The San Francisco pilots are losing their standing in the maritime community
Plaudits are apparently due to the San Francisco Bar Pilots for being so competent in stopping the CMA CGM box ship Norma from running aground. When the ship lost propulsion, the two pilots told the master what course to steer and made sure the tugs pulled in the right direction.
But wait. They were only doing the job that they're about to get paid more than $500,000 a year for, although that's not what they are saying to counteract the storm over their huge pay rise. They are linking the engine problem to the need for an increase.
In May, they introduced a new rule that ships over 1145 feet in length would need a second pilot. The Norma is longer than that but they refused to pilot it. California's Business, Transportation and Housing Agency had to order the pilots to do their job.
Just one more thing, as the late, great Lieutenant Columbo used to say. Why did they refuse to pilot the ship AFTER the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association advised member lines to pay only the rates in force now – rather than the proposed higher rate that would be effective from January (and which in any case has been stalled by the California authorities)?
On top of that, they have clouded the issue by using the defense that a premium was denied for the use of the second pilot on The Norma.
Their problem is that they have discarded professionalism for profit. Boss Bruce Horton should have agreed to bring in the ship without any grumbling, as part of the association's duties, and then complained that an agreement with CMA CGM had been broken. Instead, his attitude has laid bare the greed and self-interest that drives the association.
The pilots' motto is "Protecting the bay since 1850." Perhaps it should be "Protecting their pay since 2002." That was when they got their first big pay rise.
On a final note, while many news stories say that many of the 60 pilots are former commercial ship masters, they are actually former TUG BOAT captains.