Maritime Union of India which represents approximately 1 lakh Indian Marine Navigating Officers and Engineer Officers, has become a dead union. Hardly you can see MUI taking up the issues related to Mariners or fighting for their cause.
In recent past there have been many instances which affected seafarers badly like :
- Death of Seafarers on board / Seafarers committed suicide / Disappeared from ship. In such cases also not even the representation has been made by the MUI, forget about inquiry or taking up the issue legally. No legal help was tendered to the deceased men's family.
- There have been cases where Indians had been Kidnapped by Pirates or arrested by Foreign authorities.They had languishing there for years but no efforts were made by the UNION to take up their issues. Families had been running around from DGS to Ministers and protesting at Jantar Mantar, but from MUI side no help came.
- Some ship owners are paying salaries very late. They are RPSL registered companies.In some cases salary is being paid almost after 6 months.Like in Pratibha shipping case salaries were not paid at all. In those cases also MUI was hardly of any help.
- While bargaining terms and conditions for CBA / Articles , MUI tends to favor ship owners and not the sailors.
- DGS is imposing many unjustified rules and regulations on the seafarers under the pressure from institutes. Fees for such courses have been kept abnormally high. MMD procedures also have been very harassing, but despite bringing it to MUI notice no efforts are being made by them to address these issues.
- Many other issues related to mariners required to be urgently addressed which requires seafarers presentation to the Govt.
13 th feb 2017 death of 3 seafarers on a barge has rocked the nation, but role of MUI was missing.
This raises a question about activities of the Union. Is it really working for our interests? Or is it really working at all? Or it has become a money making business for a group of influential people?
There are almost one lakh active Marine Officers in India. With 1000 rs as membership charges and lots of fund being given by Government, INSA and FOSMA, MUI receives hell lot of money. But role of MUI is almost invisible. Sailors don't even know the name of office bearers of the Union.
As Seafarers and member of the Union, we even don't know the names of office bearers. Most surprising part is almost all office bearers are getting less than 1000 votes, whereas total officers in India are approximately 1 lakh. With less than 1% votes how come these people become Seafarers representatives? General secretary Mr. Amar Singh Thakur, an electrical officer is winning the election unopposed.
Providing medical insurance with bad settlement ratio, MUI has more or less become an Insurance company rather than an union.
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