3 ms·

Pay is not the problem. I am offering competitive pay. Tugboat captains with a Master of Towing require years of sea time. More are retiring than being created.

Pay is not the problem. I am offering competitive pay. Tugboat captains with a Master of Towing require years of sea time. More are retiring than being created. I am currently training deckhands. It will be years before they are ready. Meanwhile, I am keeping boats less utilized than they could be. Fixing immigration would allow me to hire qualified captains from abroad. It would similarly benefit other kinds of companies.

toomuchtodo 4y ago
Have you explored the EB3 visa for hiring for these roles?
- mcculley 4y ago
  We have researched this a bit. We are working with a staffing company that claims to know how to execute the process. It is not yet clear to me if we should be outsourcing this or trying to do it entirely ourselves.
- sgent 4y ago
  Any ship using US deckhands will need US command crew (Jones Act). Immigration might open up deckhand positions, but not master positions until they naturalize.
  - mcculley 4y ago
    Yes. I don’t expect fixes to immigration to resolve constraints with Jones Act. I do expect it would make other large parts of the labor market more flexible and relieve pressure on positions constrained by Jones Act.
    - toomuchtodo 4y ago
      As someone in the industry, what changes would you make to the Jones Act to better enable you to fill the roles you’re having a challenge filling while still meeting the merchant marine industry capacity national security concerns the Jones Act attempts to solve for? I would pay to read this as a blog post btw. Policy must evolve to meet the needs of society. Edit: no rush! I understand time is at a premium and in short supply.
      - mcculley 4y ago
        I will try to articulate a coherent answer for this. It will probably take me a while. I appreciate your interest.
nradov 4y ago
Try offering more than "competitive" pay. Some employees who have retired can un-retire, if the incentives are sufficient.
- mcculley 4y ago
  I am offering lots in the way of flexibility. This is a very illiquid labor market compared to most industries. There are simply much fewer candidates. My company's biggest disadvantage is that we have very irregular voyages (we colloquially refer to this as "tramp steamer" work). This is in contrast to work in the oil industry, where a credentialed captain can work a very regular schedule and be guaranteed to see family regularly. This means that our ideal candidate is likely to be very young or beyond the years where he or she might want to stay home more. I inherited responsibility for running this company two years ago due to a death in the family right in time to face this demographic crisis. I find that most maritime companies that are not big enough to have a large labor pool are having the same problem. We are all competing for a shrinking pool of labor and doing anything we can to attract them. [editing to add] A lot of the retiring captains simply cannot unretire due to health concerns. A captain is required to have an annual medical certificate. Many captains in their late 50s have heart trouble and get removed from service. It turns out that spending 24 hours a day for 2-4 weeks at a time in an environment where one cannot get any cardio, sitting in a chair, and having plenty of food leads to heart problems. A lot of the younger candidates sharp enough to pass the tests can get a much more comfortable job anywhere else. (I certainly chose programming because I did not enjoy being hip-deep in fish growing up on commercial fishing boats.)
deleted 4y ago
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toomuchtodo 4y ago

Have you explored the EB3 visa for hiring for these roles?

mcculley 4y ago
We have researched this a bit. We are working with a staffing company that claims to know how to execute the process. It is not yet clear to me if we should be outsourcing this or trying to do it entirely ourselves.
sgent 4y ago
Any ship using US deckhands will need US command crew (Jones Act). Immigration might open up deckhand positions, but not master positions until they naturalize.
- mcculley 4y ago
  Yes. I don’t expect fixes to immigration to resolve constraints with Jones Act. I do expect it would make other large parts of the labor market more flexible and relieve pressure on positions constrained by Jones Act.
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    As someone in the industry, what changes would you make to the Jones Act to better enable you to fill the roles you’re having a challenge filling while still meeting the merchant marine industry capacity national security concerns the Jones Act attempts to solve for? I would pay to read this as a blog post btw. Policy must evolve to meet the needs of society. Edit: no rush! I understand time is at a premium and in short supply.
    - mcculley 4y ago
      I will try to articulate a coherent answer for this. It will probably take me a while. I appreciate your interest.

nradov 4y ago

Try offering more than "competitive" pay. Some employees who have retired can un-retire, if the incentives are sufficient.

mcculley 4y ago
I am offering lots in the way of flexibility. This is a very illiquid labor market compared to most industries. There are simply much fewer candidates. My company's biggest disadvantage is that we have very irregular voyages (we colloquially refer to this as "tramp steamer" work). This is in contrast to work in the oil industry, where a credentialed captain can work a very regular schedule and be guaranteed to see family regularly. This means that our ideal candidate is likely to be very young or beyond the years where he or she might want to stay home more. I inherited responsibility for running this company two years ago due to a death in the family right in time to face this demographic crisis. I find that most maritime companies that are not big enough to have a large labor pool are having the same problem. We are all competing for a shrinking pool of labor and doing anything we can to attract them. [editing to add] A lot of the retiring captains simply cannot unretire due to health concerns. A captain is required to have an annual medical certificate. Many captains in their late 50s have heart trouble and get removed from service. It turns out that spending 24 hours a day for 2-4 weeks at a time in an environment where one cannot get any cardio, sitting in a chair, and having plenty of food leads to heart problems. A lot of the younger candidates sharp enough to pass the tests can get a much more comfortable job anywhere else. (I certainly chose programming because I did not enjoy being hip-deep in fish growing up on commercial fishing boats.)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]