||| FROM MICHAEL RIORDAN |||
Chaos erupted yesterday at the Orcas Island ferry terminal — a harbinger of what may occur in July after the management transition there. The Issaquah ferry from Anacortes had been canceled, but somehow WSF didn’t notify the Orcas landing attendants until well after vehicles were lined up for its return voyage. They would have to be crammed onto the 8:55 am Yakima ferry, an impossible task that fell largely to booth attendant Elisabeth Britt and Michael Turner, a recent recruit then manning bridge operations down below.
Vehicles soon piled up in the reserved and stand-by ferry lines. Tempers flared — often directed at the attendants, who were just trying to cope with a mess for which they were not responsible over which they lacked any control. Turner came up and tried to help manage the relentless incoming traffic, but he lacked sufficient experience using the hand-held device used to check vehicle reservations. Growing lines of waiting vehicles stretched out onto Orcas Road.
At one point late that morning, two sheriff’s deputies arrived to help restrain the unruly crowd after chasing a speeding driver who was by then jumping the waiting lines to try to get up to the booth for the noon ferry to Anacortes. They fortunately stayed around for almost an hour and helped to quiet boiling tempers.
And that afternoon, the interisland Sealth ferry was redeployed to carry vehicles from Anacortes to Friday Harbor, making it unavailable (until after 4 pm) for people who wanted to get from Orcas to Lopez or Friday Harbor. More tempers flared.
Not until 2 pm was Britt able to take a break and get away from angry customers for a few minutes rest. When she returned home looking drawn and haggard after finishing a grueling 12-hour shift that began early that morning at 5:30 am, Britt told me that it had been “the second worst day I’ve experienced in two years working at the terminal.”
This incident helps illustrate the Orcas “Terminal Disease” I recently wrote about. What makes their diligent efforts particularly galling is the low wages and skimpy benefits paid Orcas terminal workers, as compared to their WSF counterparts in Anacortes. Due to a “financial vise” identified in that article, they are often paid $10 per hour LESS for equivalent work. And a third terminal staffer would help matters enormously on such difficult days when cancellations occur.
This incident underscores yet another glaring problem — the anger, verbal abuse and even physical threats to which Orcas landing workers are subjected when WSF ferry cancellations inevitably occur, for which they are not at all responsible. Their well-paid Anacortes counterparts do not however suffer similar slings and arrows of personal abuse, protected as they are by warning signs, chain-link fences, and nearby State Patrol officers.
This difficult situation cannot continue, at least not on our reasonable island. Readers who feel it is patently unfair should voice your concerns to WSF.
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I arrived a bit after 8 AM for my reserved 8:55 ferry to Anacortes, to discover myself in a long line for the check-in booth. Vehicles started passing on the right shoulder and the incoming lane. I was routed down the hill and back into a holding lane, and missed the 8:55, as no doubt others with reservations did as well, since there wasn’t room for two ferry loads of traffic on one ferry. Elisabeth kept calm as always, as did Michael down at the ferry (I was #2 in the line that did not get on the 8:55); they thought that the Sealth would load some of us for Anacortes but the captain apparently had other ideas.
Kudos to Elisabeth and Michael and the other landing employees for managing an incredibly complex situation for which they probably received little or no training. I suspect they are both now more qualified to be Secretary of Defense than the one currently in office, with this spot training in battlefield logistics.
Suspect what occurred yesterday was little different from every time a morning ferry is cancelled, although it is very strange if the Orcas terminal reportedly wasn’t notified of the cancellation, and especially that there is vessel watch, and every person with a cell phone can see the ferry didn’t depart Anacortes for those that use the WSF app.
I’ve been involved in two of these cancellations, and some people do get angry and try line cutting. Terminal personnel are dealing with a public that has plans for the day, and they are seriously interrupted … missed medical appoints, flights, key meeting, etc. Reservations normally work reasonably well, except when there is no vessel to put cars and passengers on.
This really has nothing to do with pay or two employees, which are the normal staffing and on most days are adequate. If there were 3 or 4, employees, they also would get a nasty earful from some angry travelers. Elizabeth Britt is friendly, competent, and has undoubtedly faced these situations before. Public abuse is ugly and unfortunate, but the Constitution allows freedom of speech in this country. There is no law on the civility of that speech.
As for pay and benefits aligned with mainland terminal personnel, that’s reasonable. Orcas terminal personnel pay and benefits, I believe, are set by the local agent managing the terminal contract., which has been the case since 2013. WSF might consider equalizing their pay and benefits under the new (hopefully) new Agent contract.
