River Tugboat Pilots Threaten Shutdown

It’s a difficult, lonely life piloting the tugboats that push cargo-laden barges up and down the Mississippi and other major rivers.

It’s also vital to the nation’s economy.

Yet a newly organized group representing 1,000 towboat pilots say their contribution isn’t recognized, and they’re threatening to shut down the Mississippi and its connecting rivers this spring unless they get hefty salary raises.

“We’re a forgotten breed out here,” said Dickey Mathes, founder of the group Pilots Agree. “We need to do something about that.”

Mathes said the pilots have an increasing amount of responsibility due to larger loads. Joined together, the barges can sometimes stretch the lengths of several football fields.

In addition, the Coast Guard has stiffened regulations in recent years, and barge companies have “mostly passed the buck” down to the pilots who can lose their licenses in cases of accidents, said independent barge pilot George Filmore of Pensacola, Fla.

“I might say that we need to cut down on the number of barges for safety. They say ‘If you can’t do it, we’ll have to get someone who can,’ ” Filmore said.

While their job pressures are rising, pilots say their pay hasn’t matched inflation, their pensions and health insurance are being gutted and they are being nickel-and-dimed by the companies. Mathes wants salaries doubled, putting the towboat pilots in the same pay category as railroad engineers.

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Port officials say a walkout could cause pandemonium along the rivers, especially at places like the Port of South Louisiana at LaPlace, upriver from New Orleans, one of the nation’s largest handlers of barge cargo.

“With the bulk share of cargo that runs through here and the fleeting operations that are here, it would be the equivalent of the river shutting down,” said Gary LaGrange, the port’s executive director. “It’s a potential Armageddon.”

So far, most barge and tugboat companies have had little to say about the group, which is currently voting on whether to organize as a formal labor union and to appoint pilots who will present their demands to the shippers. A tally is expected within days.

Officials with Canal Barge Co., a major New Orleans barge-shipping company, did not return calls seeking comment. Neither did officials with the American Waterway Operators, which represents the barge operators.

There are about 3,000 pilots who command the tugboats that push barges along the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Red, Illinois, Monongahela and Allegheny rivers. Unlike ship pilots who are usually independent contractors, the pilots work for barge and tow companies.

Mathes said there have been unions in the past, but they dealt with companies on an individual basis. The current drive is for a national agreement with all companies.

Mathes said pilots work up to 30 consecutive 12-hour days, and since they are considered a boat’s supervisor, they don’t receive overtime. Over the past 15 years, the average pay has dropped from 10 times the minimum wage to 4.5 times the minimum wage, he said.

A pilot now makes about $50,000 per year, he said. Benefits are being slashed and many companies have eliminated travel expenses to the pilot’s assigned port, Mathes said. He told of one company that charges its pilots $240 a month to park.

Mathes, of Lake Village, Ark., also criticized a lack of job security. He noted he was fired from his job with Stokes Towing Co. in Greenville, Miss., on Jan. 15--after word of the organizing effort got out.

Company President David Stokes said Mathes was fired for “sound reason.” He wouldn’t elaborate.

The barge business competes with trucks and railroads. Most of its cargo is low-value, bulk-type items such as corn, wheat and iron ore that are sensitive to increased transportation costs, said Peter Gatti, director of policy for the National Industrial Transportation League.

“Corn, for example, could turn on a few cents per bushel,” said Gatti, whose group represents those who use shippers.

Agricultural producers, who ship their products seasonally, are particularly vulnerable to a river shutdown, Gatti said.

LaGrange, of the Port of South Louisiana, said that a barge shutdown could mean more expensive rail and truck shipments, with extra costs eventually passed on to consumers.