue on its journey?

This treatment of detained seafarers is neither protective nor fair. It’s just plain wrong.

Join me in calling for fair treatment of seafarers – both at sea and in our country.

You may copy this letter to send to your local legislator in Washington:

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ 

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Date

Your Name

Your Address

Your Town

Dear __________________:

I’m writing to join the many Lutherans across the country who are calling for the fair and humane treatment of merchant sailors when they are in the United States.

It has come to my attention, that quite often, crews of merchant ships are detained in U.S. ports while the Department of Justice investigates something that may have happened illegally on the ship while at sea.

I understand that the crews, many of whom understand little English, are often made to stay for months in a limited hotel room if they are considered witnesses for the DOJ, while the ship, which perpetrated the crime, is allowed to leave port.

We wouldn’t tolerate such situations for ourselves, and we shouldn’t accept the same for visitors to our country.

We stand in solidarity with anyone who is treated less than fairly by the United States, and situations for detained seamen are deplorable.

Please use your authority as my representative in Congress to make my voice heard for the fair and humane treatment for detained merchant sailors.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME

More information on this issue may be obtained on our website, www.sihnyc.org.

- The Rev. Marsh Drege is an ordained minister for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America