It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Farmers set to shake up Dutch political landscape
The outcome of a provincial election in the Netherlands could end Prime Minister Mark Rutte's environmental protection plans.
Opinion polls suggest a party started by disgruntled farmers could get significant support in Wednesday's provincial elections in The Netherlands.
That is bad news for Prime Minister Mark Rutte as provincial elections also determine the make-up of the Senate.
What might we expect from voters?
The polls show the BBB or BoerBurgerBeweging (Farmer-Civilian Movement) could win more seats in parliament's upper house than Rutte's conservative VVD party.
It will be a severe setback for Rutte's governing coalition, which has not had a Senate majority since the previous provincial elections in 2019 and must negotiate deals with left-wing opponents.
The BBB could ally with other parties in the Senate to challenge Rutte's plans to cut nitrogen emission levels.
Why the farmers oppose the plans
The Dutch prime minister has committed to halving the Netherlands' nitrogen emissions by 2030.
To do that that his government announced plans to reduce livestock numbers by a third and possibly the "expropriation" of farms. Farmers say the still unfinalized proposals are unfairly targeting them compared to sectors such as industry and transport.
"We don't really feel heard," Erik Stegink, national president of the BBB said. "Sometimes we don't even feel welcome in our own country anymore."
It is the issue that prompted the party's formation in 2019. The BBB won a single Dutch House of Representatives seat in 2021, but its popularity has since surged partly to Rutte's environmental policies.
More than 10,000 Dutch farmers protested in The Hague on Saturday against the government's plans.
Rutte, who has been in power since 2010, says he has "hope" his governing coalition could solve problems, including the farm plans.
lo/rc (AFP, AP, dpa)
Protesters rally across France as Macron's pension overhaul nears finale
Protesters marched across France on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to convince lawmakers not to back President Emmanuel Macron's pensions reform bill that would raise the retirement age by two years to 64. The protests have drawn millions of people since mid-January and walkouts have disrupted transport and energy sectors and left garbage piling up in the streets of Paris. FRANCE 24's Liza Kaminov reports from Paris.
'Unions at top level very united': French protesters very active in 'physical' & 'digital' street
Opponents of French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension plan are staging an eighth round of strikes and protests Wednesday as a joint committee of senators and lower-house lawmakers examines the contested bill. For more on the on-going protests to pressure Macron to scrap his controversial pension reform, FRANCE 24 is joined by Jean-Christophe Gallien, French political analyst.
Political tensions, new protests over French pension bill
By SYLVIE CORBET
TODAY 1 of 11 People demonstrate in Bayonne, southwestern France, Wednesday, March 15, 2023. Opponents of French President Emmanuel Macron's pension plan are staging a new round of strikes and protests as a joint committee of senators and lower-house lawmakers examines the contested bill.
(AP Photo/Bob Edme)
PARIS (AP) — Opponents of French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension plan are staging an eighth round of strikes and protests Wednesday as a joint committee of senators and lower-house lawmakers examines the contested bill.
The strikes in France are part of widespread unrest in Western Europe about the economic situation. In Britain on Wednesday, teachers, junior doctors and public transport staff were among those striking to back their demands for higher wages to match rising prices.
Wednesday’s meeting of seven French senators and seven lawmakers from the National Assembly is meant to find an accord on the final version of the text. The Senate is expected to approve it on Thursday, as its conservative majority is in favour of raising the retirement age.
The situation at the National Assembly is much more complicated, however.
Macron’s centrist alliance lost its majority in legislative elections last year, forcing the government to count on conservatives’ votes to pass the bill. Leftists and far-right lawmakers are strongly opposed to the measure.
The head of the conservative Republicans, Eric Ciotti, who himself has a seat at the National Assembly, said in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that “the highest interest of the nation ... commands us to vote for the reform.”
But conservative lawmakers are divided and some are planning to vote against or abstain, making the outcome in the lower house hard to predict.
With no guarantee of a majority, Macron’s government is facing a dilemma: A vote Thursday afternoon in the National Assembly would give more legitimacy to the bill, if adopted, but there’s a risk it would be rejected.
Another option would be to use a special constitutional power to force the bill through parliament without a vote. But such an unpopular move would prompt immediate criticism from the political opposition and unions about the lack of democratic debate.
French government spokesperson Olivier Véran said Wednesday that the government wants the joint committee, dominated by supporters of the reform, to find an accord to “financially balance and strengthen our pension system.”
The bill will continue its way through the legislative process, respecting “all the rules that are provided by our Constitution,” he said.
Véran spoke after a weekly Cabinet meeting during which the government did not discuss whether to use its special constitutional power.
