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The ETF mobile secretariat/Welfare Centre is travelling from 4 to 29 October 2010 along the rivers of Antwerp, Amsterdam, Konigswinter, Cologne, Passau, Rüdesheim, Basel and Vienna, a journey of more than 6,000 km. In the framework of the ETF River Cruise Campaign, the ETF secretariat/Welfare Centre visits river cruise vessels to raise the awareness of more than 4,800 river cruise crewmembers regarding their workers’ rights. On this webpage, you can read their daily report.
Please click here to download the agenda of the ETF mobile secretariat.
Wednesday 27 October 2010
On our second day in Vienna, the quay is full with river cruise vessels that arrived overnight. We visit the following ships: the MS Der Kleine Prinz, the MS Viking Pride, the MS Rousse Prestige, the MS Arosa Donna, the MS River Empress and the MS River Beatrice.
Some river cruise crew speak in a very passionate way about their work. One hotel manager, who worked already for 5 years on the same vessel, described that the season was coming to its end and tears almost came into her eyes. She was already longing for the Christmas tours. We also experience a strong bond between the crewmembers, even between crew from different vessels. They usually find a local pub where they all meet up and tell each other their stories. Therefore, they are very supportive of having a welfare centre for river cruise crew.
Many crewmembers we met were pleasantly surprised that for once, this was not a campaign for passengers but dedicated to the crew. Apparently, all the company’s efforts are directed to improve the passengers’ comfort. For example, older ships have reasonable comfort in their cabins for crew, two single cabins with in the middle a shared bathroom. On board of the new ships, every square inch is dedicated to the passengers’ comfort. Crewmembers have a cabin that has to be shared with at least one and up to three colleagues.
These four campaigning weeks have been very interesting and productive. It is clear this has to be repeated, to the benefit and wellbeing of the thousands of crewmembers that dedicate their professional life to the river cruise industry.
Tuesday 26 October 2010
The mobile ETF secretariat/Welfare centre arrived on Monday 25th October around 15.30 o’clock in Vienna. The weather took a nasty turn on us, as we had to travel in heavy rains during the last two days. However, the riverbank was full of activity with coaches passing on and off and the river cruise vessels welcomed many new passengers.
One captain gave us the firm advice to be present in Düsseldorf during the Medica fair – a renowned international medical fair for experts – that takes place from 17 to 20th November 2010. Not only will his ship serve as additional hotel capacity for the city during that week, but most of the river cruise vessels will be in Düsseldorf at that time. According to his experience, at least 30 ships will be stationed in Düsseldorf for the entire week. This might become the ideal location for the ETF’s next meeting with the River Cruise sector.
Today we visited 5 ships, namely the MS Avalon Tranquility, the MS Aurelia, the MS Serenade 2, the MS Viking Sky and the MS Vivaldi. One of the hotel managers welcomed our initiative to explore the need for welfare centres, a place where the crew of the different vessels could meet and spend some time together. He guaranteed the full cooperation of his entire crew.
Most vessels are on their last voyage before their first although short winter break. One can feel that the river cruise season is ending and our last days of campaigning are approaching.
Thursday 21 October 2010
Under a clear blue sky, the Mobile secretariat/Welfare centre headed for Leystapelwerf in Cologne, the ideal spot to visit river cruise vessels. Together with the day excursion vessels of the Köln-Düsseldorf, the long quay was quite full. None of the expected vessels called in today, but 5 unexpected vessels arrived: the MS Swiss Crown, the MS Rigoletto, the MS River Queen, the MS River Harmony and the MS Statendam. The Elegant Lady passed by when we arrived at the River Bank. The MS Rigoletto welcomed us in a rush since loads of passengers filled the reception area, but we had the chance to exchange forms and information. We hope our message will find its way to all crewmembers.
The more we talk with crewmembers, the more we get a better picture of the river cruise industry. Today, we’ve learned that many river cruise vessels go to Düsseldorf next week to become the cities’ additional hotel capacity whilst a fair takes place in the Düsseldorfer Messe. This practice occurs in many of Germany’s large cities with fairs and exhibition halls located near the Rhine. A nice gentleman of the Köln-Düsseldorfer company informed us that the only ships expected for tomorrow were the two Viking vessels we’ve already visited twice. That’s why we decided to go home for the weekend. This week brings the total of visited ships to 54, or more than a quarter of the total fleet, with one more week to go.
