Crew Offered 2% Raise, Everyone Else Gets 3%

Guemes Island Ferry workers hope negotiators can return to the table and come to terms on new contract

This version corrects a couple of errors reported in a previous version

Guemes Island Ferry Workers hope negotiators for the ferry and Skagit County are able to return to the table soon to come to terms on a new contract.

The ferry workers’ most recent contract expired Dec. 31, 2021. 

“The county, through its lead negotiator, Robert Braun of Braun Consulting Group in Seattle, is offering ferry workers 2% wage increases for 2023 and 2024, although other departments, including unrepresented workers, received 3% increases,” said Richard A. Walker, the union steward for the Guemes Island Ferry crew. 

“We support the wage increases for other departments, but we question the unequal treatment of the ferry crew. Braun and the county may say that 2% is all the county can afford, but the record proves otherwise.” 

The county pays Braun, a business management consultant, a monthly retainer to assist in contract negotiations and other labor-related issues. Over the course of 10 years – from March 2013 to February 2023 – the county paid Braun $491,525, according to information obtained by a public records request. 

The county also found funding for a ferry operations supervisor position, which was created in 2022. The pay range for the position was $62,982 to $83,782, according to information obtained by a public records request. The cost of benefits for the position as equal to 45.5% of the annual salary. The ferry operations supervisor resigned in December after the county investigated his safety practices and behavior on the job. The investigation was prompted by a letter of no confidence submitted by the crew.

An electronic reader board at the ferry terminal is unused. The average cost of that model of electronic reader board is $15,000, according to similar electronic reader boards advertised online.

Meanwhile, wages for ferry workers have not kept pace with the cost of living. The starting wage has increased $2.95 in 14 years, according to past contracts. The starting hourly wage was $18.43 in 2009, $19.56 in 2016, $20.15 in 2019, and $21.38 in 2021.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and retain deckhands, and those we do recruit live farther away where housing is more affordable,” said Capt. Guy Mitchell, a member of the ferry contract negotiation team. “One consequence of that is it takes longer for us to respond to after-hours calls, something that sincerely concerns us as maritime professionals.” 

In 2021-22, six deckhands left within a year of training, five for better-paying jobs. Wages paid while training for 40 hours as a deckhand and 40 hours as a purser: $1,710 each based on hourly wages at the time, a total of $10,260. 

Ferry crew members are represented by the Inlandboatmen’s Union, or IBU, Puget Sound Region. The ferry crew’s contract negotiators are Purser-Deckhand Emily Grober, IBU Regional Director Peter Hart, and Mitchell. The ferry is owned by Skagit County and operated by the Public Works Department Ferry Division. The county’s contract negotiators are Braun and representatives of the human resources department. 

The most recent three-year contract ended Dec. 31, 2019 and was extended by memorandum of agreement to Dec. 31, 2021. The IBU reached out to the county in October 2021 to initiate negotiations for a contract for Jan. 1, 2022-Dec. 31, 2024. 

During the latest negotiations, the county offered workers a first-year wage adjustment to compensate for substandard increases in previous years, but followed with a 2% increase in wages for 2023 and 2024. The county, through Braun, withdrew a proposed increase in wages for response to after-hour medical emergency callouts, according to the ferry workers’ negotiation team. 

Other concerns from ferry workers: 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 Jan. 1, 2022.) 

In negotiating the 2022-24 contract, the county withdrew 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.

The ferry crew rejected the county’s proposed 2022-24 contract and presented a counteroffer. Braun then proposed mediation, which the ferry crew unanimously rejected. Braun notified the IBU on March 21 that both sides are considered to be at an impasse. 

“As a sign of continued willingness to bargain in good faith and work toward settlement I will again confer with the County Management team and see if there is any suggestion the County would make to the Union in an effort to break the existing impasse,” he wrote. 

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. 

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 19 crew members, 10 of whom are credentialed merchant mariners. 

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.

Submitted by Richard Walker, union steward, on behalf of IBU-represented Guemes Island Ferry Workers

Tags: ferry