Guemes Ferry Workers Reject County Contract Offer

Guemes Island Ferry workers in 14th month without a contract Hourly starting wage has increased $2.95 since 2009

Guemes Island Ferry crew members voted unanimously February 8-12 to reject Skagit County’s contract offer, calling the county’s offer and negotiation tactics disgraceful.

The ferry workers’ latest contract expired December 31, 2021. The county offered workers a 2 percent increase in wages for 2023 and 2024, although other county departments received 3 percent increases.

The rejected 2023 wage increase would increase the starting wage by 43 cents an hour. The starting hourly wage has increased $2.95 in 12 years. The starting wage was $18.43 in 2009; $19.56 in 2016; $20.15 in 2019; and $21.38 in 2021, according to past labor agreements on file.

Ferry crew members are represented by the Inlandboatmen’s Union, or IBU, Puget Sound Region. The ferry crew’s contract negotiators are Capt. Guy Mitchell, Purser-Deckhand Emily Grober, and IBU Regional Director Peter Hart.

The ferry is owned by Skagit County and operated by the Public Works Department Ferry Division. The county’s contract negotiators are representatives of the human resources department and Robert Braun of Braun Consulting Group Associates in Seattle.

The ferry’s negotiating team and the IBU said the county has long failed to manage ferry revenue and expenses in a way that has affected its ability to provide wages that keep pace with the cost of living. In one case, the ferry manager created a management position – operations manager – that was not budgeted; the position was vacated after a year.

The ferry’s negotiating team and the IBU also said the county is continuing a practice of taking negotiated items off the table in order to force workers to accept a contract offer.

Among the ferry workers’ concerns:

• The most recent three-year contract ended December 31, 2019, and was extended by memorandum of agreement to December 31, 2021. The IBU reached out to the county in October 2021 to initiate negotiations for a contract for January 1, 2022-December 31, 2024. Since then, county and ferry negotiators have met six or seven times online and only once in person.

• In negotiating past contracts, the county has threatened to withhold retroactive pay if workers didn’t approve the county’s offer, Mitchell said. (Pay increases take effect at the beginning of a new contract. A new contract, and pay increases therein, would take effect retroactively back to January 1, 2022.)

• In negotiating the 2022-24 contract, the county has withdrawn an increase in pay for responding to after-hours emergency callouts. In addition, the mechanic’s emergency callout pay continues to be less than that of other ferry workers; the county denied an increase for the mechanic.

• Wages have not kept pace with the cost of living in Anacortes, Mitchell said. “As a result, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and retain deckhands, and those we do recruit live farther away where housing is more affordable. One consequence of that is it takes longer for us to respond to after-hours calls, something that sincerely concerns us as maritime professionals.”

The ferry transports emergency vehicles to and from Guemes Island after hours. Ferry workers were formerly hired with the condition that they live within a 20-minute drive from the ferry terminal. That condition is no longer in effect. Some crew members live in Coupeville, Oak Harbor and Mount Vernon.

• Another consequence of insufficient wages: the ferry loses money in the training of employees who end up leaving for higher wages elsewhere.

• The median rent in Anacortes in 2017-20 was $1,360, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. The starting hourly wage at the ferry, at 40 hours a week, was enough to earn monthly rent of $1,111 in 2020, according to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development standards. However, housing costs have increased since 2017-20 while wages have remained stagnant, and starting workers do not work full-time hours.

• The current starting hourly wage at the ferry, at 40 hours per week, equals $44,470 a year. The average income in Anacortes in 2017-20 was $46,107, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

The Guemes Island Ferry serves Anacortes and Guemes Island. It makes 23 round trips Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; 26 round trips on Fridays; and 18 round trips on Sunday. The ferry also makes after-hours calls in the event of medical emergencies and power outages. Guemes Island has about 800 residents.

The Guemes Island Ferry has a terminal building with passenger waiting area on the Anacortes side, and a small waiting area and porta-potties on the Guemes Island side. The county provides free long- and short-term parking at two parking lots adjacent to the Anacortes terminal and at one parking lot at the Guemes ferry landing.

As of this writing, the ferry has 16 crew members, six of whom are credentialed merchant mariners. Full time: one captain, one mechanic, and two purser-deckhands. Part-time: two captains, two purser-deckhand II’s (qualified to serve as captains), and three purser- deckhands. On-call: Five purser-deckhands.

Crew members help maintain the vessel and the Anacortes terminal building; undergo regular drills in abandoning ship, anchor operation, firefighting, flooding, and overboard rescue; and receive initial and refresher training in first aid, CPR, and hazardous materials handling and shipment.

- Richard A. Walker, union steward 
Guemes Island Ferry

Skagit County Collective Bargaining Agreements 

Tags: ferry