Olympics

Pirate flash mob to protest working conditions on Olympic security cruise ships

by Carlito Pablo on February 23rd, 2010 at 4:04 PM
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      The Pirates of Justice are coming back.

      On Saturday (February 27), they’ll hoist the Jolly Roger flag in downtown Vancouver to raise awareness about the plight of workers on the three cruise ships housing police and military personnel providing security for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

      In July of last year, flash mob organizer Craig Greenfield recalled, the group held a similar event at Canada Place to highlight what he described to the Straight as the “situation of justice in cruise ships”.

      “A lot of people know about sweatshops in Asia but we don’t realize that we have ”˜sweatships’ in our own backyard,” Greenfield said in a phone interview. “Basically we have people being paid sweatshop wages in our own city because they are not subject to the labour laws of our country.”

      More than 5,000 RCMP, other police, and Canadian Forces personnel are staying on the cruise ships Statendam, Oosterdam, and Carnival Elation. All owned by the multinational Carnival Corporation, the ships are reported to have been leased for $76 million.

      Greenfield claimed some of the lowest level employees, especially Indonesian and Filipino workers, on such cruise ships are known to get only $50 in monthly pay.

      The February 27 flash mob is being promoted through YouTube and Facebook. Greenfield said that the exact location of the event, which will take place at noon, will be known to those who join the Facebook event page.

      “We plan to abide with the law,” Greenfield said when asked if there are concerns about police interference. “It’s a family friendly event. We simply want to raise awareness in a humorous way.”

      As the group’s promotional YouTube video says, if you hate injustice and love wearing silly hats, this might just be the event for you.

      Comments

      6 Comments

      North Shore Guy

      Feb 23, 2010 at 5:13pm

      And in what way does this have anything to do with the Olympics? Why not go hold your flash mobs/flag raisings at headquarters of the companies who own the ships.

      AWP

      Feb 23, 2010 at 5:44pm

      re Mr Greenfield's comment re wages ; as someone who did sail bl;ue water
      wages are not determined by race e.g. Filipino, English etc but by job classification; although I will say that certain positions may be heavy towards one ethnic group ot the other

      besides wages you have full room and board and 100% medical etc.

      the $50 wage is a bit of a mistruth. I sailed foreign flag in the 60's and received $75 a month as a deckhand. Had a great time, never wore a pirate hat though

      sounds like a fun protest no matter what the fallacies of the argument

      RantEnki

      Feb 23, 2010 at 6:18pm

      @northshorguy; because in this case, the government is using the ships as floating hotels to cut costs, which means Canadian tax dollars are paying these exploitative wages. Bonus; the government is effectively evading it's own labor laws.
      p.s. This explains why one of the workers contracted Leprosy, which is unheard of in Canada -> http://bit.ly/9dZkn8
      p.p.s @AWP: The worker with Leprosy didn't get medical care, he got shipped home (as stated in the article).

      awp

      Feb 23, 2010 at 11:45pm

      to North shore guy

      compare apples with apples, 1/2 of the pop of Inodnesia makes less than $2 a day so $50 a month plus room and board and medical is pretty good. As for poor sod with leprosy, who paid for his flight home and what care did he get when he got home?

      we in the west are ignorant in our myopic outloook at the world. Quit using our standards to judge others. You are typical of the sort who goes to a club med and thinks they have experienced a foreign country. Not saying it isn't fun but you can't judge from the back seat of a taxi

      cruise ship employee

      Feb 24, 2010 at 11:54am

      Im an employee of one of those companies and have personally witnessed the mistreatment of my fellow crew members. For example, they work 12-14 hour days but can only clock in 11 of those hours. When complaints are made, they are simply told "If you don't like it, leave it". As for the relevance to the olympics, most of the dining room and housekeeping staff make most of their wage off of tips that the guests provide during the cruise. It's suggested to the guest that they tip $11 a day, but in a situation like this, they are out their tip money for the month.

      Oh and as far as medical treatment goes... one of my friends had an injury on his wrist that went untreated. The medical care consists of Band-Aids and Gatorade...