SIU and Engineers

[seagull]

Hello:
There is amovement by the SIU to represent Engineers on the Lakes.. wonder if anyone out there has had experience, as an engineer, with the SIU as their union ? Would like to hear views and comments on this..
brgds

[The Dieselduck]

I think you have already seen my comments on the SIU and Engineers situation under the Misc Job topic area (http://www.dieselduck.ca/forum/viewtopi ... 57cb#p1262).

I had a discussion with one of the SIU reps that came on board and we had a frank discussion about it. This is no time to be dividing the associations representing workers. If they want to be an all encompassing union, I think that would be great, but they should do it with a spine and approach existing officer unions about merging, not a business venture (takeover) as it seems to be the case. At the very least SIU should be changing some of the language in their contract to reflect an officer position. The first and only contract I sailed under the SIU, was basically the same as the ratings, hell I think the words "OS" to "Engineer"was the only thing changed from the rating's contract, and I think that was done with Liquid Paper.

[offshoresnipe]

Is this the same SIU that is in the USA?

[D Winsor]

The Canadian SIU is affiliated with the American Union.
The Canadian Merchant Service Guild is also attempting to gain enough support to represent the "Lakes" Engineers
There are a good number engineers on the Lakes that were members of the SIU prior to becoming engineers

[offshoresnipe]

Ah, run fast, don't no anything about the SIU in your fine land, but here it is the joke of the US. I think the first thing that they teach you is to be able to say,
"not my job" or "hey dud I am still on break".

[Steamboat Al]

Hi, I came across this the other day and thought I would add my 2 cents worth to this discussion.

Let me start off by saying that I was a member of the SIU in Canada for 6 years the CMOU for 5 years and of course the CMSG for 26 years so I think that I may have a little insight into this. First off the SIU got into the business of representing engineers because way back when, the CMSG and the CMOU did not want to represent the workers of I believe was the Pelee Island ferry as it was to far away from their offices.

That said I believe that the SIU does a very good job of representing their workers but I firmly believe that the CMSG should represent all ships officers. I have no love affair with the CMOU (this is the union I believe is being raided by the SIU and CMSG at the moment) as I have been scre..ed by them in the past which was a favour I repaid when Mario Elrick and Richard Vezina decided to have their "Legal Strike" back in 2001. Lets not make any mistakes here this strike was a sham from beginning to end and was finally brought to an end when we (the 11 that refused to listen to the union) hired a lawyer to petition the Federal Minister of Labour to force the union to allow the workers to vote on their own contract after Elrick and Vezina left them on the picket lines for 6 months while all of the ships continued to sail.

You may or may not question why I called the Elrick Vezina strike a sham but Mr. Elrick wrote a newsletter which he refused to sign and accept responsibility for his statements back in September of 2001 which made absolutely outrageous remarks such as getting rid of 4th Engineers etc. this continued on to a meeting aboard the ship I was sailing on at the time when Mr. Elrick visited an said "that we would be on strike in December" how he knew this before the ballots were even mailed out I will never fully understand but none the less Mr. Elrick could fully predict that we were going to be on strike without even a vote on the contract that he an Richard Vezina refused to allow the membership to even vote on, they pulled this off by asking for and receiving a strike mandate from the membership which they acted on within 30 minutes of counting the ballots and not even going back to the table to bargain in good faith which I believe that this is what a strike mandate is for.

Funny thing I was a member of the CMOU back in 1987 when we went on strike and guess who worked on our ships, none other than Mr. Elrick. Strange how Mr. Elrick called me a "SCAB" during his and Richard Vezina's "Legal Strike". At the moment the CMSG has hired Mario Elrick to assist in raiding the CMOU contracts and I believe that the SIU is also attempting the same thing the point being that the CMOU does not do a very good job of representing it's workers (does anybody remember the CMOU Pension) or the companies and as such they are under attack from the other unions.

The point that I'm trying to make here is while the SIU is a good union to be a member of I do not think that they should represent officers as well as this could and probably will lead to a conflict of interest if a grievance was ever filed, let's say between an officer giving a lawful command and an unlicensed worker refusing such a command this of course would lead to a breakdown of the command structure aboard ship.

My apologies for rambling on about the CMOU strike but I think that this business of unions raiding other unions contracts is a rather disgusting affair but none the less I believe that as sailors we would all be better off being represented by 2 unions namely the CMSG and the SIU representing their respective workers. I hope that this helps clear the water a little about the subject.

[EL]

There should be one strong union instead several smaller ones. Look for example Nautilus-Numast union, representing seafarers from UK and Holland. Guys from deep-sea and offshore sectors should get accepted as well.

[TxMarEng]

aka "Brotherhood of Thieves

Ah, run fast, don't no anything about the SIU in your fine land, but here it is the joke of the US. I think the first thing that they teach you is to be able to say,
"not my job" or "hey dud I am still on break".