We were there for the 5:30 AM ferry that was canceled. While waiting in line, for the 855 I went online to reserve a space for the new free foot passenger ferry the county is running from all islands to Anacortes twice a day. I filled out the form online and sent it. I also called the number on the poster outside the ferry landing and left a message on the recording. I did not get a response. The website has a form to fill out
. The recording on the listed number doesn’t even mention the twice daily free service that SanJuan County is paying for. Very disappointing. Who is monitoring this ?
Well, Mr. Dashiel, the US Constitution may guarantee freedom of speech. But that document does not guarantee that the person who is receiving the brunt of what you refer to as freedom of speech has access to the eyes or ears of the WSF or any other enity of power. . I don’t work for the state of Washington. I don’t have any official forms that I can use to submit a complaint to the WSF. Nor do I have any business cards that i can hand out to customer’s to facilitate communication between the customer and the WSF. So, with that in mind, how do we distinguish between the first person of contact at the landing from a person who has the ability to provide important feedback to the WSF? It’s a relevant question. Yelling at someone who is powerless to help you, isn’t necesarily considered free speech . It’s something much darker than that. And, the Orcas Landing employees are the last people to receive notification calls. I learn more information from customers at the window, than from the WSF. Again, I don’t work for the state. I work for Ron and Mary. And I don’t have a work email that provides me with important information about ferry delays or cancelations. My only source of information is my personal cell phone. And, if I don’t have a reservation on a boat, I’m not necessarily notified about delays or cancelations. That’s my reality.
This is what mismanagement looks like folks. It’s not pretty, and the workers suffer the most.
A good manager would have called in a reserve attendant — or come up himself to help — when word reached Orcas Landing that the Issaquah had been cancelled. From many, many instances over the years, it’s obvious that chaos will erupt in the waiting ferry lines, and that customer anger and threats will occur. I’ve seen it happen myself several times. Two terminal attendants may be adequate for normal days, as Robert Dashiell observes above, but most definitely NOT when a cancellation happens. Pinned in the booth, Elisabeth could not come out to manage the chaotic traffic in the lot. She could only try to direct drivers to appropriate lanes and hope. Michael tried to help, but as a new employee he lacked sufficient experience and had to return to operate the bridge and direct traffic to and from the ferries down below.
Luckily, two sheriff’s deputies showed up when things got really ugly with line jumping just before noon.
But the core mismanagement blame should be laid at the feet of WSF officials and its workers in Anacortes. For one, they SHOULD have provided adequate notice to Orcas Landing to be prepared for the inevitable chaos. For another, the Sealth captain COULD have taken on more Anacortes-bound vehicles and lightened the load on Orcas Landing. And it MIGHT have returned to Orcas earlier that afternoon to take on the waiting interisland vehicles.
The real elephant in the room, however, is the WSF contract with terminal agent Russells at Orcas, Inc. As I observed in my earlier Orcasonian article, “Terminal Disease,” the agent fee spelled out in that contract has increased by only HALF the annual increase in the national Consumer Price Index during the past dozen years. It has grown by only $76,569 since 2013, when it SHOULD have increased by some $100,000 to $200,000 more. Which has applied an ever-tightening “financial vise” on the agent that results in understaffing of the terminal and underpayment of it employees. This is the inevitable result of WSF trying to obtain terminal services on the cheap. You get what you pay for.
With others, I’ve been trying to raise these kinds of issues with WSF Director Steve Nevey and his deputy John Vezina — now apparently involved in a secretive search for the next Orcas Landing terminal agent. So far, only Vezina has replied, and with only the usual assurances of transparency. Justin Paulsen cannot seem to get any substantive answers, either. If anyone on Orcas Island should know, it’s Justin. But it’s been mostly Crickets.
What has become patently obvious recently is that the “Mom and Pop” private terminal-agent model is FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN and SHOULD BE ABANDONED when a new arrangement occurs after July 1. And that San Juan County should have a seat at the negotiating table and a say in the final decision. My own favorite suggestion, to my knowledge first made by Elisabeth is that the Port of Orcas contract with WSF to become the terminal agent. That is entirely in keeping with the state mandate for the Port; but according to a knowledgable Port commissioner, it will take time to negotiate and implement the details.
Whatever the case, the long-ignored needs of the Orcas Landing staff MUST be paramount in the new management model. To get and retain good employees at this crucial public resource, they need adequate wages and benefits that can support living on an expensive island — and which should also reflect the obvious hazards of working with occasionally unruly customers, as this recent indecent underscores.
It’s time to end what could be called this “tragedy of errors.”
It’s not Elizabeth, Mikey, Rob or Mary all of whom are constrained by a variety of contracts. At its core the archaic “contracts” system is the problem and the most straightforward solution is equity for job classifications within WSF and the most straightforward means to achieve that is through the Governor as chief executive, with legislative support as needed.