Republicans party lawmaker Aurelien Pradié — who opposes the reforms — said Wednesday that if this special power were used he would lodge it with the constitutional council, a higher French legal body, to challenge the democratic legitimacy of the move.
Train drivers, school teachers, dock workers and others are expected to walk off the job Wednesday. Thousands of tons of garbage is piling up on the sidewalks of Paris and other French cities amid a continuing strike against the pension plan.
In Paris, garbage collectors and sanitation agents announced that they will continue the strike until at least March 20.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin asked Paris city hall to force some of the garbage workers to return to work, calling it a public health issue.
The Paris mayor, Socialist Anne Hidalgo, said she supports the strike. Government spokesperson Véran warned that if she doesn’t comply, the Interior Ministry is ready to act instead.
Public transport was disrupted in many cities. About 40% of high-speed trains and half regional trains have been canceled. The Paris metro was slightly disrupted. France’s aviation authority, the DGAC, said 20% of the flights at Paris-Orly airport have been canceled, and warned about potential delays.
Protesters gathered at several areas including sites for the 2024 Olympics.
Workers in several oil refineries are also among those pursuing an open-ended strike launched last week.
UK: Strike expands from doctors to include other workers
Teachers, train drivers and civil servants joined the UK's doctors on the picket line. Hundreds of thousands of workers have walked off the job.
Inflation has hit workers across all sectors, including white collar workers. UK university employees and journalists at the BBC also joined in the multisector walkout.The ASLEF (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen) and Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) trade unions in the capital London left the Underground system paralyzed. The 130,000 civil servants from various government departments along with the country's Border Force.
Near No. 10 Downing Street, workers chanted outside Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office, "What do we want?, 10 percent, when do we want it? Now!" What are workers in the UK concerned about?
Labor unions representing public sector workers have been at loggerheads with the government seeking pay increases they say are needed to allow for inflation. The government, meanwhile, says that they are unaffordable and will further fuel inflation.
The world's sixth-largest economy has faced a turbulent few years amid the shocks government austerity, Brexit, COVID-19 and double-digit inflation amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In addition to salaries not keeping up with inflation, workers mention conditions, job security and pensions as top among their concerns.
The British Medical Association said junior doctors had effectively taken a 26% pay cut since 2009.
Hunt, whose formal title is Chancellor of the Exchequer, became minister last year in the wake of former Prime Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget that proved politically disastrous and leaned heavily on unfunded plans for tax cuts. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, himself a former chancellor, then kept Hunt in the role.
Increasing industrial action across much of public sector
The General Secretary of the civil servants' PCS trade union, Mark Serwotka, said that it was scandalous that some government workers were themselves forced to accept government benefits because of their low salaries.
The cascade of ever-more-severe strikes had also reached a tipping point, he added.
"I believe that for the first time in years, opinion polls show there's a lot of support for strikes," Serwotka told AFP.
The two-day teachers' strike is expected to affect every school in the UK.
More and more public sector workers have been downing tools more frequently in recent months in the UK, nurses went on strike for what their unions said was the first time in history earlier in the labor dispute.
London (AFP) – Teachers, London Underground train drivers and civil servants joined striking doctors Wednesday in a mass stoppage as Britain's finance minister unveiled his tax and spending plans.
With hundreds of thousands of walking out, it was expected to be the biggest single day of industrial action since a wave of unrest began last year.
From nurses to lawyers, workers hit by a cost-of-living crisis have been striking across the economy, pitting unions against the government which insists big pay hikes are unaffordable and will only fuel inflation.
Alongside salaries, which workers say have not kept up with inflation, other issues include conditions, job security and pensions.
Other groups walking out Wednesday included UK university staff and BBC journalists in England.
The strike by train staff in the Aslef and Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) unions in London left the entire Underground train network at a standstill.
Government departments and the Border Force were also hit by a walk-out of an estimated 130,000 members of the PCS civil servants' union.
PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said it was a scandal that some of those administering government services were now so poorly paid they were forced to rely on handouts themselves.
The spiralling strikes could no longer be ignored, he added.
"Doctors are on strike in our hospitals, train drivers are on strike. Teachers are on strike. I believe that for the first time in years, opinion polls show there's a lot of support for strikes," he told AFP. '10 percent, Now!'
As Hunt delivered his budget plan to parliament, hundreds of striking civil servants marched near Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Downing Street office chanting "What do we want?, 10 percent, when do we want it? Now!"
Civil Service project manager Ben Millis, 25, said the country was witnessing an "amazing wave of activism".
"Prices of everything have increased so much, and it's the longest pay freeze... since pretty much pay records began," he told AFP as marchers blew whistles and banged drums.
