Replacements for P&O Ferries crew paid £1.80 an hour, unions say

RMT says agency rates for seafarers are ‘gut-wrenching betrayal’ of 800 sacked British staff

Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent@GwynTopham Mon 21 Mar 2022 15.05 EDT

Seafarers from abroad brought in to replace the 800 sacked British P&O Ferries crew are being paid as little as £1.80 an hour, unions have claimed.

The news emerged as Labour accused the government of doing “absolutely nothing”

P&O Ferries hire Dover fishing boat to get new agency workers to their ferries as union claim 800 sacked workers have been replaced by '£1.81-an-hour workers from India, Philippines and Ukraine'

• P&O ferries appalled most of the UK after sacking 800 staff via a Zoom call
• Claims the company has taken on cheap foreign staff to man the boats
• Labour MP Karl Turner said they were expected to work mammoth 12-hour shifts
• RMT union say they earn less than the £8.91 minimum wage, as little as £1.82

By DAN SALES FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 05:33 EDT, 21 March 2022 | UPDATED: 21:16 EDT, 21 March 2022

P&O Ferries £1.82-an-hour foreign agency workers from India, the Phillipines and war-hit Ukraine have been pictured being transported to the scandal-hit operators ships in Dover.

The workers have been brought in to replace 800 sacked staff - with some of the temps living in tents to save cash.

Labour MP Karl Turner said they were expected to work mammoth 12-hour shifts for eight weeks at a time.

Boycotts, Not Bombs: Sanctions Are a Go-To Tactic, With Uneven Results

Constantinos Syropoulos and Yoto Yotov, trade economists and two of the researchers behind the database, suggested that one factor driving the popularity of sanctions could be a resistance to engaging in military conflict. The United States, for example, has long used sanctions as a foreign policy tool. But it has accelerated their use in the last 20 years, just as support waned for the costly and unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The United States is responsible for the most sanctions cases, accounting for 42 percent of those in place since 1950, according to Drexel’s data. Next is the European Union, with 12 percent, and the United Nations, 7 percent.

 Steely_D wrote: 
Location, location, location.

Build it as close as possible to apartment buildings, trailer parks and freeway exits.  You will have customers.

And figure out the minimum occupancy rate to take care of the monthly nut.

re 
No, not scientific, but another symptom of the overstuffing US consumer
The story said over 50,000 storage facilities, with 11% of US renting a unit...no discussion of vacancy rate.
Here some data if interested https://www.sparefoot.com/self...

 black321 wrote:

I'm curious (and no, I didn't read the fine article), are they counting individual units that are rented to the end user? or are they counting a public storage location that has 500 individual storage cells?   Not that it matters much, we do have way too much stuff.  I'm trying hard to shift into the mode of  "use things, love people", and meter all my connections on that basis. It helps, but I still find myself keeping stuff because I might use it someday.

Axios has a story - pointing out that "the US now has more self-storage facilities than McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger Kings, Starbucks and Walmarts combined.

The point of the story is that, to put it simply, people are buying too much stuff.

"We're overstuffed," Axios writes. "And all that stuff often brings a lot more stress than joy … Never in history have so many things been affordable for so many. Never in history has it been easier to swipe a card or click a button, and wait for the Amazon truck to arrive. And never in history have Americans had bigger houses, or storage sheds, to keep it all."

Anthony Graesch, an anthropologist at Connecticut College who studies why we have so much stuff, tells Axios: "I see the proliferation of self-storage in the United States as the materialization of excessive, unchecked and unsustainable levels of consumption." It is also, he says, a reflection of the fact that many people have "difficulty … easily severing relationships with many of our possessions."

Of course with inflation at 8%, and the Ukraine war likely to keep it there for months...people will have to cut back on their trinkets. 

 geoff_morphini wrote:

I'm in the laptop class, people work from home nowadays. 

Mostly I just read a couple blogs like Naked Capitalism, and Zerohedge, and Drudgereport, there is a lot there.

 Animal-Farm wrote:

Just a general couple of questions, 1) do you work?  2) are you physically attached to your computer?

Barry Diller denies insider trading on Microsoft, Activision deal amid DOJ and SEC investigations

PUBLISHED WED, MAR 9 202211:41 AM ESTUPDATED 3 HOURS AGODan Mangan@_DANMANGANJulia Boorstin@JBOORSTINWATCH LIVEKEY POINTS

• Barry Diller strongly denied allegations on Wednesday that he, his stepson and longtime pal and fellow mogul David Geffen engaged in insider trading in their purchases of Activision Blizzard call options.
• The trades are under investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a report.
• Diller, Geffen and Diller’s stepson, Alex von Furstenberg, together made large bets on Activision stock just days before the video game maker said it had agreed to be bought by Microsoft in a $68.7 billion deal, The Wall Street Journal reported.

 steeler wrote: 
The O Visa is an employer dependent visa and applies to the fields mentioned below.  I do not see how Khashoggi fits into any of those categories.

O-1A: individuals with an extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business, or athletics (not including the arts, motion pictures or television industry)
O-1B: individuals with an extraordinary ability in the arts or extraordinary achievement in motion picture or television industry.

You seem to be trying to go down a rabbit hole with your mention of Khashoggi.  What exactly is your point and how is it relevant ?

 

The ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, Yousef
al-Otaiba, said Wednesday that his country would increase oil
production. The announcement came one day after President Biden said the
U.S. would no longer buy Russian oil, a move that could lead to higher
global oil prices because of ongoing market instability during Russia’s
war in Ukraine. “We favor production increases and will be encouraging
OPEC to consider higher production levels,” Mr. al-Otaiba said
Wednesday, referring to a consortium of oil-producing nations. “The UAE
has been a reliable and responsible supplier of energy to global markets
for more than 50 years and believes that stability in energy markets is
critical to the global economy.”

Now, both sides face a test of their ability to maintain domestic support for a standoff whose costs will be borne by regular citizens.

 kurtster wrote:
He was residing legally in the US on a O Visa and reportedly had applied for PR.

 steeler wrote: 
What “strength” was projected when Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian subject and Washington Post journalist, was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul ? 
.
FYT.  Kinda changes the meaning and inference of your question.

 kurtster wrote:
What “strength” was projected when Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post journalist, was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul? 

While on leverage...

Chinese companies that aid Russia could face U.S. repercussions, commerce secretary warns.

The U.S. export controls apply not just to American companies, but to companies anywhere in the world that use American software or technology to manufacture their products, which include many Chinese companies.

 kurtster wrote:
They have leverage.

How would you propose to go about strong arming them projecting strength?

No more penthouse suites and yachts in the US? Not give them their WMDs? No more jets? No more training? Get friendly with Iran? Remove military bases?

 R_P wrote: 
They smell blood.  If it ain't clear to everyone by now, in regards to projecting strength on the world stage, Biden is an empty suit.

Energy dependence is a bitch.  And he (us as well) are getting bitch slapped.

Those short hairs

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the U.A.E.’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan both declined U.S. requests to speak to Mr. Biden in recent weeks, the officials said, as Saudi and Emirati officials have become more vocal in recent weeks in their criticism of American policy in the Gulf.

They just want you to look into some things...