HAL Charging Stranded Crew for Internet Use

[Hlitner]

It pains me to even post this story.   But I am sure there are plenty of HAL "cheerleaders" who can put a positive spin on the story.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/carnival-owned-holland-america-is-charging-unpaid-crew-workers-stuck-on-its-ships-40-a-month-for-internet-and-employees-are-livid/ar-BB14Znzp?ocid=msedgntp

 

Personally I am appalled!

 

Hank

[MISTER 67]

Just plain pathetic. Shame on HAL.

Edited June 5, 2020 by MISTER 67

[Sir PMP]

As long as they getting paid, sounds reasonable to me, and as far as I can tell only 2 employees are livid,  for not being able to make long videos.

 

[npcl]

7 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

As long as they getting paid, sounds reasonable to me, and as far as I can tell only 2 employees are livid,  for not being able to make long videos.

 

A Holland America salesperson told Business Insider that they were also upset by the fact the cruise line is charging trapped crew members whose contracts have been terminated for WiFi. 

 

Doesn't sound like they are getting paid if their contract is terminated.

[DeeniEncinitas]

25 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

It pains me to even post this story.   But I am sure there are plenty of HAL "cheerleaders" who can put a positive spin on the story.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/carnival-owned-holland-america-is-charging-unpaid-crew-workers-stuck-on-its-ships-40-a-month-for-internet-and-employees-are-livid/ar-BB14Znzp?ocid=msedgntp

 

Personally I am appalled!

 

Hank

I will second that!!!!!!

This is sad besides IMO they deserve a heck of a lot more!! How can HAL nickel and dime these crew members like that!
No pay still having to do duties on board!

Can not get off ship stuck next HAL will be charging them food!

Terrible

Denise😞

[kazu]

So what’s app is free and internet is not?

 

while the price is a lot cheaper than what passengers are charged to charge crew who need to reach family and are stranded is just......

 

Abysmal.

[iancal]

Who will get blamed for this now that Mr. Ashford is gone?

[Sir PMP]

35 minutes ago, iancal said:

Who will get blamed for this now that Mr. Ashford is gone?

the customer..

 

[kazu]

37 minutes ago, iancal said:

Who will get blamed for this now that Mr. Ashford is gone?

 

It was most likely implemented before Mr. Ashford left 😉   I am sure he rubber stamped it.  

[The-Inside-Cabin]

The only logic would be that if it was free, then the internet would become un-usable as everyone would be trying to use it constantly and then no one could use it.    Since the bandwidth is limited you need someway to ration the available, limited resource.  

 

A better approach would have been to give people free vouchers they could redeem for minutes.   That would be a better way to ration demand.   Certainly they shouldn't be worried about generating a palrty amount of revenue.

[slidergirl]

1 hour ago, Sir PMP said:

As long as they getting paid, sounds reasonable to me, and as far as I can tell only 2 employees are livid,  for not being able to make long videos.

 

Hank - and there we have it!!!   

 

Are you kidding me???????  You're stuck on a ship, and you have to pay to communicate with the World???????   Have you no compassion Sir????

 

 

[npcl]

1 hour ago, kazu said:

So what’s app is free and internet is not?

 

while the price is a lot cheaper than what passengers are charged to charge crew who need to reach family and are stranded is just......

 

Abysmal.

We have found that Whatsapp somehow gets around the internet sign in requirements on a couple of different cruise lines. Maybe they leave it open for the crew.

Edited June 5, 2020 by npcl

[prescottbob]

In regard to WhatsApp, crew members & many tour operators use it as a primary means (usually free) of communications.

I’ve only used it on a limited basis for texting tour operators for the past few years but the good crew members use it all the time.

The app is free & it’s similar to Facebook messaging and such. Actually, me thinks Facebook owns the platform.
Any how, I believe it can be used not only with internet service but also data service with one’s mobile phone carrier (I’ve used both ways) . I also believe the sender and recipient had to have the app on their ‘gizmos’ for it to work.

I’m sure folks smarter tech-wise will provide additional information.

Here’s a link that might explain it better:

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-is-whatsapp/%3famp
 

Be well.

Bob

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

As long as they getting paid, sounds reasonable to me, and as far as I can tell only 2 employees are livid,  for not being able to make long videos.

 

 

The headline of the article reads "Carnival-owned Holland America is charging unpaid crew workers stuck on its ships $40 a month for internet, and employees are livid."

 

That said, the whole sorry mess is a mixed bag.  I just looked up a number of recent articles trying to figure out the actual truth of the matter. As far as I can tell, some crew and staff are indeed not being paid full wages; there are some whose contracts were ended early by HAL, and there are some who continue to be paid partial wages -- this from the recent article, published in Fortune, by the cruise-travel director of the Koningsdam who was stuck onboard for more than 50 days.

 

Even Ms. Streets, the staff member mentioned above, says in her story "Most of these people are providing for a whole family at home. And now they're stuck on a ship with no pay. They can't get home to even get a job to help their family, and they're getting very desperate."

 

All of this said, the cruise lines seem to have exhibited a perfect genius for putting themselves in the worst possible light throughout most of this crisis. While I'm quite sure there have been a number of well-intentioned actions (such as the "rescue" mission of the Rotterdam with regard to the situation onboard Zaandam, which ended up a bit of a fiasco), there have also been SO many times when the cruise lines' responses have just completely missed the mark or were tone-deaf.

 

All I know is that when I am reading quotes like the one below from Ms. Streets, and then I imagine these poor crew, trapped aboard ship through no fault of their own, being asked to pay for internet access to keep in touch with their families through difficult times -- well, it certainly undercuts all those statements the lines make about how much they care about their crew and staff, their "best assets".  Sure...

