The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) in February secured $240,000 in back pay for 17 mariners aboard the runaway-flag vessel Taxiarchis Sierra that had been arrested in the port of Houston. A 21,000–dwt Cyprus-flag bulker/log carrier, the Taxiarchis Sierra on Feb. 10 was arrested by SIU ITF Inspector Shwe Tun Aung, who works out of Houston, for unpaid wages and failures on the part of the mariners’ crewing agencies to forward previously authorized funds to their respective families in Sri Lanka.
Built in 1985, the Greek-owned vessel is operated by Argosy Ship Management.
Aung on Feb. 8 received a call from Rev. David Wells of the Port of Houston Seafarers Center. Wells had offered to provide phone service for crew members aboard the seized vessel who wanted to contact their families. (Most didn’t have shore passes.) The vessel’s captain refused Wells’ offer, perhaps fearing that the crew would call the ITF.
Wells deemed the captain’s refusal suspicious and decided to go aboard the vessel to visit the crew. Once on board, Wells learned, among other violations, that the crew had not been paid in four months. Without hesitation, he contacted Aung.
Going immediately to the aid of the crew, Aung boarded the vessel and met several individuals including the captain. He had a U.S. Coast Guard team inspect the ship and later had the Taxiarchis Sierra arrested.
During his investigation, Aung discovered that the vessel’s managers had not only failed to pay the crew in accordance with their ITF contract, but also that they had been stealing about $28,000 from crew wages each month. The ITF inspector demanded that the company pay all wages, back pay and repatriation costs. Further, Aung demanded that the owners take no action against the seafarers for seizing the vessel and demanding their contractual rights. According to Aung, the Taxiarchis Sierra master claimed that the unpaid wages were simply a matter of miscalculations.
Lawyers retained by the SIU, working in conjunction with the ITF, intervened and negotiated not only the payment of previously earned wages for the crew, but also arranged for repatriation to their home countries and protection from blacklisting by their crewing agencies. Sixteen of the crew members were from Sri Lanka while one hailed from Egypt.
Mary Ann Starks, one of the attorneys retained on behalf of the crew, reportedly told Trade Winds that her clients were happy with the terms of the negotiations and pleased that Piraeus, Greece-based Argosy “stepped up to the plate” to do the right thing. The $210,000 recovered in back wages for the crew included some $55,000 that Stark says the owner had advanced in an attempt to halt the arrest. An additional $30,000, which members of the crew initially paid to their crewing agencies, also was secured for a total collection of $240,000. The crew was repatriated Feb. 27.
According to Trade Winds, Starks said that crew members paid “deposits” of $3,000 each to their crewing agencies prior to taking jobs aboard the Taxiarchis Sierra. These monies could be forfeited unless the owner provided certification that they had fulfilled their contracts before quitting the ship. Supposedly because of high unemployment in Sri Lanka since the December 2004 tsunami, crewing agencies there demand high deposits for fear seafarers will jump ship in Western ports, Starks said. Seafarers who fear losing the deposit may also be reluctant to protest short wages or poor working conditions.
Aung thanked the Port of Houston Seafarers Center, the U.S. Coast and Port of Houston security personnel. “Individuals from these agencies have good hearts,” Aung said. “They tried to help the crew members any way they could including providing food and beverages to the stranded crew who had nothing to eat aboard the vessel except potatoes and rice for a month.”
Argosy Ship Management and the Taxiarchis Sierra are no strangers to the port of Houston, the ITF or to Aung. As reported earlier in the LOG, Aung in a January 2004 incident secured more than $64,960 in back pay for three crew members (electrician, bosun and AB) who were aboard the Taxiarchis Sierra. Their circumstances were virtually identical to those faced by the 17 crew members in this latest incident.
In a related development, it has been reported that Argosy Ship Management is again in trouble and facing a fresh round of problems just days after settling the dispute involving the 17 crew members. This time, the Greek-owned company is being scrutinized by a Singapore-based timber company for allegedly failing to deliver cargoes of logs to their designated ports in India.
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