Wednesday 20 October 2010
This morning, we’ve changed plans and stayed for another day in Rüdesheim am Rhein, since 11 ships were scheduled to arrive today. According to our agenda, we should have been heading for Cologne. But we were informed only 2 ships, which we’ve already visited, would call in. The wine plucking season is almost finished by now and the Riesling wine industry is welcoming hundreds of tourists, many of whom arrive by River Cruise. Consequently, we have to jump over a number of on board delivered wine crates while visiting the ships. The vessels that called in today and received a ship visit, were the MS Da Vinci and MS Poseidon (Feenstra), the Elegant Lady (Istrum Travel Ltd), MS Poetry (KD Branch Office Limassol), the MS Rhein Prinzessin (Princess Rivercruises AG), the MS Avalon Luminary, the MS Virginia (Trans River Line BV) and the MS Swiss Crystal (Scylla Tours AG).
One of the captains invited us at his table and we had an interesting discussion on the meaning of “trade union membership”. The captain, a notorious trade union member for many decades, amply underlined the importance of solidarity across all national boundaries and ships’ functions. He said that it’s the industry’s responsibility to ensure that long term salaries, living and working conditions on board inland waterways vessels and also river cruise vessels are not only determined by labour shortage or superfluous. We could only agree; it’s a returning issue that requires an in depth discussion in the near future. The longer the mobile secretariat/Welfare centre is on the move, the more issues we encounter to tackle. There is still a long voyage to sail for the ETF IWT Section.
Tuesday 19 October 2010
The second half of the River Cruise campaign did not start quite well. Yesterday, the mobile secretariat/welfare centre was due to arrive in Köningswinter. However, a railway strike in Belgium deranged the traffic in such a way, the mobile secretariat was forced to drive straight to Rüdesheim am Rhein where it arrived at around 18.00hrs.
The mobile secretariat/welfare centre headed for exactly the same spot as two weeks ago, on the Rhine riverbanks. Unfortunately, we were denied permission to deploy our centre. Apparently, the ship owners complained towards the local authorities that it was unacceptable their passengers were permanently confronted with a trade union and its campaign. Therefore, the secretariat had to move to a nearby parking lot and continued its activities from there on.
We visited 7 ships, namely the MS France and MS Leonardo Da Vinci (CroisiEurope), the MS Statendam (Feenstra Rijn Lijn BV), MS Olympia (Piz Olympia GmbH), MS Swiss Corona and Swiss Crown (Scylla Tours AG) and the MS River Cloud II (Sea Cloud Cruises GmbH). We paid a quick second visit to the MS Victor Hugo (CroisiEurope). The majority of the captains and the hotel managers were informed about our initiative. They were well prepared for a possible ship visit and were very hospitable.
Wednesday 13 October 2010
Hubert Griepe of the German Landeskriminalamt welcomed us when we arrived in Passau and installed our rolling secretariat at the Fritz-Schäffer-Promenade. The local water and town police gave us permission to park at the ideal location, on the riverbank in front of the Premicon Queen and the Ms Swiss Gloria. We were glad to notice the hectic activity on the quay although it came with the downside we were asked to delay our ship visits until the afternoon.
The presence of Hubert together with the mobile ETF secretariat must have drawn the attention of the press since the Passau Zeitung and the Bayerischer Rundfunk, a local paper and a local radio station, send out their journalists to meet with us. They were quite surprised when Hubert Griepe told them some stories about onboard life, about river cruise crew that has to travel from the other side of the world to embark on a 9 month voyage for just some tips from the passengers. However, these first hand testimonies underline once again the importance of this campaign.
We visited the Swiss Emerald, the Swiss Gloria and the Premicon Queen. The Swiss ships’ were very cooperative and both captains welcomed our initiative and will make sure the questionnaires are further distributed amongst their crew.
Some crewmembers start to recognise the mobile secretariat/welfare centre and greet us as we drive by. It shows our efforts are appreciated and effective and it strengthens our motivation for the coming thousands kilometres of travelling.
Tuesday 12 October 2010
Today we were a bit disappointed about the lack of activity on the Linz River Bank. We arrived shortly before 10 o’clock and only one river cruise vessel, the Swiss Emerald, was waiting for us to be visited and no other vessels were expected to arrive. And even this ship was not what you would call a treasure full of crewmembers to be informed and invited to our mobile secretariat. The receptionist explained that almost all staff had left for a guided tour in town or was sleeping in his or her cabin. We had to set all our hope on next Wednesday in Passau when we would encounter the Swiss Emerald again. The mobile secretariat left Linz short after lunch, on its way to Passau where we have a scheduled meeting with Hubert Griepe, Head of the Bavarian water police. We hope tomorrow will bring more animation.
