||| FROM MICHAEL RIORDAN |||
If what I’ve learned over the weekend is even partly true, the Orcas Ferry Terminal is headed for chaos. Experienced employees are leaving for other work or cutting back their hours on shift. And to make matters worse, the terminal agent Russells at Orcas, Inc. will be ending its contract with Washington State Ferries (WSF) on July 1 — smack in the middle of the peak summer season when hundreds of tourists glut the island and the ferries to and from it.
That’s a recipe for chaos.
This looming disaster has been developing for months, partly due to mismanagement of the terminal facilities and staff. It has not helped that the Orcas Landing employees are woefully underpaid compared to their counterparts in Anacortes. For example, a second-year ticket taker on the mainland earns wages of $34.53 per hour, compared to $24.42 per hour for a similar employee here on Orcas — who often shoulders more responsibility. That’s a huge discrepancy of more than 30 percent for much the same work. And the benefits that the mainlanders receive are substantially better.
But WSF should bear most of the blame for these gross inequities. Its contract with Russells at Orcas, in force since 2013, specifies that the terminal agent’s fee can grow annually at only half the increase in the national Consumer Price Index. Which means that it has grown by only 15.3 percent during this 12-year period while the national cost of living has increased 35.5 percent.
And I’m sure that the Orcas cost of living has risen faster — especially during the pandemic.
That’s a ridiculous situation.
The inevitable outcome is that both Russells at Orcas and its terminal employees have been increasingly squeezed by what I call a “financial vise” that steadily diminishes the effective compensation for their efforts. That also makes it difficult if not impossible to retain good employees who are knowledgeable about what it takes to coordinate the many hundreds of vehicles passing through the terminal daily.
And to add insult to injury, WSF is reputedly considering the distinct possibility of passing the torch on July 1 to another such “Mom and Pop” terminal agent. Which suggests it wants to continue operating the Orcas ferry terminal on the cheap — as it has for over a decade.
“Millions of dollars worth of goods and services crucial to the Orcas Island economy pass through the terminal daily,” says Elisabeth Britt, who has worked there for nearly two years. “We load hundreds of vehicles bound for Anacortes each day, including many large cargo trucks heading back to the mainland.”
The crucial importance of a smoothly functioning ferry terminal to the Orcas economy is obvious and cannot be overstated. But that raises the inevitable question, “Why have the terminal agent and its employees been so sorely undercompensated?”
County Commissioner Justin Paulsen — no stranger to ferry problems and related issues — has inquired at least twice about what is going on with the terminal transition but has not yet received much information from WSF officials. “The San Juan County Comprehensive Plan (currently under review) leans almost entirely on WSF to meet our freight and transportation needs,” he notes.
Whatever the case, it seems obvious that San Juan County should have a major say in — and perhaps be given the right to approve or veto — the choice of the next Orcas Terminal Agent. Because that choice may prove crucial to our economic livelihoods here on Orcas Island, we deserve a seat at the table when the decision is made.
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Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention. I had no idea about this situation, nor about the discrepancy in pay.
It does indeed appear to be a “terminal disease” for which there is no existing hope for a viable treatment vaccine or cure.
This is a great opportunity for the management of our lifeline to the mainland to shift from the present private agent-model to a model built around a responsible, elected, public body. Over time, shortcomings in the present system have accumulated to the point where operation is understaffed, overworked and underpaid. While staff handles the boarding and unloading of hundreds of cars and trucks every day, they are paid 20 to 30% less that WSF employees at other terminals…they work 12 hour shifts, are docked for half-hour meal breaks which I’m told cannot be taken because of no relief workers to man the various stations. Hopefully these present circumstances can be eliminated under a new form of management…our Port of Orcas would be an obvious candidate to do so.
Michael, thank you for raising the flag on this serious situation.
I hope there will be additional push from SJC Council to get more information and community engagement before we hit crisis mode.
Michael,
Thank you for clearly laying out the critical issues facing the Orcas Ferry Terminal. You do a great job of highlighting how important this terminal is to the economic health of Orcas, and to our community life. Your points about fair wages and the discrepancy between mainland and island compensation are particularly compelling.
It’s fundamental that the hardworking employees who ensure the terminal runs smoothly deserve fair and equitable treatment. Aligning their compensation with that of their mainland counterparts would not only be fair—it would help retain experienced staff whose knowledge and dedication are integral to our local community. Your insights underscore the urgency for Washington State Ferries to re-examine its contractual obligations, ensuring fairness and sustainability for terminal operations.
Additionally, your suggestion that San Juan County be actively involved in the selection of the new terminal agent is both practical and reasonable. A stronger voice for our community in such decisions could greatly reduce the risk of disruption during critical peak seasons, supporting both local residents and the many visitors who contribute to our economy.
