Ergonomics of democracy
Lezaun J.
In 1967, the Esso Petroleum Company and the UK National Union of seamen (NUs) agreed on a new personnel policy for the company’s oil tankers. In addition to the typical concessions in collective bargaining agreements of this kind (seamen on Esso ships would see an increase in their salaries, and in the number of leave days), the deal contained a less familiar item: the oil company and the union agreed to introduce “integrated crews” on some of the company’s tankers. Casual employment at sea would be progressively eliminated, crews would be more permanently attached to ships, and an effort would be made to lessen the traditional divisions of rank and function that made merchant ships floating monuments to social hierarchy and spatial segregation.