Newspaper article about cruise workers

[cruiserfriends]

What we have said all along...they rely on TIPS!

 

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060123/BUSINESS/601230354/1003/BUSINESS

[luv2cruz_74]

What we have said all along...they rely on TIPS!

 

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060123/BUSINESS/601230354/1003/BUSINESS

 

Thanks for posting! Very interesting article. Hopefully it will make a difference with the cheapskates who choose to stiff the cruise staff.

[piercetc4]

you should have to tip -

[WJ228]

Thank you for posting this article. It should be awake up call for anyone who has cruised. I worked for tips in a hotel for a year, before I went to nursing school. There were some great tippers,and others would have a group of 10 in their party. With all their luggage. You pick them up from the airport, take their luggage in to the hotel. Then they gave me a dollar!!! Thats rights, a dollar! So I always believe in tipping. Tips were a majority of my income during that year.

[MGoBlue2]

Somebody at the Courier-Journal's getting lazy - that's just a reprint of one part of a series that was published some time ago.

 

Here's a link to the original series: http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS07

[Lynnees]

I absolutely agree with gratuities. However, I don't believe in the auto-tip. That, to me, is only a service charge and not a way of saying "thank you" for all your hard work.

 

Like it or not, I remove those auto-tips because I want to say "thank you" myself. We have never, ever given less than the recommended amount, and usually more however it remains my decision.

[GuyFromCalifornia]

If someone doesn't want to leave a tip, because its optional, that is their right.

If someone feels that only service above and beyond the ordinary is deserving of a tip, that is their right.

If someone feels a little bit of a tip is better than nothing, that is their right.

If someone feels that the recommended amounts are fine for a cash tip, that is their right.

If someone feels they are comfortable with automatic tipping, that is their right.

If someone feels like giving someone an extra gift, that is their right.

 

But I will say that when people provide tips, or withold them, that they might consider that stiffing some professional waiter/waitress/ or room steward/cleaning crew who earns perhaps $25,000 a year here in America is one thing. But when a worker is being paid $50 a month and sending most of their salary to a family of nine back in their home country that perhaps the standard of who and for what level of service is deserving of a tip or not just might be a consideration when it comes to if and how much is provided as a tip. Pardon the run on sentence, pardon any impression that I might be imposing my values on anyone, and pardon any impression that I am directing my comments at anyone in particular. Just MHO.

[kenandlaura06]

Thanks for the link!

[kenandlaura06]

This article is so important for those of us who are fortunate to be able to cruise or have leisure time in order to appreciate how lucky we are.

[Captain Crunch]

Don't we support this sweatshop atmosphere by supporting this industry? Whether we want to feel good about ourselves by tipping, is mere rationalization for our contribution to this exploitation of 3rd world labor.

 

Whether or not one tips the auto-tip, a personal envelope, extra cash or nothing, just taking a cruise affirms the practice of subsistance wages, unfair employment contracts, endless working days, little time off and months without personal familial contact.

 

Whether or not I personally over tip, it cannot overcome the sense of guilt I possess reading that column and knowing that I contribute to the subjugation of others.

 

The cruiselines should charge each person additional hundreds of dollars as a service charge to raise the standards of living of their workers.

 

Big tip or no tip, aren't we all guilty of exploitation?

[kenandlaura06]

Don't we support this sweatshop atmosphere by supporting this industry? Whether we want to feel good about ourselves by tipping, is mere rationalization for our contribution to this exploitation of 3rd world labor.

 

Whether or not one tips the auto-tip, a personal envelope, extra cash or nothing, just taking a cruise affirms the practice of subsistance wages, unfair employment contracts, endless working days, little time off and months without personal familial contact.

 

Whether or not I personally over tip, it cannot overcome the sense of guilt I possess reading that column and knowing that I contribute to the subjugation of others.

 

The cruiselines should charge each person additional hundreds of dollars as a service charge to raise the standards of living of their workers.

 

Big tip or no tip, aren't we all guilty of exploitation?

 

I agree that the cruiselines should charge the service fees...but I don't feel personally guilty of exploitation...it is systematic exploitation.

[GMoney]

Capt - Very eloquently put. I totally agree with you. The media focuses so much on disappearing passengers, but this is the real story, if you ask me.

[Gingee]

What I am wondering is do they work year round or six months on and four off?

[dicar123]

Captain Crunch-

 

These workers are doing much better working for a cruise ship than they could at home. If they had a better opportunity somewhere else, they would take it.

 

Our vacations make it possible for their families to eat. Without our vacations, they would be home with their families but much poorer. It is a hard situation to be sure. But depriving them of the opportunity to do this work (by raising cruise prices, which would result in fewer passengers, and fewer jobs) certainly won't make their lives better.

[RobNC2001]

Excellent article. Thanks for posting.

[Nitra]

What I am wondering is do they work year round or six months on and four off?

 

 

My husband used to be one of these workers, they work 6 months on, 7 days a week, 16-20 hrs a day, then get 6 weeks off between contracts, unpaid.

 

My husband now works for NCL America, is an hourly employee and makes overtime. When NCL charges you those higher rates for their ships in Hawaii and mandatory tips on your sea charge at the end of the week, the crew is not seeing that money. They are in the higher rates, because they are US residents or citizens, are all Merchant Marine certified and union, and they get paid more and get overtime but still work 16-20 hrs a day for 5 months then get off for a few weeks, unpaid, then back again but the tip money, they only get that if it is handed right to him in the form of cash. He is making decent money but is working 80 hrs a week to do so and spending long periods gone from home. He made this choice so we dont complain, but for many on the International lines, like NCL International, RCCL, Carnival, etc, they go to the ships for the chance to make enough money to support their families back home, my husband did it to support his mom, who is widowed, and his younger brother. He opted to go back to the ship life, which is harder than you can imagine, to make enough money to come home and start his own business. He is tired, he is homesick, but every day he greets his passengers with a smile, serves them their meals with cheer, and enjoys meeting them and talking to them. I have a stack of mail here waiting for him to prove how much of an impression this exhausted man with the aching feet and back, left on them.

