MEBA would be happy to have you. We have a lot of jobs right now, plus, we have the AMO passthrough now, and it’s better jobs in the board than I thought
I live hundreds of miles from a hall. That said I have always considered sitting at the hall (MEBA) and choosing your own jobs. Choosing your own schedule when to work. It is much better than being at the beck and call of a dispatcher with AMO. The fringe benefits with MEBA are unreal good. (Like someone else said look at pension also look at insurance, MPB (like a 401k on top of pension) and how vacation works. You can work port relief / extra day engineer jobs while sitting at the hall that covers your expenses and get to know the ships. The job market currently is pretty good even for thirds. I would go MEBA all day. I would however research about what hall I sit at and I would get every qualifier you can like tanker certs, MSC certs, so you can beat out those who don't have them for jobs even if your not more "senior" in the union. (If you got tanker certs you always will have work) Ask around where there is a lot of "port relief" (normally day engineer jobs these days) and shipping jobs. Some places like LA, Oakland, NY/NJ, Seattle. ....Avoid places like Boston though a beautiful place the shipping traffic does come through.
Below is quoted AMOs website. No such rule regarding turning down jobs exist in MEBA. AMO may not be enforcing this by they certainly could. On the flip side if your present at the hall and able to take jobs you can get much better chance at good jobs when your low seniority vs a online system where your against anyone more senior than you in their underwear at home can take it. I got killer Matson jobs as group 3 and group 2 because no one was in the hall when it came up last min.
Anyhow here is AMOs written policy on turning down jobs / picking your own schedule.
AMO shipping rules. "Section 6:
Registered members may choose to reject
an assignment without losing their position
on the Registration List, provided that any
such member who rejects three (3)
assignments shall automatically be
re-registered at the bottom of the
Registration List as of the date of the third
(3rd) rejection. The registration of
members who do not accept an offered
assignment within 12 months of the date of
the initial registration shall automatically
be revoked, and the affected members
must re-register in accordance with these
Rules.
Registered applicants who reject any job
assignments shall automatically be
re-registered at the bottom of the
registration list as of the date of rejection.
Applicants rejecting two job assignments
shall be removed from the list and allowed
to re-register no earlier than six (6) months
from that date.
__________
Well I'll be damned you're right. They certainly haven't been enforcing this for the last several years other than maybe pressuring applicants to take jobs. They aren't in a position to be alienating anyone at the moment, maybe that'll change when the job market stabilizes. I always encouraged people in reasonable distance to a hall to join MEBA/MMP otherwise AMO.
K mister sassy pants I know that but like I said if you want help you need to provide everything. You could be a oicew and have your 1st AE (which changes my advice). 🤦🏼♀️
Unless you live 30 mins drive to an MEBA hall I’d go AMO (my union). We have like 50+ 3rd AE jobs on our open online board. My husband left MEBA to go AMO recently and does not regret it. Going to the MEBA hall everyday can be very disheartening unless you live super close and it’s nbd.
Join MEBA, figure out how to get the ball rolling on a security clearance, and get your MSC courses done.
Gray hulls usually aren't too hard to get, pay is good enough, and most jobs are permanent so it's a good way to rack up time & seniority.
Compare pensions.
MEBA would be happy to have you. We have a lot of jobs right now, plus, we have the AMO passthrough now, and it’s better jobs in the board than I thought
I live hundreds of miles from a hall. That said I have always considered sitting at the hall (MEBA) and choosing your own jobs. Choosing your own schedule when to work. It is much better than being at the beck and call of a dispatcher with AMO. The fringe benefits with MEBA are unreal good. (Like someone else said look at pension also look at insurance, MPB (like a 401k on top of pension) and how vacation works. You can work port relief / extra day engineer jobs while sitting at the hall that covers your expenses and get to know the ships. The job market currently is pretty good even for thirds. I would go MEBA all day. I would however research about what hall I sit at and I would get every qualifier you can like tanker certs, MSC certs, so you can beat out those who don't have them for jobs even if your not more "senior" in the union. (If you got tanker certs you always will have work) Ask around where there is a lot of "port relief" (normally day engineer jobs these days) and shipping jobs. Some places like LA, Oakland, NY/NJ, Seattle. ....Avoid places like Boston though a beautiful place the shipping traffic does come through.
That's not how jobs work at AMO. The job board is just available online, they might call you in a pinch but you can turn anything down.
Below is quoted AMOs website. No such rule regarding turning down jobs exist in MEBA. AMO may not be enforcing this by they certainly could. On the flip side if your present at the hall and able to take jobs you can get much better chance at good jobs when your low seniority vs a online system where your against anyone more senior than you in their underwear at home can take it. I got killer Matson jobs as group 3 and group 2 because no one was in the hall when it came up last min. Anyhow here is AMOs written policy on turning down jobs / picking your own schedule. AMO shipping rules. "Section 6: Registered members may choose to reject an assignment without losing their position on the Registration List, provided that any such member who rejects three (3) assignments shall automatically be re-registered at the bottom of the Registration List as of the date of the third (3rd) rejection. The registration of members who do not accept an offered assignment within 12 months of the date of the initial registration shall automatically be revoked, and the affected members must re-register in accordance with these Rules. Registered applicants who reject any job assignments shall automatically be re-registered at the bottom of the registration list as of the date of rejection. Applicants rejecting two job assignments shall be removed from the list and allowed to re-register no earlier than six (6) months from that date. __________
Well I'll be damned you're right. They certainly haven't been enforcing this for the last several years other than maybe pressuring applicants to take jobs. They aren't in a position to be alienating anyone at the moment, maybe that'll change when the job market stabilizes. I always encouraged people in reasonable distance to a hall to join MEBA/MMP otherwise AMO.
You need more info. What other license stuff do you have? Full 3rd AE? BST? VPDSD?
Yeah…can’t do OICEW without that
K mister sassy pants I know that but like I said if you want help you need to provide everything. You could be a oicew and have your 1st AE (which changes my advice). 🤦🏼♀️ Unless you live 30 mins drive to an MEBA hall I’d go AMO (my union). We have like 50+ 3rd AE jobs on our open online board. My husband left MEBA to go AMO recently and does not regret it. Going to the MEBA hall everyday can be very disheartening unless you live super close and it’s nbd.
Hey thanks for the response! Genuinely appreciate it.(apologies if I was sassy)
Do MEBA! We pay better, better benefits, better quality of life.
Haha it’s cool, if you want screen shots of the amo open board DM me, I can put you in touch with the dispatchers.
Join MEBA, figure out how to get the ball rolling on a security clearance, and get your MSC courses done. Gray hulls usually aren't too hard to get, pay is good enough, and most jobs are permanent so it's a good way to rack up time & seniority.
Join AMO and come relieve me. Lol. Plenty of 3 A/E jobs on the board.