Aspromar (professional association of mariners of the Maritime Administration) supported by the so-called Youth Group of the Associació Catalana de Capitans de la Marina Mercant (ACCMM), convened last Wednesday the 1st state assembly of entities and associations related to qualified merchant marine officers, and it must be noted that it obtained an excellent in-person and digital response.
The initiative is based on the unprecedented fact that, to this day, other qualified professionals (basically naval engineers) who, lacking any professional nautical experience and without having commanded a ship, have been practically monopolizing all the positions in the (state and regional) Administrations that should be occupied by qualified merchant marine officers.
Although the panel, at all times, was respectful towards the naval engineers and above all towards the Colegio de Oficiales de la Marina Mercante Española (COMM), the same did not occur in the open speaking turns, which, little by little, began expressing veiled criticisms first and open ones later towards the chronic, almost perpetual, immobility of the professional body that represents them, raising the need for its renewal.
This trickle of criticism caused the representative of the Colegio Oficial de los Marinos Mercantes Españoles (COMME), despite being granted up to three speaking turns, to end up very upset and to leave the room twice and attempt to silence the intervention of another participant who had been granted an open speaking turn. From that tense moment on, his attitude, together with that of the representative of the Real Liga Naval, became detached and disdainful until the end of the session.
The bittersweet tone with which the event ended did not at all hide the maximum attention that this situation has created, as was seen in the speaking turns led by associations and schools from across the entire national sphere (Bilbao, Santander, Gijón, A Coruña, Cádiz, La Laguna… ), unions (OIT and UGT) and entities linked to maritime activity.
Aspromar and “el Grup de Joves” now have the task of achieving the maximum consensus to launch their manifesto, which they consider as the great initial step to reverse a situation that, besides being unfair to qualified merchant marine officers, floods the administration with technicians and managers who, as one of the speakers said, “imagine what life and operations on a ship are like because they lack their own experience.”
Víctor Rubio