Where is there a problem? In this century the democratic party has had complete control of the governorship and the assembly, with control of the senate for 18 years. In the last general election over 70% of the county voted for democrats. They cry out for equity, for fairness, why haven’t they delivered ?
What we’re witnessing is a slow motion photo op of successive articles by Mr. Riordan, a prominent local party operative, using labor as a prop to show solidarity with “working people” after having lost the labor vote in the last election. Nice try.
So lets cut to the chase, Mr. Riordan needs to call Mr. Turnoy, the county democratic party chairman and have him call the governors office to give direction to WSDOT and WSF to rectify the situation by mandating parity for job classifications system-wide.
It’s time for the democrats to deliver more than a spectacle, its time to deliver a result.
Mr. Riordan, Mr. Turnoy, STAND AND DELIVER !
I happen to be on a ferry today, and heard the usual announcement about not harassing the workers, and the warning that there would be significant consequences for doing so. I’m curious how RCW 9.91.025 interacts with free speech rights, It seems to apply to the Orcas ferry landing facility and the workers there,
Is the assumption that the Orcas terminal would run any differently under WSF (headquarters Seattle) funded workers than an Orcas based “Mom and Pop” local agent who knows and hires local personnel?
How would the described situation May 7th be any different if the terminal was managed by WSF? Do rude and obnoxious travelers have greater respect for WSF employees?
Is the assumption they would have more staffing than the local contractor? I suspect not.
On the vast majority of days, the terminal runs quite well with the usual staffing of two, although I have in the summer occasionally observed three when the traffic is heavy, with one using a remote unit checking vehicles for reservations.
Obviously Michael Radian and Phil Peterson believe this issue will be solved by having WSF managing the Orcas terminal. Appreciate if they would describe what they believe would specifically change if WSF assumes Orcas terminal management.
Mr. Dashiel, thank you for asking. The overarching issue before us is treatment of terminal staff; both as employees, and by the public. I believe that equitable terms of WSF system wide employment would eliminate disparities in compensation, working conditions and job responsibilities and should reside with the state. I did not address public interface because you did and I agree with much of what you wrote.
The one area of improvement in overlap between WSF terminal staff and the public should be a real time report on the WSF computer to enable timely assessment of schedule variances. As far as individual conduct our laws are very permissive but just because you can doesn’t mean you should, I was raised by the “golden rule” to treat others the way you want to be treated.
I for one am very appreciative of all terminal staff, greet them with a smile and pleasant word, none of them created any delays, malfunction or failure, they do their best and I thank them all including Ron stepping in to direct traffic or reseting a breaker, whatever is needed – they serve us well and deserve our thanks.
To Brian Ehrmantraut It appears that RCW 9.91.025, only limits certain behavior in transit stations and transit vehicles. As limit on free speech it is not a broad limit on speech. While this could indirectly affect speech in transit spaces, it does not explicitly regulate free speech in a broader legal sense. Reading the definitions below it is clear that his law does directly apply to the Orcas Landing
Here is an excerpt from the definitions.
“(2) For the purposes of this section:
(a) “Transit station” or “transit facility” means all passenger facilities, structures, stops, shelters, bus zones, properties, and rights-of-way of all kinds that are owned, leased, held, or used by a transit authority for the purpose of providing public transportation services.
(b) “Transit vehicle” means any motor vehicle, streetcar, train, trolley vehicle, ferry boat, or any other device, vessel, or vehicle that is owned or operated by a transit authority or an entity providing service on behalf of a transit authority that is used for the purpose of carrying passengers on a regular schedule.
(c) “Transit authority” means a city transit system under RCW 35.58.2721 or chapter 35.95A RCW, a county transportation authority under chapter 36.57 RCW, a metropolitan municipal corporation transit system under chapter 36.56 RCW, a public transportation benefit area under chapter 36.57A RCW, an unincorporated transportation benefit area under RCW 36.57.100, a regional transportation authority under chapter 81.112 RCW, or any special purpose district formed to operate a public transportation system.
(3) Any person who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Even on not so busy days, a third employee in the middle of the day could help to direct traffic while the ticket seller focuses on her core job, selling tickets, plus allow her to take a few breaks in what is a grueling 12-hour day (or often longer). And it would provide some degree of protection from irate customers — especially summer tourists who don’t understand the system, and that you need return reservations, too. Several people have told me that that was the case years ago. But with the “financial vise” inexorably closing its jaws upon the agent, that was probably one of the first things to go.
And I’m NOT in favor of WSF taking over management of the Orcas terminal, as Mr. Dashiell imputes, although they COULD have done — and in the future can do — a better job of overseeing the performance of the terminal agent. Which, by the way, some have suggested could be the Port of Orcas. Doing so is well within its state mandate. And it has an elected Board of Commissioners who could provide the necessary oversight functions.