"I think people are really starting to feel that something has to change and we need to get organised," he said.
The latest stoppage by teachers -- a two-day strike starting Wednesday -- was expected to affect every school in England.
Emmanuel Adebayo, 36, who teaches at an east London primary, said he had always dreamed of being a teacher.
But he said conditions were currently "really poor" and often it was children with special needs and other vulnerable pupils who suffered as a result.
"I have considered leaving teaching but I love my job. That's why I'm here today, to make sure that things are better for other teachers to come," he said at a huge gathering of striking teachers in central London.
National Education Union leaders Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney earlier threatened to step up their action if the government failed to put "money on the table".
"If they don't our action will escalate," they said in a joint statement.
"Shamefully, ministers don't seem interested in giving their own employees a fair pay rise to help them through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond."
UK hospital doctors in England on Monday launched a three-day stoppage claiming some were paid less than coffee shop workers.
The British Medical Association which represents junior doctors says they have suffered the equivalent of a 26 percent cut to their pay since 2008-09.
Double-digit inflation has spurred a wave of strikes across the UK not seen for 40 years. While French and German workers want to maintain standards, British workers are trying to get back what they've lost.
Nik Martin
DW https://p.dw.com/p/4OaNq
Around 40,000 junior doctors in the United Kingdom began a three-day walkout on Monday that is expected to be even more disruptive to the country's health care system than recent industrial action by nurses and ambulance staff.
A wave of strikes has disrupted life in Britain as workers react to decades-high inflation that reached 11.1% in October 2022.
In recent months, public transport staff, teachers, postal workers and border staff have all walked off the job to demand higher pay and better working conditions.
Until a short while ago, many Britons would sneer at French or German workers, believing that their continental counterparts were "always on strike," and that such walkouts were bad for business.
But as the UK emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of Brexit began to kick in, the country's economic malaise was plain to see. Britain's chances hamstrung by neglect
Years of austerity following the 2008 financial crisis weakened public services to the point that they are now often struggling to provide basic levels of support. The National Health Service (NHS) is buckling under the strain of an aging and increasingly unhealthy population, as well as a huge backlog of treatments that were delayed during the pandemic.
Striking workers complain of an obsession by successive Conservative governments with efficiencies that they say has led to years of underinvestment and left them with unreasonable workloads and falling real incomes. Worst still, the full economic effects of Brexit have yet to be felt.
"Over the last 12 years, Britain has experienced the longest phase of real wage stagnation since the early 19th century," Scott Lavery, a lecturer in politics at the University of Sheffield, told DW. "Since the financial crisis, we've seen sustained real wage decline."
Real incomes — after accounting for inflation — have fallen 5.1% since December 2007, according to UK government figures. This coupled with the inflation crisis, which Lavery said was "eroding living standards dramatically," has left British workers struggling to stay afloat.
The cost of living crisis has also hit UK small businesses hardImage: David Cliff/NurPhoto/picture alliance
British struggle to play catch-up
French workers have also hit the streets recently over soaring inflation. But their main priority is to oppose planned reforms to the country's generous pension system that allows retirement at 62. German unions, meanwhile, have succeeded in negotiating several inflation-busting pay deals, including one with Deutsche Post last weekend that favors the lower paid and even includes trainees.
"In France, there is a sense of defending an existing standard of living, while in the UK, people feel that whatever used to exist has gone," Sam Moorecroft, vice president of the Trades Union Council in the city of Sheffield, told DW.
Moorecroft believes the seeds of today's misery were sown in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher took office as prime minister and proceeded to crush the trade union movement. She blamed generous pro-union laws introduced by the then-socialist Labour Party for allowing widespread strike action to bring the country to its knees.
"When Thatcher defeated the miners in the 1980s, many believed that the trade union movement had been completely defeated. But now, there is a move to return to the same level of union participation as the past," Moorecroft added.
That ambition is yet to be seen in the statistics. Union membership peaked in 1979 and by 2021 had more than halved to 23.1% of the workforce or 6.44 million people. Union members tend to be over 35 and almost half have been working for the same company for a decade or more, but that is changing. Can young people restore the balance?
Unions are reaching out to younger workers, who are more likely to be on the minimum wage, and a third of whom are on zero-hours contracts. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) calculated recently that nearly 90% of those under 30 on low to median incomes in Britain work in the private sector, which is mostly non-unionized.
The Low Pay Commission, which advises the UK government, found last month that many UK employers were failing to incorporate annual hikes to the national minimum wage — a phenomenon known as wage theft. Before the pandemic, around 22% of minimum wage earners were underpaid, but by April 2022, that figure had grown to almost a third.