Monday 11 October 2010
The mobile secretariat/welfare centre left at 19.00hrs on Saturday 9 October for a 1155 km trip to Vienna. We arrived on Monday, 8.00 o’clock at Handelskai 3 where we were informed that only five vessels would call Vienna that day. For the next day, no new arrivals were scheduled. Therefore, we decided to travel to Linz on Tuesday. Two local Vida colleagues joined us by noon. They informed us that on Thursday, 20 ships were scheduled to arrive in Vienna. Luckily, they proposed to visit these vessels themselves since by then the mobile secretariat will arrive in Basel, Switzerland.
We visited five River Cruise vessels, namely the Premicon Queen, the A’Rosa Bella, the A’Rosa Riva, the Avalon Tapestry and the Rousse Sofia. The most luxurious vessel was without any doubt the Premicon Queen with a maximum capacity of 96 passengers, equipped to provide a 24/7 room service to all passengers in their private suites. The Rousse Sofia was doing its very last trip of the season, only 5 sailing days to go. The other vessels were also on one of their last trips before going into a short winter stop just until some days before Christmas. Then they resume their voyages until right after New Year when a longer winter stop will start until the beginning of March. So it’s clear we can no longer state that the River Cruise sector is a seasonal occupation. Apparently, more and more crewmembers and hotel staff are hired on a so-called permanent basis but with contracts of one year. The winter stop(s) are just the accumulated free time they spend at home. On the other hand, not all companies use the same terms and conditions. One specific company made an issue of keeping its crewmembers, nautical and restaurant, happy under the motto “a happy crewmember is a happy passenger”.
Today’s visits ended with meeting, for the first time during this campaign, Philippine crewmembers who were repairing the deck. They were very curious but they did not dare to speak to us. We did our best to make ourselves clear but they even claimed not to understand English. It makes it very difficult to inform them about their social rights, but we will keep up our efforts to address all 4,800 crewmembers, even those workers who do not understand any of the 10 different languages in which our leaflet is translated.
Friday 8 October 2010
This morning the mobile secretariat/welfare centre arrived at about 7 o’clock at the Ruyterskade in Amsterdam where at the same time two Viking ships moored, the Viking Sun and the Viking Helvetia. We immediately started calling the Viking Basel head office in order to make sure we obtained the formal permission to visit the vessels. By the time the mobile secretariat was joined by Debbie Klein of the ITF, the Netherlands and Daan Troost, Nautilus International, we got the formal approval of the Viking Head office together with many apologies for the so called misunderstanding.
The four of us went on board the Viking Sun and the Captain and the Hotel Manager invited us for a warm cup of coffee. The head office already had informed them of the changed attitude, and they gladly discussed with us the pros and cons of life on board a river cruise vessel. They even handed over their crew list. Both were veterans of the Inland Waterways sector, the captain had sailed with the Köln-Düsseldorfer for even more than 20 years.
The crew member from the Viking Helvetia, who had returned all our earlier distributed leaflets and questionnaires, was more than happy to accept them once again. He promised that by the time we meet again, the questionnaires would be completed. Shortly after lunch the mobile secretariat left Amsterdam to return to Antwerp. The next trip will start this Saturday 9 October late afternoon in the direction of Vienna.
Thursday 7 October 2010
As we installed the mobile secretariat/welfare centre this morning at Leystapelwerft alongside the Rhine, 4 river cruise vessels called shortly one after the other into Cologne: the Viking Sky, the Heinrich Heine, the Lady Anne and the Bell Riva. Together with the Rhein Prinzessin and numerous vessels of KD (Köln-Düsseldorfer), the long stretched quay was quite full. The popular Belgian musical duo “Nicole and Hugo” arrived to join one of the cruise vessels as the evenings’ scheduled entertainment.
At first sight, we perceived the Lady Anne as a fortress since the gangway was lifted and a deterrent sign made clear we were trespassing and treading on private property. We were told that the captain and the hotel manager were not on board, visiting the city. However, the crew was very reluctant to talk to us, which made it all look suspicious. One of the kitchen staff member’s curiosity won the battle over his fear and he came on to the “landbrücke” to have a chat. He was surprised by this campaign and gladly accepted the questionnaires and goodies. We visited the Rhein Prinzessin, the Bell Riva and the Heinrich Heine and distributed questionnaires, leaflets and pens.
While approaching the Viking Sky, the hotel manager denied access to the ship as long as we did not get a formal permission of the Basel head office. Even after many phone calls with the head office and discussions with either the receptionist or the secretary, we did not succeed in getting such permission. Luckily, some of the nautical crewmembers were more willing to meet us. We spent quite some time chatting with them on the quay, which was a very productive exchange of information.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Today we left the camping at Leystapelwerft alongside the Rhine in the early morning, long before 8 O’clock. Torben Seebold of Verdi had arranged authorisation for the ETF Mobile Secretariat/Welfare centre in Cologne. The weather has turned and the fierce wind prevented us from installing our table and chairs in front of the camper. The two large ETF baliflags attract quite some attention from the passengers on board of the excursion boats.