 

Quote from recent Fortune article:  "I remember hearing about a crew member whose wife was having twins, and she had died in labor. He had to stay on the ship. He's still on the ship, and he’s had to mourn there. We're used to that as seafarers, but we had a lot of people who had deaths of brothers, sisters, parents, and they have to sit in their room and mourn." 

[rjbean4]

After all the crew have been through who are still on board this is shocking. Not their fault that they are stuck in this mess and the way the Philoppino crew are having to wait so long to be able to get off. With all the ships still sitting at Manila it doesn't look like the words of their  Prime Minister have done much to speed things up and when earlier today I saw a new video on my Facebook timeline show up featuring crew on the Noordam I did see someone we have known for a long time. Oh how I feel for them wanting to get off and be with their families. 

[Aquahound]

If this story is true as told and unpaid workers are being forced to pay for internet, I would agree that it is awful.  However, I notice this is reported by MSN.  MSN is the homepage on my SurfacePro and I've noticed very biased and probably not-so-accurate reporting lately.  In other words, I'd take this article with a grain of salt and understand it most likely isn't the whole story. 

[cruisemom42]

5 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

If this story is true as told and unpaid workers are being forced to pay for internet, I would agree that it is awful.  However, I notice this is reported by MSN.  MSN is the homepage on my SurfacePro and I've noticed very biased and probably not-so-accurate reporting lately.  In other words, I'd take this article with a grain of salt and understand it most likely isn't the whole story. 

 

It may be running on MSN but the source is Business Insider, who did the actual reporting. They are rated High in terms of factual reporting.

 

Of course, as I noted, the picture does seem mixed. I don't think ALL crew are not getting paid. But if crew that aren't getting paid are getting charged for internet -- bad move, HAL.

 

[Sir PMP]

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

It may be running on MSN but the source is Business Insider, who did the actual reporting. They are rated High in terms of factual reporting.

 

Of course, as I noted, the picture does seem mixed. I don't think ALL crew are not getting paid. But if crew that aren't getting paid are getting charged for internet -- bad move, HAL.

 

I stand by my comment, I don't trust the source, and and now I know that you will never cruise Hal again,  but $40,00 a month

with instagram free, sounds reasonable to me, Hal would never hurt their own employees...

[ski ww]

If crew are not been paid & they can't get off the ship through no fault of their own because their government will not let them, them charging the crew to use the internet is just wrong. Although I wonder if there is another side to this story, would like to hear from HAL and a lot more of the crew on what life is really like on board the ships. There are always two sides to every story.

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, ski ww said:

If crew are not been paid & they can't get off the ship through no fault of their own because their government will not let them, them charging the crew to use the internet is just wrong. Although I wonder if there is another side to this story, would like to hear from HAL and a lot more of the crew on what life is really like on board the ships. There are always two sides to every story.

 

This gives a pretty good picture, at least of how it has been on Koningsdam:

 

https://fortune.com/2020/05/31/i-literally-was-locked-up-abroad-the-diary-of-a-cruise-director-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

 

She doesn't address the internet issue, but she is pretty descriptive -- and also pretty fair; she describes the frustrations but doesn't attribute them to just one source.

 

[VMax1700]

My interpretation of the situation is that a 'throttled' amount of data is available, which will permit 'Whats App' messages, but will not permit 'Whats App phone calls' or uploading/downloading videos.  

If this is the case, then I am comfortable with it, as they do still have contact with families, but just not the video links.  For those that 'need' video,  I don't consider the equivalent of $1.33 per day to be excessive for those wanting video connection.

Edited June 6, 2020 by VMax1700

[SakeDad]

19 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

I stand by my comment, I don't trust the source, and and now I know that you will never cruise Hal again,  but $40,00 a month

with instagram free, sounds reasonable to me, Hal would never hurt their own employees...

As someone who has worked for multiple cruise lines.....TRUST me when I say HAL charging the ex-crew members who don't even get paid anymore (and BTW are not doing any duties as that would be illegal) is not surprising at all. The things I have seen would make MOST of the passengers who say they love their crews never board a ship again!!! If you only knew.......

[Hlitner]

On 6/6/2020 at 8:28 PM, SakeDad said:

As someone who has worked for multiple cruise lines.....TRUST me when I say HAL charging the ex-crew members who don't even get paid anymore (and BTW are not doing any duties as that would be illegal) is not surprising at all. The things I have seen would make MOST of the passengers who say they love their crews never board a ship again!!! If you only knew.......

We have several friends who work on various cruise lines and they enjoy their jobs.  When talking about cruise line crew one might keep in mind that none of these folks are slaves.  They have all made a personal decision to work on ships and each of them has their own contract.  Except for the current mess with COVID-19 these crew members are all free to quit at any time, not request another contract, find work elsewhere, etc.  I would add that many crew make a lot more money on ships then they can make anywhere else which is why they choose this lifestyle (especially difficult for those with families).   Other crew members choose to work on ships for their own strange reasons.  I am friendly with one bartender who has worked on ships for over 25 years!  He has a large family which he prefers to avoid!  Another friend works on the same ship as his girlfriend and they love the job and travel opportunities.   

 

Hank

[JanDom]

Charging for wifi is not good, but otherwise they got food and a cabin even if they are not on work any more.

For me this is not the real problem. I really ask myself why everybody is now worried and sad about this - if the cruise line where allowed to let their crews fly home from the airports we never had these discussion.

For me it is a shame to leave nice persons who have a life and a family like you and me on sea and don’t allow them travel home.
Now the cruise line started to bring them home by ship, what will take weeks instead of placing them into an aircraft and they will be home in hours.

That‘s what I am really ashamed of !!


Sent from my iPhone using Forums