Thank you for raising awareness on this crucial issue. Community-focused conversations like this are precisely what’s needed to inspire positive, long-term solutions that benefit everyone in the San Juan Islands.
Please explain further what the terminal agency does. Aren’t all of the land based folks employed by WSF ?
The photograph above, which I snapped with my cell-phone camera on September 9, 2024, provides a textbook example of the chaos that results — and will continue to result — from “Mom and Pop” terminal management. Joe Cohen and Jan Ehrlichman, whose backs can be seen in the foreground, will surely remember it well. The following is an excerpt of an article I wrote the next day, but decided against publishing in the Orcasonian.
“Just before 5 pm on Monday, September 9, I was about to walk off the WSF Chelan ferry at Orcas Landing when the drawbridge from the ferry-terminal ramp suddenly halted halfway down. A terminal attendant was frantically pushing buttons on a control panel, to no avail. Nothing happened. The bridge hung haplessly in mid-air while hopeful passengers and ferry workers looked on helplessly. Thinking it might be a power-supply problem, a few of them tried to rig up and electrical connection from the ferry, but to no avail.
Fifteen or twenty minutes later, terminal agent Ron Rebman (pictured above in gray shirt) of the Orcas Village Store finally arrived and could be seen pounding futilely on the panel. Then he scurried anxiously back and forth, trying to diagnose and solve the problem. It turned out to be a blown fuse — which, once replaced with a new one after a more than half-hour delay, allowed the bridge to be lowered and passengers and vehicles to exit.
But the Chelan was then so late that it only made the return voyage to Anacortes, after which its remaining runs that day (to and from Orcas) were canceled, leaving vehicles and passengers stranded. Elisabeth Britt, serving as the upper-lot attendant at the time, did not return home until 11 pm after helping resolve the resulting mess of about a hundred vehicles piling up. She had worked more than 17 hours without a break after beginning her workday at 5:30 am.”
A concerned terminal agent, or — in the case of WSF managed terminals — the terminal supervisor, would have called in a reserve employee to take over, or assumed the responsibility himself, but this did not happen. And Elisabeth received no overtime pay for her gruesome 17-hour workday.
A little more info would be helpful.
*Are the pay and conditions spelled out in an agreement between WSF and Russell’s at Orcas and does the agreement meet state requirements?
*How are land-based operations on the other three islands handled?
*What does this mean. July first the landing is going to shut down?
In 13 years we have never encountered a delay because of the land-based operation problems on any of the island runs.
We don’t consider an hour delay to be out of the ordinary. On one run it took an hour just for the Captain to get the ferry docked at Shaw so the ramp could be put down. C’mon folks, how often is the interisland ferry cancelled with no notice, particularly due to lack of crew? And late sailings and cancellations are commonplace on all runs. If we have important business on the mainland we go the day before and spend the night. Do we really want WSF taking over the landing?
WTF!
You are missing the core point, Bob Thomas, which is the treatment and compensation of terminal workers by private agents. But I have been personally witnessing the impacts of these kinds of problems for almost two years now.
Could you possibly countenance one of your own employees (assuming you have or had them) working for 17 hours straight and then paying them wages $10/hr LESS that someone equally experienced doing essentially the same kind of work in Anacortes, where the cost of living is lower?
But the “financial vise” that (al least) this agent finds itself experiencing, for which WSF is largely responsible, naturally leads to such outcomes — and to the departure of good, knowledgeable employees who just cannot take it any more.
The major job difference in San Juan County contracted terminal personnel and WSF personnel employed at mainland terminals is that SJC personnel are not involved in calculating fares and selling tickets. They don’t have to count passengers, measure length of vehicles, or handle credit/cash. Their primary function is to assign a vehicle to a traffic lane and control terminal space allocations when necessary, record reservation use, and ensure an orderly flow of traffic to and from the vessels. Of course, they take the verbal abuse from irrate customers when things don’t go as planned … that happens at all terminals.
The difference in pay and benefits is in part due to differences in job responsibilities.
The existing contract between WSF and Russels has been in play since 2013 and renewed in 2019. It doesn’t specify what agents are paid or the benefits offered. Those are up to the local contractor and the people they hire. The public doesn’t have legal access the specifics of what the contractor pays or benefits provided to employees because it’s a private business.
The existing WSF contract has a five year extention periods until 2028. Apparently the Russels have decided to use the termination clause in the contract to end as of 1 July 2025.
It’s not clear to me whether the SJC Council should be involved in this decision other that the SJC Ferry Advisory Committee monitoring the situation. But, the idea of having the Orcas Port District be the new contractor might be worthy of consideration, but time is short for that to happen. The existing WSF contract is almost certainly a profit center, so Orcas taxpayers might benefit from such an arrangement, and that could provide more local control over wages and benefits.