Today we welcomed the freelance journalist Jürgen Schön in the camper. Torben Seebold has translated the ETF press release into German and has sent it to all local newspapers and journalists. Jürgen Schön sometimes writes for the local Cologne Verdi paper. We informed him about the particularities of the River Cruise industry and its specific pro’s and cons. Jürgen was quite surprised to find out that the quality on board is the pure privilege of the passengers, and that the crewmembers have to live and work with much less comfort. The very unpredictable welcome of the ETF on board of these vessels also came as a surprise to him.
In Cologne there is no information available regarding which ships will call the city so it became a “wait and see” exercise. Two large vessels arrived, the Viking Helvetia and the Scenic Diamond, however our visits to these ships could not be considered as a complete success. In one ship, we barely had the time to distribute our leaflets and questionnaires. In the other ship the captain did not want to cooperate anymore since it was already the umpteenth time the ETF affiliates paid him a visit. It was not a very encouraging experience but it made clear that our work is needed and proved how important it is we continue with this campaign and our efforts.
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
It started today on a wrong foot since the camper got stuck in the camping field. The constant rains of these last few weeks inundated the site, but in the end we managed to continue our trip thanks to a helpful local farmer.
Today, we visited the Modigliani, the Mona Lisa, Arlene, the Spirit of Caledonia, the Symphonie, the La Bohème and the Victor Hugo. We experienced it is not easy to have one-on-one conversations with the crewmembers. Some take a nap, some enjoy a stroll in the town and the others remain on duty. Many of the CroisiEurope captains knew about the River Cruise campaign since they have been visited by Verdi some weeks ago.
The hotel manager of one of these ships has been a former colleague of the Hungarian Railway Trade Union and knows the ETF very well. She was keen on cooperating with us and promised to pass on the questionnaires to her colleagues. We’ve noticed that many crew members do not dare to contact us directly under the presence of the captains. But the goodies, the pens and playing cards, are a huge success. The crewmembers are also very interested in the possibility to fill in the questionnaires on line and anonymously. We have the genuine feeling that the crew will find their way to the questionnaires.
Today it became clear that the accommodation on board is a returning concern. They often complain openly to us they have to spend their time in a very tight cabin with one or more colleagues. Every square inch on board has been turned into passenger cabins. Up till now we did not get the opportunity to visit one of the crew cabins. Working time also seems to be a key issue, some of the crewmembers (hotel staff) work more than 19 hours a day with only a scarce 1,5 hour of rest (free time).
In general we perceive a very positive reaction towards our presence along side the Rhine and we are convinced that the ETF’s presence is well appreciated.
Monday 4 October 2010
Yesterday, the ETF/ITF Mobile Secretariat, our little “welfare centre”, travelled from Antwerp, Belgium, to arrive today at our first stop in Rüdesheim am Rhein in Germany. It was a 348 km trip under a blue sky which increased our enthusiasm to start this intense information campaign.
Our first day was already a very productive one since we visited 6 ships and had a “meet and greet” with several crewmembers. We thank Mr. Uwe Simon from the Rudesheim city hall for his kind cooperation. He provided us with the authorisation to station at the landing piers of the River Cruise Vessels alongside the Rhine. Torben Seebold, Verdi Gewerkshaftssekretär, joined us the entire day when we paid a visit to, among others, the vessels Botticelli of CroisiEuorpe, its sister the Douce France, the Sainte Odile, the Amalegro of AMA Waterways GmbH, the Elegant Lady and the Alemannia.
Life on board of River Cruise vessels when they come alongside the quay is very hectic. Passengers go ashore, water tanks need refilling, vegetables and groceries are delivered. At the same time, a part of the crew has its time off and plays for example some football on the riverbank. We always received a warm welcome on the vessels and handed out numerous questionnaires to the crewmembers.
The mobile secretariat was very well noticed and in the afternoon some of the crewmembers paid a visit to the secretariat. A travel manager who works on one of the vessels expressed the concern regarding the accommodation problems on board of these vessels, the minuscule cabins which have to be shared with two or more colleagues.
This very first day delivered already more than was expected. We’ve met many crewmembers who were enthusiastic about our campaign, many stories were told and even more filled in questionnaires were collected. The outcome of today proved that trade union presence for the workers in this segment of Inland Waterways in Europe deserves more than an ad hoc approach!
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