Tag Archives: crew

Covid cases on ships show how complex the restart can be

Posted on by
Reply

MS Paul Gauguin Cruise Ship - YouTube

The global cruise industry took one step forward and two steps back this weekend in its quest to resume sailings after the pandemic grounded fleets worldwide.

One ship, UnCruise Adventures’ Wilderness Adventurer, on Saturday, became the first cruise line to resume overnight cruising in the U.S. since cruise lines halted operations in March. The vessel departed Juneau with 37 passengers and 30 crew for a seven-day cruise on the line’s Glacier Bay Adventure itinerary.

UnCruise celebrated the milestone on social media. “Normally there are 1.1 million cruise ship visitors to Juneau. Today the first 36 depart,” UnCruise said in a Facebook post. In an accompanying video of CEO Dan Blanchard with the ship at the dock, he said, “For all of Juneau, all of Alaska, we celebrate with you.”

But from two other ships, separated by 11 time zones, the news was not good. In Tahiti, a passenger on Paul Gauguin’s first cruise for international visitors tested positive for Covid-19. In Norway, Hurtigruten said that 36 of the 158 crew on the Roald Amundsen had tested positive.

The Paul Gaugin returned to Papeete, Tahiti, and passengers and crew were quarantined onboard. Hurtigruten temporarily suspended all expedition sailings on three of its ships in response to the Covid-19 outbreak on the Roald Amundsen.

So while one cruise line and one state celebrated what they hope to be the beginning of the end of the drought on overnight cruising, the outbreaks are a reminder that the industry faces many hurdles and roadblocks to a widespread resumption of operations.

“We have not been good enough, and we have made mistakes,” Daniel Skjeldam, CEO of Hurtigruten, said in a statement widely quoted in the European press about the outbreak, adding that “a preliminary evaluation shows a breakdown in several of our internal procedures.”

For Dan Blanchard, speaking from Juneau Saturday, the news from Norway was sobering, but he was still certain of his line’s ability to safely carry out the five additional sailings it has on the calendar.

At Least 40 Test Positive from MS Roald Amundsen COVID-19 Outbreak

“Even though the [Roald Amundsen] is a small ship, it’s monumentally bigger than our boats, in both capacity and crew,” he said. He also believes the precautions UnCruise is taking go beyond what other lines have in place. “Not only do we require testing from the state of Alaska, but we’ve had crew for over a month quarantined on the boat getting it ready.”

“If we protect the crew we protect the guests and vice versa,” he said.

What really sets UnCruise apart, he said, is the nature of its itineraries, which the line calls “adventure cruises.”

Blanchard said that the ship isn’t doing any port calls, and passengers are off the vessel for most of the day on excursions. “That’s unique to us as a company, and it just works out that it’s the right thing for today.”

UnCruise vessels, he said, are “more of a floating basecamp. Even with Hurtigruten, they are visiting small towns. It’s hard to compare apples to apples.”

But he acknowledged that nothing is risk-free.

“We realize there is definitely risk involved, and so do our passengers travelling with us,” he said. “But everyone also realizes with 37 guests and 28 crew spaced out and crew not even in crew quarters  they are staying in guest quarters — and being off the boat improves the odds greatly and maybe the new norms in what has to happen until we get a vaccine.”

Many Governments Failing Cruise Crew Repatriation

Posted on by
2
Crew Transfer Between Vessels

“The challenges in repatriating seafarers on cruise vessels around the world have highlighted the shortcomings of many governments in this worldwide crisis,” Lena Dyring, director of cruise operations for the Norwegian Seafarers Union, told Cruise Industry News. “These shortcomings have caused a toxic, compounding domino effect for seafarers who were and still are stuck on cruise ships around the world and caused a lot of human suffering.”

Dyring said that first of all she wanted to highlight how the Bahamas has acted.

“They have not allowed repatriation from their territory, thus failing their obligations under the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC). They boast that they have ‘allowed’ the ships to anchor in their waters and have crew members transferring between vessels so they can sail them home. They also boast that storing and provisions have been done in the Bahamas. But to my knowledge, most of these vessels still sail to Miami or Port Everglades for storing and provisions.”

According to Dyring, had the Bahamas allowed charter flights out of their territory from day one, there would not have been so many seafarers stuck at sea and a lot of human suffering and uncertainty could have been avoided. To her knowledge, she said, the Bahamas has even denied medical evacuations from vessels registered there.

There are many governments that have failed both their own citizens and their obligations under the MLC, according to Dyring. She said there is a pattern of “overreactions” caused by what she called fear and not facts.

“I also have to highlight the situation in the Philippines where thousands of seafarers have been stuck either on a ship in Manila Bay or in some kind of quarantine situation in Manila for weeks and sometimes months for no apparent reason.

“The Philippine union AMOSUP has done a great job in the middle of all of this, but it is difficult when you have to work against all of these other forces.”

Some governments have stepped up and taken responsibility. Dyring mentioned that Barbados, for instance, has taken a vastly different approach to the challenges and have invited the cruise lines to operate charter flights out of their country.

Some countries in Europe have also taken their obligations seriously. Dyring said that the UK has stepped up, as well as Germany, Spain and Norway.

Read the full article in the Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine Summer 2020 edition, due out at the end of June.

