Low Standards (and wages) in the Cruise Industry
Interesting article about the recent Italian cruise ship disaster. Emphasis on the last two paragraphs in particular. Not too difficult to see an analogy to our own industry:
This is not the first disaster that Carnival Cruise Lines, the owner of Costa, has been involved in, and I am sure not the last. Ted Arison founded Carnival and drove it to a position of market leadership in large part on the basis of one television series, "Love Boat", which showed the fun, carefree cruise life that everyone could afford especially those who could not afford any other sort of holiday nor had the imagination to think of something more creative, interesting and cost-effective to do with their hard earned cash and unused personal lines of credit.
Arison cared only about money and not about safety and passed the business on to his son Micky (now 62 years old), who cares even more about money and less about safety. Ted's fortune is estimated to be $6.1 billion, and you can be absolutely sure that he will not part with one penny of it as a result of this tragedy and will not return phone calls from his "palace" in Israel.
These mammoth cruise ships have been a disaster in the making. Food poisoning and microbes in the water can happen in any contained area with semi-skilled handlers and inadequate staff to do the work.... plus "energy saving" refrigeration that does not meet food safety standards. But this is an example of Carnival Cruise lines and the way it has let Costa and its ships be inadequately commanded and unprepared for serious incidents.... all to save money.Arison and Carnival/Costa may blame the captain, and I suspect it was his "fault" for carrying out this stupid and dangerous show-off stunt, but it's the culture of Carnival/Costa that allows this conduct and does not hire the best captains nor enforce the operating standards that are required as part of the responsibility for transporting huge groups of people.... or even small groups.
The Arisons were notorious over the years for hiring any captain and crew who would be willing to accept their wage offers, which were as much as 60% below the industry average. The captain quality has always been considered "below substandard" for the cruise boat and shipping industries.It's all part of "cutting corners and saving money" and that's all just fine with the owner/operators. And now people have died from an accident that certainly did not need to happen.