Some container ships and bulk carriers arriving at U.S. ports generate complaints from their crew members that they suffer from substandard conditions that include a shortage of food, according to Robert Wilkins, Executive Director, International Maritime Center and Chief Program Officer, Seafarers' Ministry of the Golden Gate.
Wilkins spoke to AJOT shortly before the Ministry’s World Maritime Day Connections Breakfast that took place on September 26th at the Port of Oakland. The event included a panel discussion with U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Andrew Sugimoto, Port of Oakland Maritime Director Bryan Brandes and Wilkins. The discussion topic was Seafarers’ Welfare, Maritime Sustainability and Public Safety in an Era of Climate Change.
Wilkins told AJOT that a common problem facing some mariners is that shipowners are supposed to contract with them to work aboard ships for not more than nine months but sometimes, owners extend tours illegally: “We go on ships … primarily just to listen and hear what the condition … of things are: ‘How are you doing?’ … Asking is there anything that they need? And then asking some sharp, insightful questions that let us know if this ship is being operated according to law … ‘So, when did you get on? So, you got on in Hong Kong? And so how long have you been on? Oh, I got on, let me see this is September. I got on last November.’ Wrong answer: Violation of international law. You should have been off two months ago. The time limit is generally nine months…. what happens is you get some of these ship operators and they extend the mariner’s contract while they're at sea.”
The Seafarers’ Ministry does not have regulatory authority to deal with violations but the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITWF) headquartered in London, (U.K.) does: “They have inspection and enforcement authority. The challenge … is that they have less than 300 inspectors in the world. They have 30 in the United States. It turns out one of them is on my team … She is not exclusively here. She has got a huge territory, but I can text her and say: ‘Hey, we got a problem. I need you to get over here.’ And she can go on and make an official inspection. And if there are violations, we clean them up. Then, if they can't be cleaned up … then we call the U.S. Coast Guard.”
While most vessel operators obey the law and treat their mariners well, there are exceptions, Wilkins says. A persistent problem is poor management: “We have a lot of poor management of ships. We have run into the situation more than once where they don't have enough food, they don't have adequate food… And we have … had to get food to the mariner on the … actual ship. They might be in any port.”
Ships that we have had a problem with in terms of food tend to be berthed at Crockett (a port North of Oakland) Ships that dock there tend to have a lot of issues: “We went to Walmart and almost bought it out to get them food because they literally did not have food (for the crew) at the time. “
Wilkins emphasized that the port is not the problem.
Another time, “We got a cable from London from the ITWF sent to us and said: “Hey, we need some help…The crew on a ship says: “We are being abused. The captain is stealing money. We do not have enough food …. So, we go on ship and we find out ... they were charging them for water! We finally found the owner. They were … Japanese people in Brazil. And we got that cleared up. They stopped charging the crew for water immediately and reimbursed them and made up the gap in the per diem (payments for additional provisions) for the entirety of the trip. It was that … or they were not going to sail.”
Wilkins says another priority for the Seafarers’ Center is to provide minimal heath care checkups:” We are establishing what we call the Ship Shape Clinic here with Cal State East Bay School of Nursing. And they are public health nurses. And one of our ship visitors is the head of the public health nursing unit there … So, we are going to establish a clinic here. ‘
Because Oakland is the second port of call on the U.S. Pacific Coast (after Los Angeles/Long Beach) “(ships are) not here long … For us, we have to do a better job of letting them (mariners) know our services and our availability. And we're trying to be able to establish stronger communications with the ships as they are coming in. I am going to be working with Scott (Humphrey Executive Director, Marine Exchange of the San Francisco Bay) to see if there's some kind of ways that we can … establish some communication with the terminals and terminal operators … And I'm working also with Chris Mourgos, West Coast Regional Manager at Norton Lilly, a ship agency. “
