WASHINGTON — Washington State Ferries (WSF) is dealing with major disruptions Monday as a result of a severe crew shortage.
WSF says 23 engine room workers called out sick Monday morning, and every employee qualified to fill those positions declined to fill them.
“All of the employees calling in sick, and declining to fill those vacancies, are represented by the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (MEBA), who represent engine room employees,” WSF wrote on social media.
Representatives with that union told KIRO 7 they had no idea so many employees were calling out sick Monday, adding they first learned of the cancellations the same way the public did, “through media reports.”
In a statement, a representative for the union said the issues were “a crisis of WSF’s management’s own making.”
The union says cancellations like this “virtually never happened” in past decades because of a former union policy that required an extra staff member in every boat’s engine crew.
“That way, if one person called in sick, the boat could still sail,” the union wrote.
The union said WSF management pushed to eliminate that policy and ultimately succeeded, cutting all engine crews to the legal, safe minimum. That means “every engineer who (calls) in in sick (has) to be replaced on an emergency basis,” the union said.
WSF noted online that vessels are “fully staffed at the beginning of every service day at U.S. Coast Guard required levels.”
WSF said when employees call in sick, request dispatchers work to fill the position as quickly as possible.
Union representatives say the system relies on significant, mandatory overtime, adding that some members are logging more than 1,500 overtime hours a year. Dozens, according to the union, are in excess of 500 hours.
“What’s happening on the vessel is unsafe and eventually, somebody’s going to get tired... somebody’s going to fall asleep,” said Roland Rexha, the secretary-treasurer of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association. “It’s going to be our members that are held accountable.”
Rexha said many of the members of the union are considering finding other jobs.
The union and WSF have previously sparred about pay.
“The employees who work in the engine room play a vital role in providing WSF’s safe service, which is why Staff Chief Engineers have a base salary of $157,000, and can make more than $350,000 a year with overtime, as well as annual sick and vacation leave, and retirement accrual,” WSF posted online on Monday.
Rexha noted that role is the highest-paid within the union.
“$150,000 base salary for a chief engineer is laughable in what chief engineers get paid in our industry,” he said, noting that making that much additional money in overtime would be “insane.”
“That means he made $200,000 in overtime to make $350,000,” he said. “You know how insane that is? That means that person has to live at his job to be able to do that. That is not safe.”
In a statement to KIRO 7, a spokesperson said they were focused on safely getting as many vessels back into service as possible.
“Our operations, dispatch and crewing teams are working continuously to fill relief requests with qualified crew and restore service where we can,” the spokesperson wrote. “Given the rapidly changing situation, our team is not available for interviews at this time. Our priority right now is safely responding to the current service disruptions and getting vessels back in operation.”