Panama Canal Tugboat Captains Face Disciplinary Action After Raising Safety Concerns in New Neopanamax Locks – gCaptain

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    Panama Canal Tugboat Captains Face Disciplinary Action After Raising Safety Concerns in New Neopanamax Locks – gCaptain
    ▻http://gcaptain.com/panama-canal-tugboat-captains-face-disciplinary-action-after-raising-safet

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    The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) is not providing proper staffing and equipment for new larger locks, putting workers and safe shipping at risk, according to tug captains who escort NeoPanamax containerships and LNG carriers through the recently-expanded Panama Canal.

    Rather than address safety issues that the tugboat captains and others say contributed to recent accidents, the ACP has now begun disciplinary proceedings for 22 Panama Canal tugboat captains who raised questions about short-staffing and crew fatigue. 

    Last month, the ACP announced sanctions against certain tugboat captains who they say were responsible for a brief work stoppage earlier in April that interrupted the transit of vessels. 

    The tugboat captains, who are members of the Union de Capitanes y Oficiales de Cubierta (UCOC), raised their safety concerns following a recent decision by the ACP to reduce crew size of the tugboats from three deckhands down to two while transiting the new locks. Tug captains and other crewmembers also have questioned the wisdom of daily shifts that regularly exceed 12-14 hours.

    Unlike the Canal’s original locks that relied primarily on locomotives or “mules” moving alongside the locks to guide vessels, the new Neopanamax locks require the use two tugs. 

    “This is a very complex operation, shoehorning large ships into a small space with little margin,” said Captain Don Marcus, President of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots. “This was dangerous work before ACP lowered standards. Long hours combined with fewer crewmembers, using underpowered tugs, is making a bad situation worse,” he added. The UCOC is an affiliate of the U.S.-based International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots.

    In April 2017, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Tampa collided with the tugboat Cerro Santiago during transit through the Panama Canal. Investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that overwork and fatigue were significant contributors to the incident.

    In November 2017, Osvaldo de la Espada, a veteran canal worker with 24 years experience maneuvering ships through the locks, died from head injuries during a line-handling incident at the Agua Clara locks.

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      Panama Canal Responds: Tugboat Captains Broke the Law – gCaptain
      ▻http://gcaptain.com/126659-2

      On April 12, a brief and isolated service interruption occurred at the Panama Canal’s Neopanamax locks when several tugboat captains refused to comply with mandatory procedures, compromising the Canal’s performance and causing economic loss. The Panama Canal normalized transits through its Neopanamax locks the next day. Operations on the Canal’s Panamax locks were never affected.

      The Panama Canal is constitutionally mandated to ensure the waterway’s uninterrupted operation and therefore took steps to determine the necessary measures to discipline those responsible, as is required by Panama Canal regulations. To be clear, the responsible parties are not being investigated for “raising safety and security concerns,” but for disrupting vessel operations, which violated the law. Attempts to gain advantage in a labor dispute by conflating an unfortunate and unrelated accident from last year with this particular work stoppage is not only inaccurate and misleading, it’s irresponsible and disrespectful to those who were affected.

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      ITF response to statement by the Panama Canal Authority - International Transport Workers’ Federation
      ▻http://www.itfglobal.org/en/news-events/press-releases/2018/may/itf-response-to-statement-by-the-panama-canal-authority

      We at the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) are surprised and disappointed by the statement issued by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in relation to the recent events in Panama.

      15/05/2018

      The ACP has claimed that information provided to us, and subsequently circulated, was misleading and twists reality. This allegation is offensive, not only to our affiliated unions and canal workers that are directly affected, but also to the 19.7 million transport workers that we represent.

      This is not a labour dispute, as the ACP refers to in its statement, this is a fair request from transport professionals. The captains represented by UCOC must be able to ensure they can work in a safe environment for the prosperity of the Panama Canal.

      The ACP conveniently omitted a report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), one of the most reputable and recognised organisations responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. The report, which detailed the incident of the USCGC Tampa in the new canal locks, clearly identified safety hazards, something our affiliated union, Unión de Capitanes y Oficiales de Cubierta (UCOC), has repeatedly highlighted with the ACP.

      We are in possession of correspondence showing that for more than two years, UCOC and other maritime unions warned the APC about issues regarding training, safety and operations in the new canal locks. Most of this correspondence was ignored, and on the few occasions that it was not the ACP’s responses were at best evasive and did not genuinely address the issues raised.

      We welcome the section of ACP’s statement that encourages personnel to raise issues on the canal policy in a constructive manner. For over six weeks now, the ITF and many affiliated unions have offered to facilitate the dialogue between the parties, however, in spite of what the APC declared in its statement, the requests, which were sent to the Panama Consular representations around the world, remain unanswered.

      The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Committee on Freedom of Association has recommended that the Government of Panama should expedite measures to facilitate dialogue between the authorities and social partners on the existing rights of representation and how they operate.

      We are committed in supporting our Panama maritime affiliates and urge the ACP to engage in constructive dialogue with Panama maritime unions to demonstrate a serious consideration for safety in one of the shipping industry’s most crucial waterways.

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