Robert, thanks for your usual thorough analysis. Nice clarification and useful info.
The July 1st drop dead is of concern. Does all ferry service to Orcas stop until a new provider is selected? Haven’t heard anything from WSJ, SJC Ferry Advisory or Council. Perhaps they have a plan in place and consider business as usual at the ferry landing…..we can only hope. Now that “the cat’s out of the bag” it would be prudent for a notice to be published by one of the players.
6:37 pm.
The wage disparity between ticket sellers at the Orcas Island ferry terminal and their counterparts at state-operated terminals is both significant and troubling. A second-year ticket seller in Anacortes earns $35.34 per hour, while a ticket seller on Orcas Island—despite handling greater responsibilities—makes just $24.42 per hour. This gap raises serious concerns about fairness, especially in a region where the cost of living continues to climb.
This wage difference stems from the operational model of Washington State Ferries (WSF). Terminals on Lopez, Orcas, Shaw, and San Juan Islands are managed under private contracts, while others, such as Anacortes, are staffed by state employees. Critics argue that this structure leads to inequities in pay, benefits, and working conditions—making it difficult to attract and retain younger workers looking for competitive wages and career advancement.
Despite Robert’s claims to the contrary: ticket sellers at privately managed terminals also face challenging work conditions, including inadequate facilities and overwhelming workloads during peak travel seasons. Calls for reform stress the urgency of fair wages, better staffing, and stronger worker protections to improve both employee well-being and service reliability.
Possible Solutions to Address Wage Disparities
To close this wage gap and improve working conditions, several potential solutions have been proposed: (By other people Bob, not by Orcas Ferry Terminal employees). This is an issue that is gathering grassroots support.
Union Advocacy & Negotiations: Ferry workers’ unions, such as the Inland Boatmen’s Union, are actively fighting for fair wages and improved benefits. Strengthening collective bargaining efforts could help ticket sellers achieve pay parity.
Legislative Action: Washington state lawmakers could implement policies ensuring wage equity across all ferry terminals, similar to the discussions surrounding wage fairness for ferry engineers and oilers.
Public Awareness & Support: Raising awareness among ferry riders and local communities could increase public pressure on policymakers to act.
Contract Adjustments: Revising private terminal agent contracts to match state-operated terminal wages could bridge the gap and create more equitable compensation.
Transparency and Public Access
Because San Juan Island Terminal Agent contracts involve public agencies, anyone can request a copy of these agreements, including the agent fee schedule exhibit, from Washington State Ferries. Russell’s at Orcas may be a private business. But they have entered a contract with a state agency, and that allows members of the public to request copies of the contract and it’s exhibits. I have a copy of it. Many other islanders also have a copy of it.
Seasonal Demands & Impact
The role of a ticket seller on Orcas Island is demanding, particularly during peak summer months, when ticket sales surge dramatically. Despite handling high-volume transactions and customer interactions, these workers continue to earn significantly less than their counterparts at state-run terminals.
This wage gap is more than just a financial issue—it’s a matter of fairness, workforce sustainability, and the overall quality of ferry service in the San Juan Islands. I hope this information is helpful. I just finished a twelve hour shift, that did not include doing my nails.
At Elisabeth’s recommendation, I made a Public Records Request and obtained a copy of the original Terminal Agent Contract No. UCB 1194 between WSF and Russells at Orcas, Inc., and Washington State Ferries. All in all, it is a very exacting and patently unfair contract, responsible for the “financial “vise” I have written about in my article.
Here are a few choice excerpts:
“Section VII.A.1. The AGENT and its employees shall continuously pick up, dispose of (and recycle to the maximum extent possible) all paper trash, garbage, and other waste residues resulting from the AGENT’s Terminal operations.
Section VII.B.1. The AGENT and its employees shall maintain the public restrooms and/or sanikans at the Terminal in a clean and sanitary condition.
Section VII.C.1. Payment for the AGENT’s clean-up of garbage and sanitary maintenance of the public restrooms and/or sanikans shall be incorporated in the Agent Fee, as specifiied in Article XXI.A herein.
Section XXI.A.2. The AGENT shall be solely responsible for Terminal personnel workers compensation, unemployment insurance, pension plan, holiday and sick pay, if any.
Section XXI.A.3. Effective each July 1st of the Contract, the Agent Fee shall be adjusted by fifty percent (50%) of the annual average percent increase in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the U.S. City Average — All Urban Consumers for the preceding year.”
FYI, the Terminal Agent Fee began at $500,000 on July 1, 2013, for that first fiscal year and is only a niggardly $576,569 for fiscal 2025 ending July 1, 2025 — 12 years later. That’s an increase of only 15.3 percent during a period in which the Consumer Price Index rose by 35.5 percent.
