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I think that the cliche is that most ship owners fly whichever flag is cheapest (at least until their ship get captured by pirates, then they don't call for the Panama Navy for help, but suddenly discover that they are EU or US or whatever), and that they employ the cheapest workers, which are likely from some developing country.
Taking a contract according to Panamanian law for what might be a living wage in the Philippines does not seem like a great deal for most US citizens.
A container ship will run on a giant two-stroke diesel engine. Depending on where you stand, this might qualify as "extreme amounts of dirt". The fuel oil these engines use is not like gasoline (which generally evaporates without much residuals). Cold, it is barely liquid, tar-like. And that is before you start burning that stuff in a two-stroke engine, and get all the usual fun stuff from Diesel engines, such as soot or nitric oxides. While you might get away with having the chimney of your oil-heating cleaned once a year, a ship will (in my estimation) require a lot more than that.
Of course, YMMV. If you are a nuclear technician on a US navy aircraft carrier (or sub), then you avoid most of these problems -- and will not even have to learn another language to understand your captain.
For ships that sail between US ports you are required to have a certain number of American crew because of the Jones Act. However that only applies for the US. Not only that, the pay is actually pretty good. At least as far as blue collar work goes.
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The U.S. merchant marine would dodge the whole ‘foreign scabs’ thing.
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