You don't see your family. You don't see land most of the time. The majority of vessels in the North American market are owned by Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Princess Cruises. To reduce labor costs, the companies have turned to dozens of Third World countries for laundry workers, cleaners, busboys, waiters, cabin stewards and galley workers. Cruise line executives contend that in today's global economy, the industry offers greater opportunities for Third World workers than can be found in their homelands.
Some crew members agree, saying they've parlayed their earnings into new homes and businesses.
They get free medical care, they get room and board, they travel all over the world. There's no slave-ship labor issue here. But shipboard visits, dozens of interviews with cruise line workers, and reviews of court documents in California and Florida show that this chase after a better life often ends in disappointment or injury and occasionally in death. In a speech to cruise line executives at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention in 1998, a recruiting consultant, Stephen J. Renard, noted that the average length of employment for a cruise line worker was just 5.8 months, hardly enough time to build a nest egg. Workers frequently have to pay for training, pre-employment physical exams, plane tickets to and from their ships, and recruiters' fees.