By statute, union agreements with monetary terms are due to the legislature by the 60th day (March 21) of session. To date, three unions representing the state’s ferry workers have failed to come to terms with the state: Master, Mates and Pilots; Marine Engineers Beneficial Association; and the Inland Boatman Union.
This impasse, in essence, guarantees the first year of a new contract will have a zero percent increase. Some in the know are saying that the parties are as much as 10 – 15 percent apart in terms of wages being requested.
The ferry workers are the most overpaid and under worked represented employees the state has. I’m glad that the state is standing up to them, being fiscally restrained and not bending over to their threats. It is time that someone stand up to them and they need to recognize that the economic conditions of the state are changing.