AS MARINERS all, we of the Merchant Navy Association Newport feel we must express our disgust at the dreadful treatment meted out to its seafarers by P&O Ferries.
A company whom by their own admission - P&O chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite – broke the law in doing what it did.
Their act appears cowardly in the way it was carried out, and lacked human dignity, 800 serving MN personnel discarded apparently with little or no thought, other than how can they be replaced cheaply!
I personally served more than 30 years in the MN and of course I saw redundancies made and companies change or cease their patterns of trading but I have never witnessed anything as seemingly callous as this act.
Alan Speight
Chairman of the Merchant Navy Association, City of Newport Branch
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