[TrinaLC]

Gimme a break, Captain Crunch. I know you are well meaning, but these cruise industry jobs while tough as can be are a means of providing for extended families at home. Most of the workers make more during their contract term than they could hope to in several years at home. Those that stick with it and move up the hierarchy can do quite well for themselves.

 

Most importantly, they make the CHOICE to work on the ship. That tells me that it is a better option than they otherwise have.

 

Any comparison to "slavery" as was made in the article is so far off base as to be almost unworthy of comment.

[mark290]

If you think the wages earned are not fair or the way in which compensation is derived I feel you should hold the employer responsible not the customer.

[GMoney]

I think you have to work it on both sides - both at the employer and consumer level. People get up in arms when Walmart and Nike are caught running sweatshops to make cheap sneakers and Kathy Lee Gifford clothes, but want to wash their hands of the cruise ship issue. I'm not saying cruise ships are sweatshops, but in both instances, corporations are taking advantage of a large pool of cheap labor that has few options and no voice. Same principle, different degrees.

 

Until recently, cruise lines were notorious for environmental violations, polluting the seas with arrogance because it was cheap and easy. It took some high profile violations and government enforcement to get them to change. In the absence of a strong govt presence to help with the labor situation (thanks to creative chartering), cruise ships will continue to pursue the bottom line at all costs until something forces them to change. Consumer pressure is the one of the few forces strong enough to drive such change.

 

NCL is struggling with the American chartered ships in Hawaii with all American crews, because those folks do not seem to thave the same work ethic as their internatl counterparts. Turnover is high and service suffers.

 

Historically, most of our families came from elsewhere and have a immgrant past, and were used in a similar way - as cheap, underpaid labor with little meaningful opportunity to advance. So we all have a bit more in common with these folks than we might at first think.

 

I believe that if we actually saw what these workers had to do day after day, we might feel differently.

 

In the end, consumers have to care. Any solution would like be passed on to us in the form of higher prices.

 

The ends do not always justify the means. Simply saying that "our vacations make it possible for their families to eat" doesn't make it right.

 

Just my 2 cents. Its a good topic.

[kenandlaura06]

I think you have to work it on both sides - both at the employer and consumer level. People get up in arms when Walmart and Nike are caught running sweatshops to make cheap sneakers and Kathy Lee Gifford clothes, but want to wash their hands of the cruise ship issue. I'm not saying cruise ships are sweatshops, but in both instances, corporations are taking advantage of a large pool of cheap labor that has few options and no voice. Same principle, different degrees.

 

Until recently, cruise lines were notorious for environmental violations, polluting the seas with arrogance because it was cheap and easy. It took some high profile violations and government enforcement to get them to change. In the absence of a strong govt presence to help with the labor situation (thanks to creative chartering), cruise ships will continue to pursue the bottom line at all costs until something forces them to change. Consumer pressure is the one of the few forces strong enough to drive such change.

 

NCL is struggling with the American chartered ships in Hawaii with all American crews, because those folks do not seem to thave the same work ethic as their internatl counterparts. Turnover is high and service suffers.

 

Historically, most of our families came from elsewhere and have a immgrant past, and were used in a similar way - as cheap, underpaid labor with little meaningful opportunity to advance. So we all have a bit more in common with these folks than we might at first think.

 

I believe that if we actually saw what these workers had to do day after day, we might feel differently.

 

In the end, consumers have to care. Any solution would like be passed on to us in the form of higher prices.

 

The ends do not always justify the means. Simply saying that "our vacations make it possible for their families to eat" doesn't make it right.

 

Just my 2 cents. Its a good topic.

 

You make some good points.

[Captain Crunch]

If you think the wages earned are not fair or the way in which compensation is derived I feel you should hold the employer responsible not the customer.

 

The customer generates the demand for the product, without the customer there is no reason for the employer to exist. The customer is not soley responsible but has a share of responsibility.

 

Aside from I posted earlier, what is also bothersome is that there are some people who populate these boards who seem to take the position that since the crew is poorly compensated and subject to long work days and prolnged work schedules, months on end, that the passengers ought to blindly provide compensation as in tips for service.

 

Hypothetically, if I receive all the service I expect: kind, prompt attention. Clean cabins, towels replaced in the morning and evening, toiletries replenished without request, polite service in the dining room in a leisurely paced meal, filling glasses, filling bread trays...Everything that a cabin steward and dining steward is supposed to do, they are merely doing the job and a tip is not neccessary. Since the price of the cruise includes service, I may feel no need to reward the mere performance of one's job description. The choice I make to do so is a completely voluntary action on my part and is benevolent. That failure to tip is completely and utterly as appropraite and providing a grauity.

 

The problem becomes the self fulfiling paradox that the cruise line underpays it's crew in anticiaption of quasi-mandatory (lemming-like) tipping, therefore there is no insentive to increase wages. The customer, ware of the backgrounds of poverty of the crew, the long work and underpayment feel a humane obligation to provide recompense, thus alieving the corporation from properly paying its' workers.