The dive industry is cutthroat at best. There is no other way to describe it other than competitive and that would be an understatement. It seems much of the blame can be given to the dive companies and perhaps the dive schools that continue to pump out hundreds, maybe thousands, of newly certified divers per year. Unfortunately there is no easy solution for keeping the employment rate high and wages competitive for the working diver without creating a whole new set of problems that would effect new players and be broad reaching. However, one answer might be in the form of a united divers front of a sort or in other words, a divers union. There are many advantages and disadvantages to this approach.
Among the advantages would be that of higher wages. The formation of a divers union could produce this effect by providing the necessary bargaining tools to achieve a desired salary level dependent upon types of dives, years in service, specialties, etc. The variation that exists now, which depends on the employer, would be exchanged for a more organized and fairer distribution of wages across the industry. This leads us to standardization.


Creating a national union for divers unique to their field would force the issue of standards that would have to be adopted in order for a national union to operate efficiently. This could come in the form of rules and regulations that would have to be met by divers, employers, educators and or anyone involved with the commercial diving profession. These new set of requirements could cover possible items such as requiring all commercial divers to have been trained at dive schools that meet certain criteria that is decided upon by the organizers of the union. Also, standardization would bring perhaps new safety regulations that might have to be met by any involved. This could include equipment and proper training for it, or divers holding certificates such as CPR and first aid training.

Job security would be also be a benefit from unionization. Employers would not be able to fire or tell someone they were no longer needed due to the fact that they had found someone less experienced and willing to work for a lesser wage. It would force the employer to keep intermediate divers on the job thus giving them the needed experience they would need to move up in the ranks. It is also believed that a positive side effect of this would be a stabilization of the workforce meaning that more young divers would stay in the profession therefore creating less turnover in the industry.

Another enormous advantage to organizing would be that of health and retirement benefits. With all the problems facing workers today, health insurance and retirement accounts top the list. This is especially true for the working diver. Many divers, if not most, jump from one job to the next not knowing who their future employer will be and with this comes the complication of not having benefits of any kind. Though some companies may offer certain benefit packages, many do not either because the company is too small or because they know that there are a glut of divers ready to take someone’s job if they leave a contractor for whatever reason. This surplus of divers is something that the diving contractors take advantage of and know that as long as these divers are being pumped out of these schools every month, there is no need to offer any incentives.

It would seem however, the greatest advantage to having a national union as opposed to divers having to be attached to another union is the fact that it would be controlled and operated by commercial divers. The logic being that since divers are in charge they would better understand the needs of their fellow workers more than a pile-driver, carpenter or whoever the ‘host’ union is.


There are also many disadvantages for divers having a national union. First and foremost being that many dive companies either would not hire a union diver or would refuse to pay union wages. They would instead pay only those wages that their company has justified for certain types of divers and or the work involved.

Another problem would be an increase of prices for dive jobs because of costs associated with a national union attributed to the higher wages. This would have an effect on everything that the job may entail. For example, if the job was a utility type job like in a nuclear plant, it could possibly reverberate through the entire electricity generating process right down to the end users. This could ultimately lead to a burden on the tax base for these types of jobs along with infrastructure projects which could possible effect many of the government service sectors.

The fact that not all divers will favor belonging to a diver’s union would seriously hinder any organizational attempts on a national level. This would still mean the existence of cutthroat practices of divers and diving contractors alike. This could come in the form of (as it exists right now) depressed wages which could possibly reverberate around the industry creating a work environment that benefits no one except the corporations and the dive schools that turn out divers every year. This of course in the long run would benefit no one due to the fact that any logical person might ‘opt’ out of going through the process of becoming a professional diver because of those aforementioned problems.

Another major obstacle to creating a national dive union would be just that, the creation itself of the organization. Creating this union would be a monumental task and organizational quagmire. Many questions would have to be addressed; Who would be the chief organizer? Where would all this be headquartered? How would it be ran and who would report to who? These questions and many more along with the ones that would poke their ugly heads out once the ball got rolling would all have to be answered for a successful union to take hold on the industry.

A commercial diver’s union could in fact bring the working diver many positive aspects concerning a wide range of factors to the forefront such as safety, wages and benefits. All these, if presented in such a way that could bring a certain protocol to a fragmented industry, could drastically improve the working conditions of the working diver.