<p>Many shipping company operations management types have Masters or Chief Engineer licenses. For example at my company the current Senior Vessel Manager and the Assistant Vessel Manager both are retired MM&P Captains. The Senior Port Engineer I believe also has a Chiefs license. I dont know if he has ever sailed as Chief though. He is an active MEBA member, as port engineers are represented by that union. Their boss, the Director of Vessel Operations and Labor Relations has a Masters license and has sailed as Captain with the MM&P. He also has been a member of the AMO AND he is one of our major antagonist in contract negotiations. Its a long story I wont get into here.</p>
<p>During my time at APL the three Marine Superintendents that held the position were all retired MM&P Captains. The Superintendent Engineer (senior port engineer) had a first engineers license and was also an active MEBA member. </p>
<p>To answer your second question, generally most oil company tankers are non-union and dry cargo ships are union. Many years ago I worked very briefly for Texaco and on those ships the officers were company employees and the unlicensed were represented by the NMU (National Maritime Union). I think Exxon is that way now.</p>