A
CV:
Head of the organising department.
Has worked in trade unions for 35 years.
Joined Nautilus in 1999.
who made the referral receives a £25 voucher.
More details on ‘recruit a colleague’ can be found
on the Nautilus website.
I have also overseen the development of our
commitment to the yacht sector. Nautilus has
been working hard over the last few years to
improve the working conditions for large yacht
offi cers and crew, in line with the sector becom-ing
FINLANDS SJÖFART J SUOMEN MERENKULKU 49
looks to exit the EU, and predictions of national
and international seafarer shortages by 2021, we
need to do our bit to boost recruitment, improve
employment conditions, and attract the workers
of the future.
That’s why representation by a dedicated trade
union can assist our members and the profession
as a whole. We ensure that maritime profession-als
can do what they do best, secure in the
knowledge that Nautilus is fi ghting your corner
on vital issues of welfare, skills and economic
security.
To do this, we must keep pace with a changing
industry. This includes exploring the opportuni-ties
presented by new greenfi eld sites and new
strategic sectors. We are determined that
maritime professionals get good, decent jobs and
working conditions in these new sectors, which
present both exciting career prospects for the
next generation and the chance to replace jobs
lost in more traditional areas that have declined
over time.
This includes the offshore sector which, as it
contracts and large employers start to amalgam-ate,
is now expanding into windfarm operations.
The large yacht sector has also seen a rapid
growth in recent years and again provides a new
potential growth sector for our members
entering the industry.
We will continue our work campaigning for
jobs in the ferry sector, which has become
increasingly exposed to tough competition from
low-cost operators using fl ags of convenience
and cheaper foreign crews.
This began in 2014 as the ‘fair ferries cam-paign’,
under which Nautilus has called for local
labour to be used wherever possible, but the
relevance of this campaign is greater than ever in
the UK as it looks to leave the EU. Signifi cant
success has been seen after two years of negotia-tions
with a multinational employer operating on
the Irish Sea, to make sure that local jobs are
retained, which we have managed to achieve
with the support of members and activists.
A key aspect of what my department does is
the recruitment of new members and retention of
existing members. This is an everyday occur-rence;
wherever we are, whatever we’re doing,
we’d hope that we can increase our membership.
We have recently signed an agreement with Shell
where we are the lead union representing
members in different ranks and nationalities. We
are looking to replicate this with a number of
other global employers.
Dedicated initiatives such as ‘recruit a
colleague’, which began in November 2017,
support this focus on recruitment. We’d heartily
encourage existing members to get involved, by
encouraging others in their workplace to sign up.
Once a new member joins and retains their
membership for over three months, the member
” We’d heartily encourage
existing members to get involved in
the Recruit a colleague campaign.”
more professional. This is an expanding
industry which offers attractive employment
opportunities – but sadly there is evidence to
show problems of bullying, harassment and
insecurity, with many seafarers routinely denied
the rights that shore-based staff would be
entitled to.
It will be a challenging time ahead for the
maritime industry as a whole – but, with a strong
strategy, growing membership base, and sus-tained
focus on emerging new sectors, we will
keep on course and continue to represent our
members, their jobs and futures to the best of our
ability. •