SALON

Friday, Feb 15, 2013 9:08 PM UTC

“Cruise from hell”: Don’t pity Carnival’s passengers!

It wasn't fun on the Triumph. But its workers, usually not protected by U.S. labor law, deserve our sympathy

By

Topics: Carnival cruise, Cruise from hell, CNN, Media Criticism, Editor's Picks, , ,

The Carnival Triumph cruise ship is towed toward the dock as spectators watch at the port of Mobile, Ala. (Credit: Reuters)

This week, Americans’ imaginations — or at least CNN’s programming — were captured by reports from Carnival’s “cruise from hell.” Sewage-soaked cabins. Hoarded food. Plastic bags used as toilets.

The passengers escaped the ship late Thursday, five days after an engine fire disabled the vessel. But, amid the scenes of bathrobe-clad passengers kissing American soil, there’s been comparatively little attention to the crew that was stuck with them — and kept on serving them. Though they likely suffered most, the cruise workers’ misery lacks the allure of irony: They’re not accustomed to vacationing in luxury. Indeed, thanks to the efforts of Carnival and company, they can’t even count on the basic labor standards available under U.S. law.

“For the workers, it had to be doubly horrible compared to the passengers,” said Ross Klein, the author of “Paradise Lost at Sea: Rethinking Cruise Vacations.” Klein, a sociologist and cruise expert at Newfoundland’s Memorial University, noted that workers are stuck dealing with passengers’ “human mess” as well as their “frayed nerves and the short tempers.” Despite the stench of human waste, some workers may not have had the freedom, or the opportunity, to go above deck.

In addition, Klein told Salon, “my guess is on this cruise there were no gratuities, so they ended up working for free.” When Carnival announced that each passenger would receive $500 on top of a refund, said Klein, “I didn’t hear them saying they’re giving $500 to each crew member for their valiant efforts … In what appeared to be deplorable conditions, the workers had to keep on doing their work, and [they were] very likely being subjected to conditions that were a threat to their health, [and] also probably working considerably more than their mandatory 11-hour workday.”

Carnival did not respond to a noon request for comment.

As that 11-hour workday suggests, cruise labor is no picnic to begin with. According to Klein, workers often share small rooms with no windows. They’re restricted from entering passenger areas, and some only rarely get to see daylight. Sexual assault rates outpace those on U.S. shores. While some companies, including Carnival, give customers bills that include an optional suggested tip, “if one worker has a number of passengers decreasing tips, they’re going to be punished for that.” Klein added that tips sometimes end up in management’s pockets rather than workers’.

The international law governing cruise workers allows them to be worked up to 77 hours a week for as little as $600 a month. As Klein notes, that comes to less than $2 an hour. But in reality, he said, “a worker who’s slated as supposedly working 11 hours is very likely working 13 or 14,” and may go “10 or 12 months without a day off.”

Isn’t that illegal? Sort of. Because Carnival and other top cruise lines operating in the U.S. fly the flags of other countries, they aren’t bound by most American labor laws (there are exceptions, including workplace injury cases). And while international convention sets bare minimums like the $600 per month wage, Klein says, “the enforcement of them depends on the country that regulates the ship.” Klein added that Carnival, the industry leader, is also “the leader in knowing how to keep your costs of worker treatment to a minimum.”

Here’s how: Carnival is technically registered in Panama, a country whose laws Klein charges “have been changed to satisfy Carnival’s needs and interests. Because Carnival means a fair amount of money to their national treasury.” Effectively, for cruise workers, says Klein, “there aren’t any real labor regulations.” (He noted that one lawsuit that was brought against Carnival in the U.S. ended with a settlement requiring future such disputes be pursued through an arbitration system, effectively requiring potential worker plaintiffs to shell out tens of thousands of dollars in transportation and legal fees.)

Association with Panama has paid other dividends for Carnival as well: In 2011, the New York Times’ David Leonhardt reported that, while Carnival depends on assistance from U.S. agencies like the Coast Guard, over a five-year period, its total corporate tax payments equaled just 1.1 percent of its $11.3 billion in profit. “So Carnival trades on the New York Stock Exchange, its corporate offices are in Miami — but it pays no taxes because it’s a Panamanian corporation,” said Klein. “It’s a great deal.”

Since the 1980s, there have been unsuccessful efforts in the U.S. Congress to force improvements in the labor standards of companies like Carnival. Klein says neither party has shown sufficient willingness to defy the industry, given “the money they spend on lobbying and the money they spend on indirect benefits to members of Congress.” Like cruises.

Carnival’s workers have shown more courage. As The Guardian reported, in 2010 about 150 Indian workers held an hour-long predinner demonstration in protest of low wages and tips. Following the end of that cruise, they received letters from Carnival UK’s chief financial officer pledging to increase basic pay. But the workers who protested wouldn’t reap the benefit — the same letter informed them that they would not be brought back for future cruises because their “industrial action” is “not something Carnival UK is prepared to tolerate.” British labor law did not apply.

Meanwhile, the Seamen’s Church Institute, an affiliate of the Episcopal Church, charges that the cruise industry is increasing the risk of future emergencies by lobbying to narrow the definition of “seafarers,” a category of workers with certain rights and responsibilities (including health care and training) under international convention.

Douglas Stevenson, who directs the institute’s Center for Seafarer’s Rights, told Salon that such a move that excluded “hotel staff or hairdressers” from the category would allow management to cut corners on training them. “If you have a perception that they’re not seafarers, and you don’t treat them as seafarers …” he said, “I think that does increase the safety risk.”

More Josh Eidelson.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 67 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations