PRESSPRESENTATION ITF BOSKALIS REPORT (ENCLOSED: embargo UNTIL THIS AFTERNOON 15.00 hrs)
By author: Dr. Randall Jay Williams (University of California)
(Via video/skype-connection with Californië)
When:
This afternoon: 15.00 – 17.00 hrs
At:
Nautilus International
Schorpioenstraat 266, Rotterdam
Some quotes from the ITF report Boskalis:
Wholly disproportionate
…While the decline in fleet utilization rates in recent quarters (see Table #18) and current energy industry headwinds (i.e. protracted fall in the price of oil) provide some degree of support for the company's recently announced "fleet rationalization program," the scope and scale of the program (24 vessels, 650 jobs) seems wholly disproportionate to the short-term market pressures Boskalis faces over the next two years. Indeed, there are good reasons to suppose that Boskalis's strategic plan actually has more to do with increasing profits by cutting costs -- particularly labour costs -- by altering its employment practices and reorganizing its workforce.
Labour flexibilization scheme
Such strategic maneuvers would be entirely consistent with the company's recent moves to transfer the responsibility of employment over to the third party ship management and crewing supplier, Anglo Eastern (as it did with its subsidiary Dockwise in 2013, and as it intends to do with its long-distance ocean towage subsidiary, Fairmount Marine).[1] In addition to increasing their use of labour outsourcing via Anglo Eastern, Boskalis has also been expanding its use of temporary, project-based workers. According to the company, "in countries where [they] engage in a large number of projects, the share of temporary employment contracts can almost reach 90%."[2] Thus, despite establishing new record-high revenues and profits in 2012, 2013, and again in 2014, the total number of company employees actually fell from 15,653 (2012) to 10,977 (2013) to less than 8,500 in 2014 and 2015.
In other words, what is now being cast by Boskalis as an 'unfortunate necessity' born of 'difficult times ahead' is, in point of fact, the continuation (and massive expansion) of a labour flexibilization scheme intended to enhance profits by replacing permanent, decently waged, full-time company employees with a poorly paid, fixed time/project-based, outsourced workforce, drawn from low-wage regions around the world…
CV Dr. Randall Jay Williams
Education
Ph.D.Literature & Cultural Studies, University of California, San Diego, 2007
B.A. Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin
Research Experience
§ Independent Labor Researcher, 2014-present (various reports produced for the AFL-CIO and the International Transport Workers' Federation)
§ Research Analyst/Strategic Campaigner, Union of Needleworks and Industrial Textile Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (UNITE-HERE), AFL-CIO, 2004-06
§ Research Analyst/Strategic Campaigner, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE-IU), AFL-CIO, 2002-04
Mvg,
Hans Walthie
Communications and Marketing advisor
tel: +31 (0)10 4771188
fax: +31 (0)10 4773846
mobile: +31 (0) 629239499
email address: hwalthie@nautilusint.org
Nautilus International
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