The Guardian, Letters page contribution

Congratulations to the Guardian for having the courage to cover good news – pointing out the continuing success of our maritime sector and its importance to the UK economy (In praise of ... seafaring, 27 March).  The sector (shipping, ports and maritime services) contribute a total of close to £3 million every hour to UK GDP and support about 500,000 jobs.

It is disappointing that, in response, Bob Crow of the RMT union paints this informative and accurate leader as “advertising blurb for the Chamber of Shipping” (which had nothing to do with it) and writes of “exploited workers” and a “lack of regulation or minimum employment standards” (Friday 3 April).  Both claims are wrong.

The truth is that seafarers of all nationalities working on ships registered in the UK enjoy the same high standards in terms of working conditions, including regulation of hours of work and rest. Rates of pay are based on international norms agreed with trade unions and invariably provide for earnings levels well in excess of those earned by even highly qualified professionals in the seafarers’ home countries, where these seafarers keep their families and incur their living costs.

UK shipowners, far from being the exploitative “bosses... systematically displacing unionised crews with cheap labour” of Mr Crow’s letter, are working with RMT and the officer union Nautilus UKto promote UK seafarer employment and, at about the same time as Mr Crow’s piece, submitted joint proposals for the Government to increase its support for the training of future generations of UK seafarers. 

These industry proposals seek to make the employment and training of UK seafarers, both ratings and officers, more internationally competitive – and represent the best prospect of generating more jobs for UK crew members.

Mark Brownrigg, Director-General, Chamber of Shipping