Welcome Aboard The Black Pig - Shipping & Freight Blog

Transport and Strikes – A Short History

This week has seen a rise in publicity for a problem probably going back to the invention of the wheel.

"Sod this, There must be a better way to move rocks pointlessly from one point to another."

“A manageable support and energy transfer system produced using only sustainable and renewable local resources !

Ug. I must think outside the cave for this one.”  

.........................

"Have you noticed that since he introduced his transferrable energy system, that blond git sits around all day watching us work, the Neanderthals have all been laid off, and we're moving twice the amount of rocks around pointlessly for his 'Stonehenge Multi Modal Facility'."

Just before Christmas the UNITE union decided a strike over the holidays stranding thousands of passengers would be a good way to put their point across.

They conducted a ballot of all BA cabin crew who decided that this was a good idea and they would all enjoy a nice break at home whilst their customers nibbled cold mince pies on the soulless, cold, tiled floors of airports worldwide far from family and friends.

Luckily for BA travellers the union managed somehow to inadvertently ballot even members who had already opted to accept voluntary redundancy and were therefore ineligible to vote.

The line which the union took on that particular dispute was spectacularly ill judged.

To win public sympathy for a strike requires the cooperation of the media in assessing accurately the demands and complaints of the aggrieved workers.

A précis of how the BA dispute was perceived at the time was simply “We’re going to have to work harder now staff levels are being reduced to those of our competitors”.

As the public’s perception of BA cabin crew was a stunning, uniformed young woman playing with her tightly bound and immaculately coiffured hair whilst pouting and flirting or an effeminate guy plumping up the occasional old ladies pillow between minces this did not inspire swathes of sympathy amongst the travelling public.

This week that strike is back on again with the lesson learned – they won’t strike over Easter.

UNITE expressed outrage again this week when, once more, the Court told them they were acting unlawfully in the matter of the pilot (marine this time) strike at Milford Haven. Now this walk out has been scheduled for next week, one hopes a resolution can be found before then.

The Dublin dockers voted for a full return to work this week thanks in the main to a common sense approach by all parties, including the ITF who were praised by both sides, but now Network Rail supervisors and managers are due to vote on their own labour situation.

They are talking about strikes to include the day of the rugby Union international Scotland versus England at Murrayfield. Thanks lads, you’ll make a lot on inconvenienced old men very unhappy.

Overseas it’s not much rosier.

Take your pick, Lufthansa pilots, Greek dockers, French oil refineries, the South Africans really plan ahead, they have a general strike planned for – October !

In the Philippines they get cute, the shipping companies, oft blamed for killing thousands with their rusty buckets, non existent safety policies, falsified Jackanory style passenger manifests and hapless crews call their threatened stoppage a “holiday”. They must have max Clifford doing their PR.

Fact of the matter is we all know we’re in a slump.

The financial situation dictates that everybody is liable to take a hit in their pocket. Either less money or more work just to stand still. It’s doubly hard when the media either illustrate real cases of unearned wealth and sometimes greed, MP’s expenses, bankers bonuses etc plus often inflated stories which adorn such rags as the Daily Mail and Sun (don’t bother denying it girls, you’ve been sued too often for that).

So those of us who remember the dock strikes of the ‘60’s (Jack Dash, immortalised in cockney rhyming slang and epitaph – All he ever wanted, Was to separate them from their Cash) picket lines of the ‘70’s and the riots of the ‘80’s can put away the rose tinted 3D specs of nostalgia and get ready for the Summer of discontent.

Don’t dare to consider next Winter.

And, in case you're wondering, anyone can go on strike if they feel strongly enough. This photo is of the New York Barbers Union striking in 1913 - dare I say against job cuts?

Just remember self interest generally triumphs over the public good (present company excepted).

Oh, but by the way, if you are a ferry worker employed on the cross channel run next month don’t even dream about striking. I’ve got tickets for France v England at the Parc des Princes and I really, really don’t want to swim there.

HAITI

I had a nice little blog sorted for yesterday.

