OLYMPIA — A state arbitrator has upheld crew reductions on 11 ferries.
Arbitrator Lisa Hartrich of the state Public Employment Relations Commission found no evidence that Washington State Ferries or the union intentionally or inadvertently left the staffing agreement out of the collective bargaining agreement.
In June, Washington State Ferries cut one ordinary seaman from crews of three vessel classes — Jumbo, Issaquah and Evergreen State. Twenty-seven full-time positions were eliminated.
The reductions were the result of an agreement between the ferry system and ferry unions that directed the Coast Guard to review and determine staffing levels.
The Coast Guard on March 12 said crews could be reduced to the minimum it requires on the ferries’
Certificates of Inspection, which is one person fewer than the ferry system was employing. A fourth vessel class — Super — requires further review, the Coast Guard said.
But the Inlandboatsmen’s Union, which represents ordinary seamen, filed a grievance, claiming the agreement between ferries and the unions was invalid because it wasn’t incorporated into the collective bargaining agreement, which sets minimum staffing levels for each vessel.
The union argued that the contract prevails over the later staffing agreement; therefore, the ferry system violated the contact by reducing staff levels.
“The (memorandum of understanding) stood alone as a separate agreement to resolve a particular dispute by leaving it up to the
Coast Guard to decide what the parties were unable to determine on their own,” Hartrich wrote in a document dated Tuesday.
Hartrich said the memorandum of understanding doesn’t require the Coast Guard staffing review to be completed on every vessel or class before changes can be implemented.
“Both parties entrusted the Coast Guard to determine what ‘safe’ staffing levels are,” Hartrich concluded.
Inlandboatmen’s Union national president Alan Cote deferred comment to Puget Sound Region director Dennis Conklin, who couldn’t be reached.
