Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Finding a job

I get my work through the Seafarers International Union (SIU). Today I went to Tacoma which is where my local hiring hall is located. Today only one job was posted on the board for an AB (Able Seaman) and that job was a reclaim, meaning that it was being held for a guy who had it last before his vacation. Unfortunately that guy showed up, so no one could really bid against him.

There is also an All Ports List. These are the jobs that could not be filled by any local halls, so they go out to all the halls in the SIU. Only 2 of those jobs were available. I took the list to the counter and tried to get one of those jobs. The agent made the calls only to learn that both had been filled.

Today there had to have been at least 50 people waiting for work and most of the AB's that I know have seniority over me. There was zero chance of getting assigned a ship today. I will give it a couple days, perhaps I will go up again on Monday and see if there are fewer people competing against me.

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