Not one of my better ones, usual old tosh, this one about New Year Resolutions but the flood of videos, news reports and talk on the street as the horrific situation in Haiti unfolds has thrown such frippery into sharp relief.

As the first stories came in there was talk of “hundreds” dead.

Now I’m not particularly familiar with Haiti, other than it’s on the left hand side of the island which also contains the Dominican Republic for which my expertise is also sadly lacking.

What I do know however, from a brief sojourn in the Caribbean and the general information which all of us glean from the endless “real world” style documentaries we get bombarded with, is that this is a “backward” country, by the old colonial style definition, which basically means there’s not a lot of money about.

Also communities tend to be in disparate and remote areas where the facts concerning a disaster of this magnitude take time to emerge.

As those first reports trickled in I was struck by the thought that the initial estimate of casualties was liable to be, to say the least, conservative.

Although the nature of journalists, especially in the national press, is to exaggerate any story this does not usually apply in the case of such international disasters. Until actual facts start to emerge even hard bitten reporters seem to maintain the element of hope that things will not be as bad as they might be.

Alas, this disaster has proved to be far more tragic than first hoped.

It is usual for this blog to show related photographs and associated videos to illustrate the thread of the story.

Not on this occasion.

The sight of an aid worker throwing a single child’s body out of the wreckage of a school, simply to save time in reaching any possible casualties still buried, summed up for me the horror even more than other shots of streets lined with bodies.

So what can we in the logistics community (apologies to Private Eye) do to assist? No doubt over the next few days we will see the freight community “step up to the plate” as so many times before, much as the Handy Shipping Guide report of the 14th January on the generosity of UPS ($1 million donated). What interests me more is how to solve the problems created by the collapse of transport infrastructure.

So many of these huge disasters occur in regions where transport is difficult even in better times. It is at such times that the US military machine (plus so many other operations too numerous to mention) show their true value. Only an organisation with the resources of such a giant war machine can provide some instant relief in these circumstances. The airport too small for effective use, the nearest bulk landing point miles to the East in another state, roads blocked by landslips and fallen buildings. Helicopters are often the only way of reaching the remoter areas in time to save lives and, as we all know they are often impractical for reasons of cost, availability, location etc.

What is needed from the logistics community is a better system for spreading essential supplies, food, water (or means to purify it) medical items, shelters etc. faster and more efficiently.

So that’s your task for this week.

Find better ways to relieve situations like this. Doesn’t matter what it is, airships, folding containers, all terrain delivery trucks, whatever. Post anything you think of and we’ll publicise it.

In the meantime http://www.dec.org.uk/donate_now/ is the place to go to give some help.

If you’re an ORANGE phone customer you can add a contribution directly to your bill plus I’m sure there are many other ways to donate something.

No matter how cynical we often are about charity appeals (…how do I know the money gets there?) it simply doesn’t apply to cases like this.

Cold Innit?

Well, Winter is well and truly here then.

As we all know anyone who lives in Britain talks about the weather every single day. As I’ve said before it is simply because we get so much of it. 

As you can see interruption to transport services due to inclement weather is not exactly a new phenomenon.

A Croatian acquaintance of mine who works outdoors in England delights in the fact that he can get soaked, windswept and burned to a crisp all on the same day!

So for all Britons the chance to moan about snow, ice slush and the inefficiency of the local authority gritting the roads and pavements (or should I say NOT gritting etc.) offers a delightful opportunity to complain to anyone who will listen, plus most who won’t, about the current situation.

If you live in Scandinavia or Canada it’s easy.

Every year it snows, on go the tyre chains and you’re off. Try that in Essex or Middlesex and you’ll be fine to the top of the road when the bit the Council managed to grit will cause the metal to become redundant and disappear in about half a mile, not to mention the possible tyre damage.

Don’t fit the spiky beasts and you might not make it out of your own drive, let alone up the frog and toad.

Underneath it all however most reasonable people know that everyone is doing their best. Neighbours who barely nod to each other for the rest of the year talk whilst they clear paths and their kids lob snowballs at them. Folks do a bit of shopping for the older residents. Gritter drivers work all night to keep the highway clear, no way in the world will they ever be able to oblige in the side roads, if Councils lay in five times the normal amount of rock salt they need a bigger depot and we all moan about the rates.