Moorecroft noted how non-unionized workplaces are increasingly mobilizing for better pay and conditions, citing a recent strike at Amazon's largest UK fulfillment center, in Coventry. Around 300 workers at the 1,400-strong warehouse walked out several times over the past two months over low wages and grueling round-the-clock shift patterns.
While the US tech firm's French and German workers have previously staged several strikes, particularly around the Black Friday sales, Amazon has so far refused to recognize Britain's GMB union, which fights for the rights of the firm's employees in the UK.
In December, the Royal College of Nursing called its members on strike for the first time everImage: Maja Smiejkowska/REUTERS
Strikes garner more public backing
Public support for walkouts in the UK has always been mixed as memories of the Winter of Discontent linger. During the coldest months of 1978-9, the country was brought to a standstill by large-scale private and public sector strikes that caused food shortages, weeks of uncollected garbage and, in one city, the dead to lie unburied.
This time, however, with public services already defective, the cost of living crisis hitting everyone's pockets and living standards lower than a decade ago, the public's backing for strikes is noticeably higher.
A poll by Sky News in January found that 63% of Britons strongly support or somewhat support walkouts by health care workers, with 49% backing wider public sector action.
"There is certainly a sense that those core public sector workers that kept the economy running during the pandemic have strong public support ... particularly nurses, despite their strikes having potentially life-or-death consequences," Lavery said. Sunak's government under pressure
Recent signs of progress toward ending the wage disputes are encouraging, despite the government having argued that inflation-busting pay increases would drive prices higher. Nurses, midwives and ambulance staff last week called off their planned strikes as negotiations looked positive.
Britain is, however, unlikely to pivot to a more European labor market structure. After all, the country's decision to leave the EU was sometimes referred to as an opportunity to create a low-tax Singapore-on-Thames. The country's heavy indebtedness last year forced a 70-year-high tax burden on workers, which put that possibility on hold for now.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak proposed new legislation in January that would enforce "minimum service levels" in key areas of the public sector, including education and health care, which would hamper strikes.
"[This] would effectively debar some workers from taking legal industrial action," Lavery told DW. "The UK already has some of the most restrictive anti-union legislation in the Western world and Sunak is trying to tighten up further ... so he's far from being a peacemaker."
Edited by: Ashutosh Pandey
UK STRIKES Doctor’s union membership hits record high as strike continues
17,000 doctors joined the union since the start of this year
The British Medical Association (BMA) now has more than 184,000 doctors in their union, a record figure as 17,000 doctors joined since the start of 2023.
This comes as junior doctors enter their third day of a 72-hour strike.
Junior doctors are calling for a pay restoration to make up for 15 years of pay erosion, having experienced a pay cut of 25% since 2008/09, and on top of burdening workloads and burnout.
BMA is now calling on the Health Secretary Steve Barclay to drop his pre-conditions to entering talks with junior doctors in England.
On Monday, Steve Barclay said the government was ready to have negotiations but only if a number of pre-conditions were agreed, including wanting to keep the discussion about future pay.
The union also believes that the Health Secretary is looking for the union to commit to send any offers the government makes to members with a recommendation to accept them, which is not something they would do.
Co-Chairs of the Junior Doctor Committee, Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said strike action was ‘100% the fault of Steve Barclay’, who they accused of showing ‘no real commitment to resolving the dispute’.
In a joint statement, they said: “We remain open to entering talks with the Government anytime and anywhere to bring this dispute to a swift resolution and restore the pay that junior doctors have lost.
“If the Health Secretary is truly committed to this, then he needs to drop these unreasonable pre-conditions and begin proper negotiations with us.
“It is Steve Barclay who is stopping talks happening by putting up barriers he knows our members cannot accept.
“The preconditions go against the very thing junior doctors are in dispute over.
“It begs the question; does he even understand why doctors are so angry?
“Over several years this Government has broken trust with junior doctors, imposed changes to our work contracts without agreement and excluded junior doctors from pay awards.
“So, it is really no surprise that we want to see more from the Secretary of State than a vague last-minute letter with impossible preconditions.”
'The fundemental issue is government failure to properly fund transport for London'
London Underground was brought to a halt this morning as tube workers from the ASLEF and RMT unions walk out in an ongoing dispute over working conditions.
Over 10,000 RMT members joined ASLEF tube drivers in the 24-hour strike today, which is not about pay, but about fighting to retain existing working conditions and staff pensions.
Talking to LFF this morning, Finn Brennan, ASLEF District Organiser, said the fundamental issue is government ‘failure’ to properly fund transport in London.
