A brighter lookout?

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محتوى الصفحة: Home > مجلة النقل الدولي "Transport International" > Issue 19 April 2005 > A Brighter Lookout?

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Roald Alyakrinsky shares his hopes of a better future for Russian seafarers

A couple of years ago I was standing on the docks of our most northerly port, Dudinka, next to two ships moored alongside each other. Over one of them fluttered the Cypriot flag, and over the other the Russian flag. I knew that Russian seafarers were working on board both ships, which belonged to the Murmansk Shipping Company.

I had discovered from a visit to the Cypriot-flagged ship that the wages of its crew were in accordance with ITF benchmarks – an able seaman received 1300 US dollars a month. On the other ship, things were different. I got into a conversation with an able seaman on board who represented the Seafarers’ Union of Russia (SUR). This seafarer had four professions—able seaman, motor-mechanic, turner, and gas welder—and he put his knowledge of all of them to full use on board the ship.

“So how much do they pay you?” I enquired.

“Five and a half thousand roubles (US$183) a month when the ship is in Murmansk (its home port) and 10,000 (US$333) when it’s on a voyage.”

He added that food and clothing were expensive in the Polar regions, and that it was difficult for him to provide for his family: his wife, who earned much less than him, and his two school-age daughters.

“So why don’t you get a job on the Cypriot-flagged ship?” I asked. “With your qualifications, they’d probably be glad to hire you.”

He shrugged his shoulders and said candidly: “What if the master or the chief engineer doesn’t like me? Or they decide to replace me with someone they know—most likely, in exchange for a bribe? There have been many such cases. I don’t want to stay here without a job.”

Some time later, on board the same ship, I put the same question to the navigator, an older man. He replied that he didn’t want to “work under a foreign flag”, because “you don’t earn a pension” there.

A fairer deal

Leaving the ship, I walked past two harbour cranes, which were painstakingly loading onto ships precious metals that had been mined not far from Dudinka, and wondered why it was that people were earning so little under the flag of one of the richest countries in the world in terms of mineral resources.

The world’s press often features reports of how seafarers from the countries that emerged from the break-up of the Soviet Union have been living in poverty. Crews from those countries have frequently been abandoned by their shipowners in far-off ports and forced to rely on Christian missions and the kind-hearted residents of port cities for their survival.

Two years have passed since my arctic voyage to Dudinka. We are still living between the Soviet past and what we are promised will be “a civilised capitalist future”.

Capitalism is flourishing in our country – but not a civilised capitalism, rather one that appears grasping, uncouth, and wild. In harmony with this process, unscrupulous shipowners are continuing to cheat the seafarers and fishermen of our region.

And yet there is some positive movement. Murmansk seafarers working on board Russian-flagged ships for example, have received pay rises bringing them up to US$500 per month, and the SUR reports to be at the point of bringing their pay up to the level recommended by the Joint Maritime Commission of the ILO.

Slowly but surely, seafarers’ salaries are rising—not just in Russia, but also in other countries of the region. And thanks to the implementation of an ITF-sponsored regional programme for the development of seafarers’ welfare (see box), the conditions of their stays in port have also improved.

Major improvements to port facilities

A five-year programme for the development of seafarers’ welfare in the CIS and Baltic states has entered its final year in 2005. more >>

Revitalising the industry

Russian shipping companies have begun to acquire more ships since the lumpsum tax levies and customs duties on ships bought abroad were slightly lowered (from 26.2 per cent to 24.2 per cent). Four new tankers have been commissioned for Georgia. In the Ukraine, the new Danube–Black Sea canal is up and running and, between 27 August and 8 November 2004 alone, 136 Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian, Turkish, Azerbaijani and Korean ships had passed through it.

The Azerbaijani national shipping company Kaspar is acquiring the “sea–river”-class ships that it needs from the famous Russian shipbuilding yard Sormovo, on the Volga. Azerbaijan remains the only country in the region whose ships sail under the national flag.

Russia has for a long time already been trying to find a way to bring back under its flag the numerous ships that have been transferred to offshore registers in order for shipowners to enjoy what they see as commercial advantages. The means chosen for replacing foreign flags with the Russian flag was the adoption of a Law on the Russian International Register.

But will this register improve the fortunes of the crews working under it? Seafarers have good reason to fear not, since the bill’s authors openly state that a major factor in “second register” ships becoming competitive will be the reduced cost of their crews.

Seafarers need strong trade unions to protect them from the abuses of grasping shipowners. There are some deep-rooted problems to overcome, of reluctance and uncertainty among seafarers towards union membership (see article on page 20).

However there are signs of consolidation in the maritime trade union movement, including a recent merger of two Russian trade unions representing seafarers – New Russia and the SUR – which may hopefully provide the basis for stronger and more comprehensive representation for Russian seafarers.

Two years ago, while leaving Dudinka and bidding farewell to the seafarers, I looked down from the high bank of the Yenisei onto the expanse of water in front of me, and recalled that the land and shelf of the Siberian Arctic, according to the scientists’ calculations, contain at least 30 per cent of the world’s reserves of oil and gas.

“One day,” I thought, “these waters will be ploughed by hundreds of ships from all over the world, coming to load up with locally mined raw materials.”
My hope is that Russian seafarers will begin to get their share of any prosperity that is coming.

Barriers to union membership are being broken down

Union awareness is growing among Russian seafarers and fishermen. more >>

Roald Alyakrinsky is vice president of the International Confederation of Water Transport Workers’ Unions, chairman of the Association of Maritime Cultural Centres of Russia and secretary of the Russian Council for Seafarers’ Welfare.

الصفحة الرئيسية للأقسام:
Issue 19 April 2005

صفحات أخرى لـ A Brighter Lookout?:
Major Improvements to Port Facilities | Barriers broken down

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