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Cruise ship blues: the underside of the cruise industry
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Sins at Sea
Ross A. Klein, Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2002.
Reviewed by Chris Roberts
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If Ralph Nader had targeted the cruise industry rather than General Motors, he might well have written the sort of expose that Ross Klein has given us. Peeling away the slick promises of a care-free and luxurious cruise vacation at sea, Klein reveals an industry characterized by profit-driven corner-cutting, questionable safety standards, exploitative labour conditions and a dismal environmental track record.
The cruise industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors of an already rapidly-expanding tourism industry. This is perhaps unsurprising, given the advantages that cruise ships enjoy relative to on-land resorts and vacation spots. Cruise ships carry an average of 2000 passengers (with the largest accommodating 5000), giving cruise lines a rich and captive supply of vacationers; passengers are frequently confined within a total commodified environment replete with additional moneymaking opportunities (notwithstanding the advertisements of an "all-inclusive vacation").
At the same time, cruise ships sail in international waters under flags of convenience from countries prepared to ignore labour and international maritime standards, providing opportunities for abuse of labour rights and environmental regulations.
Cruise Ship Blues documents a range of these abuses. Klein provides evidence that suggests cruise lines have a poor record on food and passenger safety, including risks to passengers' physical security. Cruise ships in particular appear prone to food-borne illnesses and sanitary risks (as suggested by an outbreak of Norwalk virus last December which left 1200 passengers and crew ill).
Below deck, workers face unsafe and exploitative labour conditions on cruise industry "sweatships." Often recruited from poor countries and isolated from family for months and years, employees toil especially long hours (restaurant staff and room stewards typically work 80 hours a week, according to Klein) for low wages...