He said workers were not prepared to pay the price of the financial deficit in public services caused by the government, and are making a unified stand today to fight to retain their rights.
“London transport has been left with a huge hole in its budget post-pandemic and the government are trying to fill that hole by attacking staff conditions and staff pensions and cutting staff numbers,” said Brennan.
“Our members are rightly saying we’re not going to pay the costs of the pandemic, when workers delivered a vital public service.
“It’s not right or fair to ask them now to accept cuts in their working conditions and pensions because the government refused to properly fund London Underground.”
The government are looking to cut £100 million a year from pension costs, meaning people’s pensions would be reduced by up to a third, according to Brennan.
“That’s simply not acceptable. People aren’t prepared to see their working conditions and their pension slashed.
“TFL management want to rip up all existing working conditions and impose huge changes.
“We’re always happy to discuss and negotiate change but change has to come about by agreement.”
ASLEF tube train drivers voted by 99% in favour of strike action today, as Brennan said members are willing to take action for ‘as long as it takes’ to protect their conditions, with predictions that strike action will continue into summer.
He added: “We don’t want to be in a position where we’re causing disruption to people, but the London Underground isn’t just important today, it’s important every day of the year.
“We need a properly funded transport system, just like we need properly funded schools and hospitals.”
London transport workers have already seen cuts to services, such as ticket office closures, and are making a stand now in order to safeguard the service for the future.
Planned job cuts are also a major concern for striking workers, with the RMT writing to the London Mayor yesterday calling for the end to job cuts on the London Underground and for the prioritisation of public safety.
Commenting on the strike action, RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: “Attacks on pensions, conditions and job losses will not be tolerated and the travelling public needs to understand that understaffed and unstaffed stations are unsafe.
“We will continue our industrial campaign for as long as it takes.”
Tube workers join junior doctors, teachers, civil servants, university staff, BBC radio journalists and Amazon workers all on strike today in one of the biggest days of strike action in decades.
Amazon workers in Coventry begin historic week-long strike
Amazon workers in Coventry escalate strike action against 'disgraceful' 50p pay rise
Amazon workers in Coventry began another round of historic strike action on Monday, starting their week-long strike.
In response to a ‘disgraceful’ 50p pay rise, more than 450 staff at the West Midlands distribution centre will be walking out until Friday, 17 March as more workers join the industrial action.
Amazon workers have shared their stories of colleagues having to take second jobs, pawning their goods to make ends-meat and going to food banks due to poor pay.
Marie, an Amazon worker featured in a video by the GMB union, who is representing Coventry Amazon workers, said: “I just want better treatment, I want them to realise we are people, we’re not just numbers.”
Other staff have shared accounts of working 60 hours a week just to earn enough to pay the bills and afford to feed their family.
Workers are asking for a £4.50 rise for low paid workers, to bring their pay up to £15 an hour.
This is from a company which took $225.153 billion in profit last year.
Amanda Gearing, GMB Senior Organiser, said it was ‘sickening’ that Amazon workers in Coventry will earn just 8 pence above the National Minimum Wage come April 2023.
She said it was ‘crunch time’ for the ‘Amazon top brass’, as the unprecedented week-long strike shows the anger among Amazon workers in Coventry.
“They work for one of the richest companies in the world, yet they have to work round the clock to keep themselves afloat,” said Gearing.
“Amazon bosses can stop this industrial action by doing the right thing and negotiating a proper pay rise with workers.”
The strike action will cost the company over £2 million, according to GMB figures.
The ‘David and Goliath’ battle against one of the world’s biggest companies has seen support come in from around the world and moral on the picket line has been ‘sky high’, as workers in Coventry received a flurry of support.
Amazon have continued to not recognise the union and instead ‘rule by fear’, according to Coventry worker Conor Geraghty who referred to it as a ‘corporate dictatorship’.
However, union membership at the Coventry warehouse rose from 1 in 50, to 1 in 5 as more workers joined the fight for better pay and workplace treatment.
Commenting on the first day of strike action so far, Stuart Richards, GMB Union Official, said: “It’s been brilliant having workers talk to workers on the picket line and it seems to be having an impact.”
Hannah Davenport is trade union reporter at Left Foot Forward
Ocean Network Express (ONE) reports it has placed an order for 10 large new containerships as the next step in its growth strategy. The company is also emphasizing the extent of the environmental measures planned for the vessels to make them state-of-the-art.
The containership line announced the new vessels, which will have a carrying capacity of over 13,700 TEU and will be delivered in 2025 and 2026, will be ready for methanol and ammonia in line with the company’s green strategy aimed at achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. ONE did not disclose the cost for each of the vessels or the yard that has been awarded the newbuild contract.
