Extreme in some ways, sadly routine in others, the grim tale of the Trinity Sierra was exposed in a revealing newspaper article printed Nov. 5 in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. The article by Dan Chapman also included a broad look at so-called flag-of-convenience (FOC) shipping and its many pitfalls.International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Inspector Tony Sacco helped secure $73,000 in back pay and other assistance for multinational crew members from the Greek-owned, Cyprus-flagged bulk carrier, which docked in Savannah, Ga. on Oct. 2. Some of the mariners (from the Balkans and Myanmar) hadn’t been paid in five months.
“The crew appreciated the ITF’s help,” Sacco noted. “They’re like any other crew in the sense that they just want to be treated fairly.”
Putting it mildly, the crew of the Trinity Sierra sailed in less-than-ideal conditions before reaching the U.S. When the ship arrived in Savannah, a U.S. Coast Guard inspection turned up 42 safety violations and detained the vessel for repairs (thereby essentially detaining the crew as well). The problems included what the agency described as serious issues with the ship’s lifeboats, watertight doors, fire-fighting equipment and crew living accommodations, among other violations.
Additionally, a Nigerian stowaway was apprehended from the Trinity Sierra shortly after its arrival. (The ship recently had stayed in Lagos, Nigeria for a month because its owner, Navship Maritime Co., reportedly couldn’t pay port fees.)
Those weren’t the ship’s only problems. Apparently, because of a delay in delivering its cargo of raw sugar along with a load of steel, the vessel owners were sued by the sugar traders in U.S. District Court in Savannah for more than $288,000 in damages. As Chapman reported—in a story bearing the headline “Cargo ships set sail with dark secrets”—“Like a rat cornered below deck, the owners soon were the target of a flurry of lawsuits by others with grievances, including a Singapore timber dealer, a Liberian electronics supplier and a New York insurance company.”
He further wrote that the owner and the ship manager (Thesarco Shipping Co., also based in Greece) face other, larger legal claims totaling millions of dollars for “alleged debts owed by sister ships,” and that Thesarco sometimes operates as Argosy Ship Management Inc.
Describing the FOC scam, Chapman noted, “With 90 percent of the world’s cargo traveling by sea, competition is fierce among the hundreds of owners who employ questionably sound ships and offer low prices and quick delivery. To trim costs, owners register ships in so-called flag-of-convenience countries where regulations are typically lax, accountability is rare and taxes are minimal. Most of the 32 FOC countries don’t question ship owners who pay mariners from poor countries, like Burma, as little as $1.50 an hour. Paychecks are routinely delayed or never delivered.”
Tom Matyok, who heads the International Seafarers’ Center in Brunswick, Ga., told the newspaper, “What you see on many flag- of-convenience ships is a form of neo-slavery. Owners skate right on the edge just to get by. Sometimes they get caught, like they did in Savannah. Sadly, most of the time they don’t. And the seamen suffer the worst from this relationship.”
The SIU is affiliated with the ITF, a federation of more than 600 transport-worker unions in 140 countries.
SIU Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel is first vice chair of the ITF’s Seafarers’ Section, which brings together seafaring unions from every continent. The Seafarers’ Section determines ITF policy regarding the campaign to end runaway-flag shipping and to eliminate substandard working conditions on such vessels. The Seafarers’ Section also provides international coordination for, and support to, affiliated unions and individual mariners through involvement with the International Labor Organization, International Maritime Organization and other international bodies. It maintains a network of more than 100 ITF inspectors around the world and helps oversee ITF agreements for runaway-flag ships which specify minimum conditions of employment for crews, including wages.
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