The Seafarers

The work of the Seafarers' International Union (SIU) is presented, its primary function which is to serve the needs of its members - mariners - in a holistic sense. There is a SIU office located in every major North American port which provides services to members while they are on shore, such as food and beverage services, personal grooming services like barber shops, and other retail services like a commissary. Most of such services are also open to the public. Each office's main function is to ensure that each mariner is not only assigned to work on a ship out of that port, but that it is the assignment that he wants, the process conducted in an equitable manner. The Union also provides services to meet most of a mariner's life needs, including for his family. These services include maternity benefits and vacation benefits. The Union tries to be proactive in its approach, being there for its members before the members need to ask for help. The Union functions as a democracy, with each member having one vote for such things as Board elections. To ensure that the Union knows what its members need, any member running for the Union Board must have served at least three years at sea.