As part of the company’s environmental strategy, ONE said it is having discussions with the shipyard and equipment manufacturers to implement onboard carbon capture and storage on delivery of the vessels. The new ships will also be equipped with a bow cover and other energy-saving technologies. ONE began testing the bow wind shield concept late last year with two of its vessels, the ONE Trust and ONE Tradition. Both vessels are Ultra Large Container Vessels (20,000 TEU). ONE recently said it will continue to install the bow wind shield on our future newbuilds.
The orders are the latest step in a business strategy outlined by CEO Jeremy Nixon a year ago. At the time, he said the company had matured and was now in a phase where it would place construction orders and make strategic investment decisions. The business strategy calls for a $20 billion investment in vessel and equipment fleet, management systems, and key terminal operations by 2030. Nixon said they would annually invest in 150,000 TEU of capacity.
Last May, ONE placed an order for 10 containerships to be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries and Nihon Shipyard. Due for delivery in 2025, the vessels will have a capacity of 13,700 TEU. That follows a previous order in December 2020 for six 24,000 TEU vessels due to enter service in 2023 and 2024. According to Alphaliner’s rankings of the container carriers, ONE is currently seventh with approximately 200 vessels and a capacity above 1.5 million TEU.
“By ensuring a stable deployment of new, state-of-the-art container vessels without constrained by short-term fluctuations in the container market, the company aims to strengthen its fleet competitiveness and meet customer demand for building and maintaining an efficient and reliable supply chain,” said ONE in a statement.
The fleet investment comes when the commercial shipping industry is recording a slowdown in demand since August last year, a development that is impacting the industry’s near-term profitability. In late January, ONE reported a significant deterioration of third quarter profits that stood at $2.7 billion, down from the $5.5 billion reported in the second quarter, and $4.8 billion realized during the same period in 2021. For the full year, ONE is forecasting a four percent decline in profitability to $14.7 billion.
Having started operations in 2017 through the integration of three Japanese shipping companies, ONE has witnessed significant growth and today operates 156 weekly services to 120 countries with Asia-North America accounting for 32 percent of its business, followed by Asia-Europe at 23 percent and intra-Asia at 22 percent. The company has committed to achieving sustainable maritime transportation by investing in greener assets and technologies, alternative fuels, carbon management, operational efficiency, and clean ship recycling.
The Indian Navy's Aircraft Carrier Dilemma
The ski-jump carrier INS Vikrant, top, at the time of her delivery (Indian Navy)
The late General Bipin Rawat, India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, took a dim view of aircraft carriers. He considered them expensive and unnecessary. In his telling, including with pointed remarks in June 2020, the Indian military was “not an expeditionary force” and had no need to deploy aircraft carriers in faraway places. Moreover, he felt such ships were vulnerable to sea-launched and shore-based missiles. The general rather seemed to favour submarines, which he noted were important for defence, and did not, unlike aircraft carriers, require a screen of battleships for protection.
The Indian Navy has traditionally been wary of such reasoning, seeing the aircraft carrier as a vital asset at the heart of maritime strategy. The flattop, Indian experts say, has the decisive ability to tilt the psychological balance in the littorals by ensuring a continuous and visible presence that complicates the cost-benefit calculus of the adversary. The large deck carrier, or supercarrier, with a catapult launch system is especially favoured for its ability to operate heavy, long-range multi-function aircraft.
But the navy last year unexpectedly dropped its demand for a large carrier. Admiral R. Hari Kumar, the current naval chief, announced at the Navy Day press conference in December 2022 that the next flattop would be a small one. He confirmed the decision last month, disclosing that the navy was planning a repeat order for the 45,000-tonne Vikrant, India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, while still looking for a larger aircraft carrier design in future.
There are two ways to interpret this reversal. The first is that the navy is in a fiscal situation in which building a large aircraft carrier is no longer feasible. The Modi government’s guiding mantra today is Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) and naval planners are under growing pressure to indigenise by 2047. Capital allocations are also down (in relative terms) as a result of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, while the government has made a severe cut in the procurement of foreign systems. So aside from the time and resources required to develop a design for a large aircraft carrier, India’s naval planners are unsure whether the imports required to construct a large aircraft carrier will materialise. The option of a smaller carrier would also ensure that Cochin Shipyard’s experience in building the Vikrant will not be wasted.
The navy could begin inducting indigenous twin-engine deck-based fighters by the end of this decade. To operate these aircraft, which are intended to replace the MiG-29Ks, the navy will require at least two operational aircraft carriers. A large deck carrier is not in the navy’s plans because entering service would take over two decades.
