What is a crew appreciation fee? Why one major cruise line is raising the price
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(NEW YORK) — This summer brought lots of buzz around “tourist taxes” and other fees that can get tacked on to normal travel expenses. Now, another fee that may be familiar to avid cruisers is increasing on one major cruise line.
The so-called “Crew Appreciation” fee is a daily amount that’s automatically added to a guests’ onboard accounts with Princess Cruises “to recognize the efforts of a wide variety of crewmembers who contribute to the experiences of all our guests” and are pooled and distributed throughout the year in compensation and bonuses.
Travelers will pay slightly more starting later this month depending on the type of accommodations they book, according to the cruise line, which last raised the price in February 2023.
Echoing recent headlines surrounding updates to airline baggage prices, Princess Cruises’ Crew Appreciation fee is rising by just $1 per person, per day in various classes of cabins.
Travelers in suites will see a $19 daily fee, while those in mini suites, cabanas or Club Classes will pay $18. Guests in all other staterooms will pay $17.
“The crewmembers eligible to receive these funds work in various departments, many of whom rotate among different ships, throughout our fleet of ships,” Princess states on its website. “Guests have complete discretion to adjust these crew appreciation [fees] while onboard; however, crew appreciation may only be adjusted prior to disembarking the ship and not refundable post cruise.”
Travelers can choose a prepaid crew appreciation option while managing their booking, but if it’s not adjusted up to the time a passenger settles up the account prior to disembarkation, the payment becomes final and nonrefundable.
Full details of the policy are available on the Princess Cruises website.
(SEATTLE) — Boeing machinists overwhelmingly rejected a contract proposal this week, opting to extend a weekslong strike and send negotiators back to the bargaining table.
Sixty-four percent of workers voted against the new contract, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing 33,000 Boeing workers in Washington, Oregon and California.
The outcome follows the resounding defeat of a previous proposal last month, which drew rebuke from more than 90% of union members.
The consecutive “no” votes set the stage for a standoff between Boeing and its workers that will strain the finances of both sides over the coming days and weeks, experts told ABC News. That financial pressure will push the dispute toward resolution but workers appear unlikely to budge without major concessions, they added.
“The union has sent a very clear message to Boeing that it will take significantly more to get a settlement,” Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who focuses on labor history, told ABC News.
The proposed contract would have delivered a 35% raise over the four-year duration of the contract, upping the 25% cumulative raise provided in a previous offer overwhelmingly rejected by workers in a vote last month. Workers had initially sought a 40% cumulative pay increase.
The proposal also called for hiking Boeing’s contribution to a 401(k) plan, but it declined to fulfill workers’ call for a reinstatement of the company’s defined pension. The contract would have included a $7,000 ratification bonus for each worker, as well as a performance bonus that Boeing had sought to jettison.
But union leaders said the concessions offered in the proposal were not enough to meet the demands of rank-and-file union members.
“This contract struggle began over ten years ago when the company overreached and created a wound that may never heal for many members,” said Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751 in Seattle, in a statement after the vote. “I don’t have to tell you all how challenging it has been for our membership through the pandemic, the crashes, massive inflation, and the need to address the losses stemming from the 2014 contract.”
Boeing did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Experts who spoke to ABC News forecasted a willingness on the part of Boeing to reenter talks and even revisit key parts of the offer.
Hours before workers cast ballots on Wednesday, Boeing released an earnings report showing the company had lost a staggering $6.1 billion over the most recent quarter, even though most of that period took place before the strike began.
The strike is expected to deepen that financial hole. A 50-day work stoppage would cost Boeing $5.5 billion, investment bank TD Cowen said in a report reviewed by ABC News at the outset of the dispute. So far, the strike has lasted 41 days.
“This rejection adds further uncertainty, costs, and recovery delays,” Bank of America Global Research said in a note to clients on Thursday. “We anticipate further concessions of wages will be required for a deal to pass.”
Financial stress will mount for workers as well, experts said.
