Ferry workers to forgo pay raises

OLYMPIA -- Unions representing more than 1,000 workers with Washington State Ferries won't be fighting to keep pay raises won in fierce negotiations with the governor last year.

Employees, including deckhands, engineers and vessel operators, agreed to strip the salary hikes out of contracts signed with Gov. Chris Gregoire rather than try to preserve them through legal or political means.

This morning, Gregoire held a news conference to discuss the revamped two-year agreements slated to take effect July 1. Her office declined to release any details Friday.

Union officials and state transportation leaders will also be attending today.

"We're going to make an announcement about the contracts," Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond said Friday. "We've been working hard with our ferry unions to constrain costs and look for efficiencies."

This is the first batch of state worker unions to give up wage increases. Others are expected to follow suit in coming days.

Ferry workers will lose annual raises ranging from 1.6 percent to 10.7 percent a year depending on their job. Most of those increases were won through arbitration.

Yet in reaching their decision, workers recognized the difficulty of continuing to press for the higher wages from a governor and legislators bent on slashing money from programs because of a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

The state faces a roughly $6 billion shortfall in the 2009-11 budget cycle. Gregoire, in December, proposed a budget that saves $700 million by not giving pay raises to teachers and all represented employees, including ferry workers.

That sum includes roughly $19 million for ferry worker contracts running from July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2011.

Three other unions have sued Gregoire because she left out the money for their raises in her proposed budget.

By law, the governor's office negotiates contracts with state employee groups. Those collective bargaining agreements are sent to the Legislature for final approval.

Lawmakers can reject all or part of an agreement, including axing pay hikes.

In separate actions, the Washington Federation of State Employees and two locals of the Service Employee International Union argue the governor is not following that process.

The suits contend she was obligated to fund the wage hikes in her budget proposal and let the Legislature consider whether to approve them.

State budget director Victor Moore decided the state could no longer afford the raises after the November revenue forecast showed $1.9 billion less in expected revenue than when the contracts were signed.

He then signed a declaration they were not feasible, which he has said is allowed in the state's collective bargaining rules.

Court action on the three lawsuits is pending.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.