Ship workers spend months at sea, rely on tips
- From: "steinbrenner" <steinbrenner@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 15:38:39 -0500 (EST)
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060123/BUSINESS/601230354/1003/rss03
No pleasure cruise
Ship workers spend months at sea, rely on tips
By John A. Torres
Florida Today
Imagine leaving your spouse, children and home for 10 months a year to
work for tips aboard a cruise ship.
That's the choice made by thousands of workers on ships based at Port
Canaveral, Fla., and other major ports. To support families and gain
hope for the future, they work 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week
for 10 months at a stretch -- some for salaries of as little as $75
per month.
These low-cost workers from nearly 100 nations are a critical
ingredient in an industry that avoids U.S. tax and labor laws and
reaps billions in profits every year.
Surviving amid poverty
Andrew Rodrigues stepped over the rag-pickers and vendors on the
squalid sidewalks of Mumbai, India.
"When I see these people, I feel pity, I feel sadness," Rodrigues
said. "I cannot help much. But if I have any coins with me, then I
just give them away."
Rodrigues, 44, knows what it's like to feel alone and depend on
strangers' generosity.
In a few weeks, he will head to Port Canaveral to begin working about
84 hours a week waiting tables aboard the cruise ship Carnival Fantasy
with dozens of other white-jacket-clad waiters, all of them hustling
for tips from American tourists.
It's a job he has done for more than 10 years.
Rodrigues would like to stay home in India, but he needs the work to
help support an extended family of nine. He's nearing the end of a
four-month break after his last stint and has signed a six-month
contract with Carnival while his own business venture -- selling
Herbalife nutritional supplements -- takes root in Mumbai.
"By going to work for half a year. I am not able to save money," he
said. "But I can live for a full year on the six months of work."
Dashed dreams
One year ago, Verus Corderio, 39, was on the verge of buying land in
downtown Mumbai and setting up his own business. More than 15 years of
working aboard cruise ships had paid off. He was making more money
than he could spend in India.
But then, after emergency open-heart surgery in Florida, he was alone
on shore, his spirit and finances broken.
His hopes for a better life cling to a Miami attorney who is trying to
persuade Disney to pay him disability benefits. Corderio thought he
would go back to work, but no one will take a chance on a cruise
worker with a questionable heart -- not when there are thousands of
healthy people in line.
Despite their financial woes, his wife desperately wants him to stay
in India with her and their boys. That causes Corderio to shake his
head. He knows how quickly things can change in the Third World.
Risks and rewards
It was 2:30 p.m. at America's third-busiest port for international
cruises. Most of the passengers at Port Canaveral have made their way
onto the Carnival Fantasy for a three-night cruise to the Bahamas and
back.
There was no hint of sunshine, but Margaret Morris and Andrea Cox of
Atlanta defied the weather.
"We needed a girls' weekend out," said Cox, lounging on a deck
chair. "You don't have to do anything but have fun."
Seaman Daniel Chandekar, more than 8,000 miles from home, was lucky to
get off the ship.
He called Sharon Tiwari, his fiancee in Mumbai. After hearing an
update on their wedding plans, he and other Fantasy crew members took
a shuttle back to the port.
The Fantasy's 940 workers represent 67 nationalities. There are few
Americans. The jobs represent a chance to do what their fathers and
grandfathers did: work abroad and make enough money to live a good
life.
The rewards are obvious, but less so are the risks in a Florida-based
industry where workers enjoy few of the wage and disability
regulations Americans take for granted.
"The first thing I'll do when I get home is get married," Chandekar
said. "I feel badly because (Tiwari) is doing everything. She has all
the responsibility."
Revelry and tears
By nightfall, revelers migrated toward dinner. With four seatings
spaced over two large dining halls, the ship will serve gourmet meals
to nearly 3,000 passengers in two hours.
The waiters and cooks weren't the only ones moving into position.
Cleaners used the opportunity to drain and scrub the pool for evening
use.
A string ensemble provided background music from the base of the
ship's most ornate centerpiece: three-story gold spiral staircases
where cameras click and flash continuously. A wedding party made its
way down the stairs with a photographer, stopping periodically to
reposition. Outside, Manuel Mori, who was an electrician in Ecuador,
moved his ladder carefully over a wet deck. He had just finished
changing light bulbs above a bar.
"There is no work in Ecuador," he said, explaining that he may work
aboard the ship for another four or five years -- just enough to save
to buy a mini-market or pharmacy in his hometown.