Union members have received $250 per week from a strike fund, beginning in the third week of the work stoppage. That compensation marks a major pay cut for many of the employees.
“When strikes go longer than five or six weeks, the financial pressures really start to work on the union rank and file,” Robert Forrant, a professor of U.S. history and labor studies at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, told ABC News.
While union members remain widely opposed to the latest contract offer, it drew greater support than the first one. That incremental progress may prompt Boeing to continue the strategy of upping worker pay while standing firm in its refusal to reinstate a defined pension, Ryan Stygar, a labor lawyer at San Diego, California-based Centurion Trial Attorneys, told ABC News.
Workers lost a traditional pension plan in a contract ratified by the union in 2014. The union’s demand for reinstatement of the pension may appeal more to longtime employees who feel they’ve lost retirement benefits than younger ones who’ve joined the company since its shift to a 401(k), Stygar said.
“Boeing’s strategy will be to try to exploit that generational divide,” Stygar said, noting that increased pay and a larger ratification bonus may entice younger workers to support a future proposal even if it omits pension reinstatement.
“As the strike goes on and Boeing’s losses accumulate, I think we will see more aggressive negotiation,” Stygar added, saying the standoff could stretch on for another two to four weeks.
“But I don’t have a crystal ball,” Stygar said.
ABC News’ Jack Moore and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Tens of thousands of Boeing machinists on Wednesday will vote on a new contract proposal that could end a weekslong work stoppage against the embattled aerospace company.
Workers overwhelmingly rejected a previous offer last month, putting the outcome of the impending vote in doubt.
Hours before workers were set to cast ballots, Boeing released an earnings report showing the company had lost a staggering $6.1 billion over the most recent quarter due primarily to costs associated with the strike.
“We have some really big rocks that we need to get behind us to move the company forward,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a letter to investors on Wednesday.
Ortberg singled out the strike as an issue that must be addressed “first and foremost.”
“We have been feverishly working to find a solution that works for the company and meets our employees’ needs,” Ortberg said.
The new offer delivers a 35% raise over the four-year duration of the contract, upping the 25% cumulative raise provided in the previous offer. The offer, however, falls short of workers’ demand for a 40% cumulative pay increase.
The proposal also hikes Boeing’s contribution to a 401(k) plan, but it declines to fulfill workers’ call for a reinstatement of the company’s defined pension. The contract includes a $7,000 ratification bonus for each worker, as well as a performance bonus that Boeing had sought to jettison.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing 33,000 Boeing workers, released a statement on Saturday calling the proposal “worthy of consideration.”
“With the help of Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su, we have received a negotiated proposal and resolution to end the strike, and it warrants presenting to the members,” IAM said.
The company and its workers have faced significant financial losses during the nearly six-week strike.
Union members have received $250 per week from a strike fund, beginning in the third week of the work stoppage. That compensation marks a major pay cut for many of the employees.
Mid-ranking workers involved in the strike typically make $20 per hour, which totals $800 per 40-hour work week, while higher-paid members earn salaries upward of $100,000 per year, or nearly $2,000 per week
“The question is whether the employees and their union determine that they have the power to get more from Boeing,” Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, told ABC News. “It’s whether they think they can extract more from Boeing, or Boeing says, ‘You know what, this is it.'”
The strike was set to cost Boeing $108 million per day in lost revenue, amounting to as much as $5.5 billion in losses should the work stoppage last 50 days, investment bank TD Cowen said in a report reviewed by ABC News at the outset of the dispute. So far, the strike has lasted 40 days.
In September, Boeing announced furloughs and pay cuts for some white-collar employees in response to the strike. Last week, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg announced plans to cut 17,000 jobs, which amounts to about 10% of its global workforce.
“This is really painful for Boeing,” Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aerospace consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory, told ABC News.
The most recent IAM strike against Boeing in the Pacific Northwest, in 2008, lasted 57 days. Work stoppages undertaken by unionized Boeing employees in the same region have historically lasted an average of 60 days, a Bank of America Global Research analysis found after examining seven previous strikes, the earliest in 1948.
