I had this on DDD a couple of weeks ago.......
Cruise Ship time.....
A British camera crew did an undercover investigation on the Celebrity Eclipse, one of the newest ships afloat, looking at the working conditions for the crew and found long, long hours, cramped and crowded conditions and third world treatment for the workers behind the scenes. The story was broadcast on Channel 4 London, and this is a story on how the show was made, by one of the principals.
The airing of this production "Cruises Undercover - The Truth Below Deck" caused a furore in Britain, and sent the RCCL/Celebrity management into full spin mode. I haven't seen it, but based on this article it sounds pretty accurate. I am trying to get a copy of it, and when I do I'll post it.....
The Titanic, and its striking imagery of the cross-section of Edwardian life, is vividly ingrained on our imaginations. Upstairs: the luxury, the opulence, champagne and chandeliers. Below deck: Irish migrants, Italian waiters, the toil and trouble of a committed crew. Exactly 100 years later, the luxury is no longer so exclusive and the lowest-tier workers certainly aren't European – but not all that much has changed.
Dispatches' investigation Cruises Undercover: The Truth Below Deck, which airs tonight on Channel 4 and for which I spent five weeks undercover as an assistant waiter, reveals some of the harsh realities below deck for the multinational workforce who grind to provide once-in-a-lifetime holidays for almost 2 million British cruisers a year. But how is it that these cruises, as explained in this report from 2002, have been able to get away with providing working conditions well below the legal minimum in the UK for so long, even when operating out of British ports?
On 4 August, I set sail from Southampton on the Celebrity Eclipse, an impressive Royal Caribbean-owned cruise liner accommodating just over 4,000 passengers and crew. I was to sign a six-month contract stipulating I'd work straight through without a single day off, living in a small shared cabin. My typical working schedule was 70 hours a week, not including the intensive training schedule I would have to attend in my spare time between shifts. My basic salary was a mere £31 a month, leaving me almost entirely reliant on tips to earn a living. I was assured by the company I'd get a minimum guaranteed wage of £466 a month, equivalent to £1.54 per hour. If I failed to reach this total in tips, the company would make the difference up to me.
Cruises Undercover - The Truth below Deck
One of our more technologically advanced readers [thanks John] found the video of the 1/2 hour program and it's at this link - It's not as easy as usual - you have to download it [90 meg] to your computer [not your phone or I-Pad] which takes a minute or so. In addition the frame speed is slow, so it's a little jerky. However the audio is fine and you get the sense of the program perfectly.
This is for cruise line [or ex!] employees and aficionados only.......
I watched it, and it was interesting to see the disclaimers at the end from CCL disavowing all knowledge of any of the revelations in the documentary. However anyone connected with the industry, or rather anyone with any knowledge of ship operations knows most of this stuff is true.....there is a complete disconnect for the crew working on Caribbean ships [US passengers] and ships in the European runs where tips and compensation are concerned.
There's also a real story here for someone with the time and interest to find out how ships really function after seven years of cuts to their operations departments and the effects of worldwide itineraries......
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