More Crew Members Come Forward
Carnival Cruise Line AKA Home Wreckers Inc
March 5, 2008
CRUISE BRUISE EXCLUSIVE REPORT
Cruise Bruise in a continuing investigation on alleged crew abuses has received case #9.
Just reading his letter brought tears to me eyes. They were not tears of sadness, instead tears of RAGE.
I know, yes I know, using the words morals and Carnival in the same phrase is like using the words love and sexual assault in the same phrase. The two do not go hand in hand. But, my word, for the of love humanity how can Carnival Cruise Lines publicize their services based on ad campaigns centered around the theme of 'happiness' and 'love', when they stoop this low?
I understand the need to run a business, and to make a profit. Truly I do. But, any person at the head of ANY even marginally ethical company MUST have a line in the sand that they will not cross. When it comes to Carnival Cruise Lines, I don't see this theory applies, at all.
When a company hires a married couple, and that company provides long term housing for their employees, it is simply morally wrong to separate that couple and force them to live apart, perhaps in two DIFFERENT countries.
Even heartless military branches try to keep married couples and even friends who sign-up together stationed on the same base.
The company knew the couple was married when they hired them, yet, they boxed them into a corner, taking advantage of their inadequate financial resources to FORCE this couple apart. They had NO choice but to separate. This was not something they bargained for when they went through the hire process for this contract.
Crew member #9 alleges:
" . . . [personal information deleted] . . . know that after spending [deleted - X number of] weeks in the hotel then being placed on the ship, they separated [name deleted] and me saying they putting us where business needs us.
How is this fair, to separate married couples to suit them? Is it right?
How can I complain as when we called the office the lady who answered told, we are here to work. Just go where you are supposed to.
Now even with me doing so, they are still no position available for at least another week or two.
What will i do as [name deleted] gone to another ship? If we both waited for a ship together then they told us we have to pay all meals and accommodation at hotel.
My other friends (crew members on the ship) tell me complaining gets us in lots of trouble.
I need my job as [name deleted] and i have lots of accounts to care for. Even for the [deleted - X number] of weeks in hotel no one pays me.
Only I know how much tears drop from my sad eyes.
Do you really think things on ships will improve???????????"
This couple envisioned being hired together, working on the same ship, earning a decent wage, and resolving their financial worries. What they got instead, was a Carnival Cruise Line trap, according to their statement to Cruise Bruise, where they had no choice but to separate.
With no money to pay for the motel or food, stranded in a strange town, in a strange country, they were forced to separate in order to avoid the financial and political nightmare of their lives. They jumped from the fire in to the pan, with Carnival Cruise Lines prodding them with a hot poker.
I understand the need to make huge profits to keep stock holders happy, but do the stockholders really know that the company they support is deliberately breaking up married couples, misleading them into believing they would be on the same ship, while they had a policy in place that would ensure low income couples would be split up?
If you hire a married couple you have a moral obligation to keep the couple housed together, unless they elect, without financial penalty to take assignments on two different ships. That means placing them on the same ship together, even if that means keeping them in a hotel with meals at company expense for weeks or months.
Though, I am quite sure, with the number of crew members ending up in the sea or just calling it quits on a weekly basis, the wait should not have been long. A little bit of care and planning in handing out assignments could have made this a smooth hiring process.
Instead, one spouse can end up sailing the seas of the Caribbean while the other ends up in the Mediterranean. I am just myself, right now, trying to comprehend how I would feel if my spouse and I were torn apart, deliberately, by an employer, just because we got backed into a financial corner. The rage is boiling inside me, at this very moment.
Any policy short of family unification during hiring, is nothing more than 17th and 18th century slave trading practices, with no regard what so ever to keep a family unified, as slave owners maintain policies that are ONLY good for them. Under these circumstances, it would be impossible for Carnival to defend themselves to any jury against a charge of slavery.
Trucking companies know that hiring husband and wife teams makes for happier truckers, who don't suffer home sickness, or quit because they can't stand being away from their spouse. They have been playing up this advantage for many years, and it has worked well for them.
How is it that a cruise line, one that professes to be so in-tune with the evolving needs of it's passengers, could bring foreigners to our soil, and force them into separate prisons of indentured servitude? We only do that to convicts in this country.
I can only see one reason for doing this. It separates a couple who would naturally watch each other's back, thereby making it easier for the cruise line and the officers on the ship to victimize them. They are warned if they complain, they will be in trouble.
Of course you, know how this will go, they will be told to keep their mouths shut and work their fanny's off, or they will be forced off the two ships, in different ports, in different countries, in a country that no doubt speaks a different language than they do, with no money and no way to figure out how to get home. That is the way it is done. They have these two right where they want them, working as silent, compliant victim slaves. This is just plain vicious.
