During the October membership meetings, Seafarers approved a long-intended modification to the Seafarers Appeals Board shipping rules which will allow for reciprocal seniority between SIU members and mariners who were in the old National Maritime Union (NMU) when those organizations merged back in 2001.As reported at the membership meetings, the merger agreement specified that the unions’ respective seniority systems initially would remain separate. At that time, maintaining separate seniority was the most practical thing to do.
“However, more than four years later, contract negotiations and other circumstances clearly dictate that the time has come for reciprocal seniority between the SIU and the old NMU,” SIU Vice President Contracts Augie Tellez noted in his monthly report. “This was always the long-range intent of both unions and it helps break down the last remaining barriers.”
Effective at the start of this month (Nov. 1, 2005), the Seafarers Appeals Board will amend the shipping rules as follows: As an “A” seniority man with the SIU, a member may sail in Group 1 under an NMU contract. If a member is in Group 1 NMU, he effectively has “A” seniority in the SIU. The same would be true for people with B seniority and people in Group 2, right on down the line.
Again as amplified during the membership meetings, this is partly a matter of fairness now that the unions essentially have become one organization. It’s also a matter of practicality, because as the old NMU contracts expire, they are being replaced by SIU contracts that will cover all members.
That last point is essential to understanding why reciprocal seniority makes sense. The timing of this consolidation is based in part on upcoming, industry-wide contract negotiations.
“At that point it will simply be a case of good common sense for us to consolidate our shipping rules, using the SIU shipping rules as the model,” Tellez noted in his report. “We are one union. It’s logical for us to have one set of shipping rules.”
Printer Friendly Page