Nonetheless, switching from a supercarrier to a small flattop creates a dilemma for the navy. The problem with a light carrier is that it isn’t fit for purpose in today’s complex and contested maritime environment. In wartime conditions, a small carrier is constrained in its operations, particularly when faced with the adversary’s anti-access, anti-denial systems. Since a small flattop does not operate heavy planes that require a catapult system for take-off but also typically have longer ranges, the ship has little option but to operate within the engagement envelope of the adversary’s shore-based missiles and air defence systems.
But small carriers are also less capable than large deck carriers in other critical respects. Unlike big carriers that are mostly nuclear-propelled and with sufficient power to manoeuvre continuously in the sensitive littorals, small flattops have conventional propulsion (gas-turbine or diesel), which offers less power. That translates into lower flexibility and less agile operations. While large aircraft carriers can serve as a floating base and deploy for extended periods of time, a small flattop has a shorter operational range, a lower sortie generation rate, and less endurance. Compared to a big carrier, small flattops also have less potent onboard defence systems and are particularly vulnerable to drone swarm attacks.
While small deck carriers are certainly useful in peacetime presence operations, their combat role is limited, unless their air wing comprises a powerful aircraft, such as the F-35B, with increased range, lethality and survivability. Notably, the fifth-generation carrier-based fighter is capable of deploying precision munitions at long ranges without risking the loss of aircraft or aircrews. The Indian Navy, which is likely to fly MiG-29Ks and Rafale Marines (or F/A-18 Super Hornets) from its small aircraft carriers over the next decade, may well succeed in deterring adversaries during a conflict. But it is hard to predict how Indian carriers with unproven aircraft will perform in a hostile environment.
The navy’s decision to replace the demand for a large deck flattop with a small aircraft carrier may appear driven by expediency, but it is really the result of dwindling options. Although no substitute for a large carrier, a small flattop is the Indian Navy’s only feasible choice. Notwithstanding the ship’s limitations, particularly its limited warfighting ability, a second Vikrant is all that the navy can hope to get in the current circumstances.
A former naval officer, Abhijit Singh, is a Senior Fellow at New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation and head of the Maritime Policy Initiative. A maritime professional with specialist and command experience in front-line Indian naval ships, he is a keen commentator on maritime matters and writes regularly on security and governance issues in the Indo Pacific region.
This article appears courtesy of The Lowy Interpreter and may be found in its original form here.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
First Hydrogen-Powered Ferry in the U.S. Prepares to Begin Service
After a year's delay, the hydrogen-powered ferry Sea Change has arrived in San Francisco and is preparing to begin operations. It will be the first vessel of its kind in the United States, and beginning this spring, it will demonstrate the use of a zero-onboard-emissions fuel in a practical maritime application.
Sea Change was delivered in August 2021 and fueled for the first time in November 2021, and her owner predicted that her first commercial operations would begin in June 2022. She was towed into San Francisco this month and is on track to begin operation within weeks, once the crew has completed training, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Using 250 kilos of compressed hydrogen for fuel and hydrogen fuel cells to generate power, Sea Change will carry up to 75 passengers at speeds of about 16 knots. She will serve on San Francisco Bay Ferry's network, which connects the downtown waterfront with Alameda, Oakland, Richmond and Vallejo.
The vessel's development was underwritten by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which provided $3 million in funding for R&D, procurement and construction in 2018. With support from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and the California Infrastructure Economic Development Bank, the project also qualified for a loan guarantee for a $5 million construction loan from Key Bank. Hydrogen fuel will be provided by West Coast Clean Fuels, a joint venture between Pasha, World Fuel Services and Clean Marine Energy.
A handful of hydrogen-powered ferries are already in limited operation in Japan and Norway, including one vessel powered by a hydrogen-fueled diesel cycle engine. In Belgium, the CMB shipping dynasty has introduced the world's first hydrogen-powered tug, which began operations last year.
NOBODY GOES TO WORK TO DIE
OSHA Fines Alabama Stevedoring Firm for Fatal Cargo Accident
The small freighter Weserborg (file image courtesy Kees Torn / CC BY SA 2.0)
Investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have faulted a stevedoring firm in connection with a fatal cargo-handling accident aboard a bulker in Florida last year.
On September 11, 2022, three dockers from contractor Premier Bulk Stevedoring were loading rolls of paper aboard the general cargo ship Weserborg. The team was moving seven-foot-tall rolls of paper about five rolls at a time, each load weighing about two tons. During one hoisting evolution, the ship rolled, and the load crushed a 28-year-old stevedore against the bulkhead of the cargo bay. The victim did not survive.