Workers will cast their ballots in a ratification vote on Wednesday. If a majority of workers back the proposal, the contract will be adopted and the strike will end.
Over the days leading up to the vote, the outcome remained unclear, Jake Rosenfeld, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, who studies labor, told ABC News.
“What are the workers going to do?” Rosenfeld said. “That’s a really tough question.”
(NEW YORK) — Two major Canadian freight rail companies locked out thousands of workers on Thursday, shutting down cross-border shipping routes and risking serious damage for the U.S. economy, industry experts told ABC News.
The rail lines carry everything from chemical inputs to auto parts, holding the potential to cause shortages for a range of products American consumers and businesses depend on. While the damage is minimal so far, a prolonged shutdown of weeks or months could slow U.S. economic growth, rekindle inflation and put some workers out of a job, the experts said.
“Right now, I do not think the sky is falling,” Joseph Schofer, a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University, told ABC News. “In a week or two, effects will begin to develop.”
The shutdown will cost the Canadian economy about $250 million per day, according to Brendan La Cerdaa, director of economic research at Moody’s Analytics. If the strike continues for a week or two, the U.S. economy could start suffering costs of about $70 million per day, La Cerda said.
More than 9,000 Teamsters workers are off their jobs after Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CPKC) locked them out when they failed to reach a deal on a new contract. It’s the first time both railways have been simultaneously halted.
“Throughout this process, CN and CPKC have shown themselves willing to compromise rail safety and tear families apart to earn an extra buck. The railroads don’t care about farmers, small businesses, supply chains, or their own employees. Their sole focus is boosting their bottom line, even if it means jeopardizing the entire economy,” Teamsters Canada Rail Conference President Paul Boucher said in a statement on Thursday.
In a statement, CN said it had negotiated with workers in good faith for nine months, offering better wages and shorter hours.
“Without an agreement or binding arbitration, CN had no choice but to finalize a safe and orderly shutdown and proceed with a lockout,” the company said on Thursday.
Similarly, CPKC said the lockout came about after months of unsuccessful negotiations.
“We fully understand and appreciate what this work stoppage means for Canadians and our economy. CPKC is acting to protect Canada’s supply chains, and all stakeholders, from further uncertainty and the more widespread disruption that would be created should this dispute drag out further resulting in a potential work stoppage occurring during the fall peak shipping period,” the statement said.
What does the Canadian rail shutdown mean for the U.S. economy?
A brief shutdown of the top two Canadian freight rail companies would not meaningfully impact the U.S. economy, experts told ABC News. However, they added, a prolonged lockout would damage the nation’s economic performance and risk accelerating inflation.
Many companies rely on Canadian rail lines to deliver raw goods that play a vital role in the supply chain. Affected industries include auto companies, chipmakers and fertilizer manufacturers, experts said. Perishable goods also reach U.S. consumers on trains from Canada.
As a smaller-scale version of the supply blockage incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Canadian freight rail shutdown could hinder economic activity of businesses that import raw materials, rising prices for consumers who encounter shortages for some products.
“The producers will probably absorb some of those price increases in the short term, but eventually they could get passed on to consumers,” Kyle Handley, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, told ABC News.
Over the coming weeks, a shutdown could slow gross domestic product growth and cause layoffs at directly impacted firms, such as auto factories, Jeff Macher, a professor of strategy and economics at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy, told ABC News.
“A prolonged stoppage could lead to a certain amount of job losses,” Macher said.
The potential supply disruption could arrive at a vulnerable period for the U.S. economy. Growth is cooling but remains solid. Price increases have slowed dramatically but remain higher than the Federal Reserve’s target level.
For now, questions remain over the duration and scale of the U.S. economic fallout, experts said.
“If the stoppage ends within a week or so, it’ll have no effect on U.S. GDP,” Macher said. “If it extends beyond that, then it could bleed into and impact the U.S.”
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Zunaira Zaki contributed reporting.