But there are times when the separation from his family makes him
question that decision.
"I call them every week, twice," he said. "Sometimes I cry when I'm on
the phone with them. Sometimes I cry when I get off."
A few hours of sleep
Ebe Kilgannon of Dade City, Fla., at the dinner seating that ends
around 9:30 p.m., couldn't say enough good things about the Carnival
Fantasy's food.
"Isn't this awesome?" she asked her dad, Charlie, as waiter Mitchell
Hurtado of Peru passed by with several empty plates. Hurtado has
worked breakfast, lunch and two dinner seatings. And his night is far
from over.
Three and a half hours later, a fatigued Hurtado sliced chocolate cake
for passengers at the midnight buffet. He smiled, but his eyes had
grown red.
The work did not stop until the staff clears the dining hall. After a
few hours of sleep, Hurtado will serve breakfast again.
Heart attack: A ticket home
While passengers sunbathed or shopped, the Fantasy's housekeeping
staff worked the long corridors of cabins, making beds and hauling
trash and towels.
They politely said hello to those who passed in the halls. These
workers, too, rely on tips.
In the ship's hierarchy, these "hotel" cleaners and attendants are
among the lowest-ranking seafarers. Workers from poor nations,
including the Philippines and Indonesia, represent the bulk of them.
Salaries are $75 to $100 per month plus tips.
They must get the dirty work done under tight timetables without
disrupting guests.
Corderio used to be an assistant housekeeping supervisor aboard the
Disney Magic. For two weeks, he complained of shoulder pain he thought
was an injury -- until he collapsed.
His heart was failing.
"I was in tears when I was in the ICU of the ship, wondering what
would happen to myself and to my family," Corderio said. He was rushed
to a Melbourne, Fla., hospital for emergency septuple-bypass surgery.
He barely had time to make a few short phone calls to tell his wife
and children he loved them.
"I was not afraid of dying," he said. "I just wished that someone dear
to me could have been at my bedside."
Disney put him up in a hotel and covered his medical bills. But after
that, Corderio was on his own. According to a report from the
International Transport Workers' Federation, those injured or ill are
often shipped home once they can travel. They are rarely hired again.
Still, Corderio -- now training to be a paramedic in Mumbai -- harbors
no ill feelings toward the company that didn't want him back.
"Disney is the best cruise company to work for," he said. "They are
totally professional, absolutely. Only the cream of the crop work
there."
Tips are a lifeblood
As the Fantasy left the Bahamas for Florida, passengers donned ties,
miniskirts, jackets and even the occasional blue leisure suit for the
voyage's formal dinner and cocktail party with the captain.
Already, the ship had aired announcements and circulated fliers
reminding passengers to tip the workers.
"Remember the great service you have received here and all the hard
work that went into putting this meal together," the loudspeaker
announced. "Let them know you appreciate it."
Rodrigues' monthly base salary -- like that of most waiters and
housekeeping staff -- ranges between $50 and $75.
But with tips, he pulls in about $2,300 a month. From that, he must
pay for his own visas, airfare, uniforms and supplies. Carnival Corp.
withholds $500 as insurance that employees will complete their
contracts. And Rodrigues must pay $80 if he loses his identification
badge.
Passengers' tips are the lifeblood for Rodrigues and his family. And
it is devastating to wait on a group of people all week, only to get
stiffed.
"The company should give us compensation for the passengers who do not
tip," he said. "We have brought that up to our superiors. But they
tell us to go home if we don't like it."
'A slave in disguise'
The final day of the cruise was also its first truly sunny day, and
passengers took advantage.
In the galleys and quarters below, the crew prepared for the next
voyage. Thousands of new passengers and their luggage were to board
within hours of this group's departure. For some crew members, the
routine puts them one day closer to finishing a contract and going
home.
"It's like prison," said Rodrigues, at home in Mumbai. "The jobs are
for people who have no education. You don't do this for your heart.
You only do it for money."
Carnival itself recognizes the paycheck's lure. It acknowledges that
the days are long and the work is hard, but says the opportunities for
people like Rodrigues are unmatched throughout much of the Third
World.
Cruise jobs are too few and too exclusive to even put a dent in the
poverty. Such jobs are for the middle class, for those who have
something to offer a cruise corporation or the North American
passengers who seek service and luxury.
"I'm not happy working aboard the ships," Rodrigues said. "It's not a
place you are supposed to be. You are not free. You are like a slave
in disguise."
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