OSHA found that the crew's crane operator did not have a clear view of the stevedores in the hold below. Its inspectors had already cited Premier Bulk Stevedoring once before in 2020 for a similar crane-operations violation, though the citation was deleted after a civil settlement.
For the second violation, OSHA has proposed a penalty of more than $40,000 for exposing employees to "struck-by and caught-between hazards from swinging loads," as well as failing to ensure that supervisors had accident-prevention training. The agency recommended keeping dockers away from hazards by establishing safety zones around the hoisting area.
“Less than two years ago, OSHA cited Premier Bulk Stevedoring for unsafe loading operations and our investigation into this tragic September 2022 fatality found the company again operating in a dangerous manner,” said OSHA Area Office Director Jose Gonzalez in Mobile, Alabama. “Their failure to follow established safety procedures caused a young worker to needlessly lose their life.”
Sailboat Attacked and Disabled by Orcas in Strait of Gibraltar
The Strait of Gibraltar's notorious orcas are back. This week, another sailboat was disabled off Cape Spartel by killer whales who attacked it until they had broken its rudder - a pattern all too familiar to sailors in the region.
Early on Monday, the crew of the sailboat Larios made a distress call and reported that they had lost their rudder. They had come into contact with three orcas and had lost their rudder. Salvamar Maritimo dispatched the rescue boat Salvamar Arcturus from the port of Tarifa to give them assistance, and the Arcturus towed them all the way to Barbate for repairs.
There has never been a documented fatal attack on a human by an orca in the wild, but orcas have been knocking into sailboats off the Strait of Gibraltar and the coast of Galicia for years. Between July and October of 2020 alone, there were at least 40 reported orca incidents involving sailboats off Spain and Portugal. The attacks have a specific pattern: the orcas always target the rudder, and often cause the boat to swing through a wide arc. The vessels targeted are always sailboats under 15 meters in length.
From reviewing video footage from the sailboat incidents and analyzing the scars on the orca's bodies, marine scientists with research center CIRCE determined that three specific individuals are involved, all teenage males. Identified from research surveys as Gladis Black, Gladis White and Gladis Gray, they all belong to the same family pod, and they appear to be engaging with sailboats as a form of entertainment.
“From what I’m seeing, it’s mainly two of those guys [the Gladises] in particular that are just going crazy,” marine biologist Dr. Renaud de Stephanis told the BBC. “They just play, play and play. . . . It just seems to be something they really like and that’s it.”
The interactions continued last year: in July 2022, two boats were disabled with rudder damage in quick succession off Galicia, and one had to call for a tow from Salvamento Maritimo.
Rio Tinto should expect more friction over Oyu Tolgoi
Bloomberg News | March 14, 2023 | Oyu Tolgoi is Rio Tinto’s biggest copper growth project. (Image courtesy of Rio Tinto.)
Mongolia will keep fighting for maximum benefit from a giant copper mine run by Rio Tinto Group, the country’s prime minister said, after a major expansion of the project got underway following many years of fraught negotiations.
Rio Tinto announced Monday it had finally begun production at the underground portion of its Oyu Tolgoi operation, which it expects to be the world’s fourth-biggest copper mine by 2030. That capped more than a decade of delays, cost blowouts and disputes between Rio and Mongolia’s government.
Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai said he was confident that progress at Oyu Tolgoi would be smoother than in the past, but there were still sources of potential tensions — including issues from taxation to power supplies and environmental impact.
“As the democratic system is present in Mongolia, there is always debate and I do believe that there will be debate in the future too,” the country’s leader since early 2021 said in an interview in Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday. Demand wave
The Mongolian government owns a 34% stake in Oyu Tolgoi — with Rio holding the balance — and sees the mine as key to its goal of doubling the economy’s size by the end of this decade. The project gives Rio and Mongolia exposure to an expected wave of new demand for copper from clean-energy technologies.
A 2021 deal under which Rio agreed to forgive about $2.4 billion of government debt was pivotal in restarting stalled progress on the underground project.
“The issue now is how we can make the revenue from this project more equitable to the people of Mongolia,” he said. The government is still in live negotiations with Rio over tax arrangements and on the construction of a new power plant, he said.
Oyun-Erdene said Mongolia had made mistakes in the early years of talks with Rio due to being “inexperienced in reaching this kind of agreement.” Oyu Tolgoi is by far the single biggest foreign investment in Mongolia.
On Monday, the official opening day of the underground project, Rio Tinto chief executive officer Jakob Stausholm admitted the company hadn’t had a “smooth ride” in Mongolia so far. “We have learnt like you wouldn’t believe,” he said.
(By James Fernyhough, with assistance from Gina Turner)