Plea for Help: MSC Splendida Save Your Chinese Crew

Posted on by
1

With the outbreak of the Corona Virus in China the cruise ship MSC Splendida had to cancel the voyage for guests leaving the crew on board without work at this time. The ship has docked in Nagasaki for 3 days and with the quandary as related to no work for crew members at this time the company appears to have made some drastic decision as related to releasing their Chinese crew members who contracts appear to have been originally set until the end of February as the ship was set to sail to Europe in March of this year. With this, the same said crew members previously made arrangements for their return appropriately without considering the possibility of a nationwide outbreak of the Corona Virus. However, it appears that the ship authorities have informed the same crew members in a last-minute notice that they will be sent back to China with sign off dates earlier than expected and told that they need leave the ship in the following days.

The Chinese crew members and several of their concerned fellow colleagues sent messages to Crew Center with outcry and outrage as related to the disconcern, inappropriate arrangements and lack of empathy for the welfare and wellbeing of the Chinese crew members. Based on the messages received, concerns are related to the ability to utilize international airports, but the inability to assure travel arrangements to the more local destinations of the home hubs of the Chinese crew members. In other words, while the international airports are still functional with precaution measures, it is informed that the more local and national airports are not completely accessible leaving the Chinese crew members potentially stranded without resources and means to assure their return to their final destinations. Furthermore, as many of the Chinese crew members informed they have pleaded and requested to finish their contracts even if not receiving their normal pay in order to assure their health-related welfare and wellbeing as many of their family members and friends have informed of the outbreak affecting the more localized areas.

“Chinese crew feel very sad, feel like they are abandoned by the company now, all we need is just to have a safe place to stay we don’t want to go to dangerous places, even if it’s our country, our home. My father today just told me to try to request and stay on board, because here at home is dangerous. We still can work, even no salary, just keep us safe, enough I just heard from other departments, all the Chinese crew will be sent home.” says one Chinese crew member.

This brings us to the general question as to what is the responsibility of the cruise lines towards their crew members as related to the MSC Splendida in the event of any disaster whether natural, medical or otherwise.

Does the responsibility lie in assuring the wellbeing and safety of the crew members? Absolutely! The responsibility of an employer is to safeguard and protect the employees. As the MSC Splendida is preparing to disembark the Chinese crew members fearing for save passage and travel, as well as their general health and medical wellbeing, the remaining nationalities aboard the ship will not be experiencing the same fear as they will be accompanying the ship back to Europe.

MSC cruise ship at sea

Other cruise lines are following in the lines of safeguarding and protecting their crew members regardless of the cost to the cruise company with a loss of revenue due to no paying guests. For instance, the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Spectrum of the Seas which is also based in Asia for the duration of the outbreak has issued the following notice to its crew members:

“Royal Caribbean Chinese crew members currently onboard due to disembark over the next few days will be offered to stay on board (extend their contracts).” 

With the outreach from crew members, from other cruise companies such as the previously mentioned RCCL ship, who empathize with the Chinese crew members aboard the MSC Splendida report that their experience has been nothing but supportive and positive as the company has taken steps to assure their medical and health wellbeing regardless of the revenue cost and report it as

“Royal Caribbean is looking after its staff on Spectrum of the Seas and try to make the best of the current situation.”

Unfortunately, this is not the experience of the Chinese crew members on the MSC Splendida who report that:

“There is an outbreak of Coronavirus in China and the company just throws us back to a dangerous place. Our home has been blocked we don’t know where we should go after the flight” and “our manager approached us this afternoon, he asked us if we have any airport to go to China. We all cried that we can’t go back since even we back by flight the transportation to home already stopped. Bad news all come that we had our tickets information one by one this evening. We have nowhere to go.”  says one Chinese crew member.

This also begs the question, if the MSC Splendida is ending the contracts prematurely are they also liable and responsible to assure the arrival of their Chinese crewmembers safely to their final destination, as well as what all that would entail? Without a question, the company should have this responsibility and in the event that the crew is prevented to access their final destinations, the company should have the responsibility to assure their lodging and food until able to return safely home.

The Chinese crew aboard the MSC Splendida continue to inform that they feel abandoned by the company without any concern to their safe travel, ability to return to their final destinations and health-related wellbeing. Many reports that they will not be returning to their next contract since there is a great difference in treatment by the company in comparison to other companies. And while the MSC Splendida may be concerned about the loss of revenue due to cancelled cruises and cost that is associated with maintaining the Chinese crew members on board, the cost to the company may be greater as those trained Chinese crew members who have become proficient in working aboard ships with Asian destinations may consider their employment options to other cruise lines.

If we take into consideration past events as related to natural and medical disasters, while operation aboard cruise ships may not be guest-related often major companies such as RCCL and CCL have taken alternative approaches instead of liquidating the crew and sending them to their homes. Case in point as related to the Katrina hurricane which whipped out not only the homes of people in Louisiana and Texas leaving people homeless but also reduced the revenue of RCCL and CCL which cruise ships were porting in those states. However, they yet again made the best of a bad situation by either relocating their crew members on other ships or maintaining them aboard to support local humanitarian forces by providing shelter to locals. And while this was all done in humanitarian efforts, this nonetheless has a similar connotation as related to calling out the MSC Splendida to consider a humanitarian effort as related to the Chinese crew members at this time. We are aware that companies are about money, numbers, revenues, stocks, and so on; however, when is it time for a company to reach into the humanitarian side and consider its crew members not just as numbers, but also as human beings.