Ferries: Package of bills to reform bargaining, management practices

Building upon the workforce reforms passed at the end of the 2010 session, transportation leaders are intensifying efforts to turn around the budget-challenged Washington State Ferries (WSF). Today a bipartisan group of transportation leaders in both the House and Senate announced a package of bills designed to improve efficiency, reduce waste and establish parity with other state employee contracts.

A bill sponsored by Reps. Judy Clibborn and Mike Armstrong deals with fairness in bargaining, preventing certain collective bargaining provisions for ferry employees from being greater than those provided to other general government employees. Examples include overtime pay, length of workday, use of compensatory time and free passage on ferries, among other things.

Rep. Jeff Morris is introducing a bill to promote better performance and accountability among certain managers at WSF. If certain performance measures are not met, the management may be contracted out to a private operator.

Armstrong and Clibborn have also teamed up on a bill that would find operational efficiencies by acting on recommendations put forth by the Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee’s recent studies.

To read more, click here for the press release.