The upper echelons are as confused as ever. The men from the Ministry spend all year trying to catch drivers out on their hours, one bit of snow and suddenly the Government says the Euro rules don’t count and “can you please take that spreading lorry out and work all day and night, there’s a luv.”

Of course there’s a darker side, the media (present company excepted) talk of Armageddon and pensioners frozen into statues, phone and electrical failures, central heating fuel running out etc. causing everything edible in the shops to be bought up.

By the look of our local Tesco on Saturday (don’t ask) some blokes will still be having soup for dinner in August.

All in all though we residents of this Sceptred Isle love a bit of a crisis, so this cold snap is right up our street. Despite all the whingeing I notice the post has arrived every single day, albeit at variable times. The legion of delivery men who call from Play.com and M & S humping their precious merchandise for youngest sprog with money and her who’s the boss, seem to arrive here with the same monotonous regularity so well done to all the guys behind the wheel and those who struggle into the hubs for keeping things going.

I had a clip to show from Seaton but it’s been withdrawn (I’m guessing because it looked like someone had set up the whole thing with a hosepipe on a frozen hill) so you’ll have to make do with these.

And last but certainly not least !!!

That Kenyan Shipping Corruption Allegation..........

The story covered on the Handy Shipping Guide News Page today outlines various allegations regarding corruption in and around the Port of Mombasa.

What is even more worrying are the hints carried in other media sources that elements within Kenya may be in contact with Somali pirate groups who now routinely attack unguarded ships off the East African coast.

Here follows the full series of Videos made by the Kenya Television network which have caused the latest furore.

There is no doubt that the Kenya Revenue Authority has taken substantial steps toward cleaning up the port evidenced by increased revenue levels.

What is plain from the tapes is that they may well have some way to go yet.

We present the report shown without taking sides.

There is no dispute that revenues for the Kenyan Authorities have increased massively since the inception of the Kenyan Revenue Authority and it is in the media's interests to produce sensational programme.

KTN say they have been threatened with legal action over the films.

Up to now no action seems to have been taken.

Feel free to post your comments below.

The Captain’s Christmas Message

And Ho Ho Ho to one and all…….

…..But especially the drivers of Arrow Trucking in the US who found out two days before Christmas that they were losing their jobs – and their rigs – with immediate effect.

Others in the trucking community have set out to do what they can (see the Facebook link on the original Handy Shipping Guide story) and we wish all you guys a happy Christmas despite your getting dumped by a firm, which by all accounts, wasn’t up to much anyway. Let’s hope it’s a turning point for you all.

…..And to the drivers who use the only access point to get into Wales, namely the Severn Bridge, after the English and Welsh authorities colluded to increase the toll charges despite a deep recession and fair words saying how much they care for the .community with a strong desire to increase opportunities for trade in the area.

…..And to the management at Eurotunnel who, despite my excusing them for all delays by stating that at least they hadn’t used the old “wrong type of snow” argument, obviously read the latest Captains Blog and decided that, actually, that was a pretty damn good excuse for all their trains breaking down and immediately issued a press release that “cold fluffy snow of an unusual type” had actually caused all the problems. Shame it wasn’t the normal square, warm stuff we usually get then.

…..And of course the politicians who worked so hard at the Copenhagen conference that they managed all the objectives they had promised, or rather precisely none of them, which of course was exactly what the bulk of us thought they would achieve.

Thought it best to put that in as I seem to have slipped into sarcasm at some point there so it’s probably best just to thank all the regular readers of the Handy Shipping Guide and those who also find their way onto the blog site for all their support over the past few months.

The news readership now is reaching astonishing levels with thousands of people in 177 different countries using the site daily.

Not bad as we actually went fully on line in September.

Don’t forget that you can freely comment on any of the blog topics just by using the “comments” link.

So thanks to all and a very merry Christmas.

Here’s a final Christmas Video – Just Don’t watch it if you’re easily offended!!!