Chairman’s Report 07/06

July 15th, 2006 by JCB
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Who’d be Chairman?

As you will all know, Les has been on sick for a couple of months now, and it is unfortunately beginning to look as though he will have to retire on ill-health. Part of Les’ problem has been due to the amount of work that he took on. I can sympathise with him – every day I do something concerned with pilotage, whether it is just replying to e-mails, writing letters, phone calls, meetings or even my day job. Section committee members give their time freely for the sake of UK Pilots. My wife asked me the other day why I do it, when there are some people who do nothing, except their job. There is no easy answer, but I am just one of a team, and I guess we do it in an effort to preserve the job that we like, and for the future of pilotage.

Recently I was to travel to London at 0700 for a meeting, but was on duty the night before. As such I did a couple of ships and finished [early] at 2100. Down to London on the 0700 train, and into the office for a couple of hours, had the meeting, then back to Teesside on the 1700 train, arriving home at 2000. Back on shift the next day!

A couple of days later a colleague remarked that “he had had to do 4 ships whilst I was socialising in London”. Had he forgotten the month earlier, where in similar circumstances I did 6 ships on a night watch, finishing at 0330, and then set off for the Clyde at 0800, for 2 days? That’s the moan over, but the point is that those pilots on committees, be it national, international or local do give up a lot of their own time. We all realise that to do it we rely on the support of our colleagues whilst we are at meetings and not actually piloting.

Past Chairmen of the UKMPA have spent a lot of time, days on end, in the office in London – I, if I am elected Chairman next year, do not intend to. Firstly I can see little point, and, secondly, it would probably mean [another] divorce. Yes, there will be occasions when it is necessary, however section committee can do a lot of work these days by e-mail – we have yet to try video-conferencing, but it is coming. (Please note; probably the quickest way to contact me is by e-mail). There is so much information forthcoming from the plethora of meetings we each attend, it is easy to spend hours working at a computer. It is a bad world out there, and there are some people who do not have our best interests at heart.

I can see the value in having a “figure head” paid for by the Association, as do IMPA and EMPA. Such a person –

President, General Secretary, or whatever would be able to man the London office on a regular basis, carry out some of the secretarial work, and be the first point of contact for most queries. An opportunity has arisen for us that I shall be discussing with section committee in August. Monica does a great job on our behalf, and although “pilots come first”, she does have another job within the T&G. You may be aware that the T&G are in the throes of an amalgamation – who knows what the future holds? No other section of the T&G has the autonomy that we have.

Humber: ABP have now appointed a QC to defend their case. We still await their Disclosure of Documents.

Kristian: It is with regret that I have to report that Kristian lost his appeal for unfair dismissal (see page 10).

Belfast: A contract for services was drawn up, and terms agreed, however, almost on the eve of signing, the CHA altered the terms. As such it is back to negotiation for now.