How’s that, Robert Dashiell and Bob Thomas? Do you approve of such a one-sided contract?
The ticket sellers on Orcas Island handle selling tickets for cars going to Friday Harbor.
Again, I am appalled by the inequities between our Orcas Terminal employees and the Anacortes Terminal employees.
The Lopez ticket sellers sell tickets for cars going to Orcas and to Friday Harbor. The Shaw ticket sellers would also sell tickets for cars going to Orcas and Friday Harbor.
@Robert Dashiel…you write “The major job difference in San Juan County contracted terminal personnel and WSF personnel employed at mainland terminals is that SJC personnel are not involved in calculating fares and selling tickets. They don’t have to count passengers, measure length of vehicles, or handle credit/cash.”
That’s not quite accurate.
The Orcas terminal staff manning the booth do, in fact, “involved in calculating fares and selling tickets”, “handle credit/cash” of about $1000/day and “measure length of vehicles” for all inter=island ferries.
Another “major job difference” is that Orcas terminal staff must arrive early (5:30 am) to clean the public restrooms (who knew?)…that is certainly not within the job description of Anacortes ticket sellers!
When I have purchased a ticket at Lopez or Orcas for a vehicle to go West, it’s at the kiosk in the terminal buildings. Don’t believe terminal personnel sell tickets. You get in the proper vehicle destination line and walk to the terminal building and use the kiosk to pay for a ticket, then the person directing traffic near loading dock simply checks your ticket to ensure you have paid. Not sure what happens at Shaw. Before the pay kiosks were installed, then the agents were in fact ticket sellers, but are no longer.
I have copies of the Agency contracts between WSF and Russels … original and 2019 extention. My copies, obtain by a public records request, does not provide a salary schedule other than provide the Agency monthly contract amount. It simply states the Agent shall “Employ sufficient staff to fully manage and operate the Terminal on a daily basis.”
As for working conditions at the Orcas, I have no basis to comment, contrary to Elizabeth Britt’s posting. That logically should be an issue between the Russel’s and their employees and WSF terminal staff.
I suspect WSF has used contractors at SJC terminals since they purchased the system in 1951. That’s likely a decades old decision as to being the most practical and cost effective solution to these relatively remote terminals, and it provides a local contractor a business opportunity.
It’s a reasonable discussion to have whether to unionize the terminal operations under WSF and shift control back to WSF headquarters, or keep the local contract system in place, or possibly change the contract to make the terminal employee’s salary and benefits more in line with the unionized group of WSF employees. That said, the end of June is fast approaching, and this is likely not going to be solved in two months.
Please STOP misleading Orcasonian readers, Robert. You may use a kiosk at Lopez or Shaw, but I cannot recall one at Orcas Landing unless it’s in the terminal building down below, and that would be very inconvenient for drivers. Almost everyone headed for the Interisland ferry goes to the ticket booth from Orcas Road and purchases their ticket from the attendant. Yesterday evening, just before typing out the above comment at 6:37, Elisabeth showed me her receipt for over $3000 in cash and credit sales during her 12-hour shift, on Wednesday, a typically slow day. On this matter you are WRONG.
In my academic area of expertise, which is extensive, people who continually broadcast errors like this quickly lose credibility.
Michael,
You might be correct, but I’ve been at the booth when drivers of vehicles headed West were directed to walk walk down to the terminal building (just like on Lopez) and buy their ticket from the kiosk. Yes, inconvenient for drivers. But maybe the kiosk has been removed or isn’t working, and it’s logical then the booth operator would then have to collect the West bound fares. Don’t think I’ve gone brain dead on this. I’ll visit the terminal and get that pinned down.
Obviously the majority of Orcas traffic is headed East, the free round trip direction. Oversized or overheight vehicles may have to pay going West, and the kiosk would not likely have those variable fares, so that might account for the cash receipts.
Learn something new every day.
The Agent (company with the WSF contract) is responsible of operating the terminal, including garbage, insurance, landscaping, etc. They can hire janitors, landscapers, etc. Nothing in that contract states that the booth operator has to do any of that. That’s all up top the contracted Agent and whatever duties they assign to the people they hire. You have the same copy of the contract I have.
Additionally, the contract has been in effect since 2013 with five year approvals until 2028. You ask if $500,000 a year plus half the annual CPI increase a year fair? That’s what annual amount the Agent gets paid, not the people the Agent hires. I don’t know how many people are employed or their pay scale … but it’s clearly been profitable for the Agent or they would have terminated the contract since there is a termination clause for both WSF and the contracted Agent.
That said, the big issue is whether Orcas (and probably others in SJC)) should be staffed by WSF union employees, instead of a local contractor, which is what what you and Elizabeth and others are advocating. That’s a valid discussion to have.
Hope to end this conversation after a pleasant chat-up with Elizabeth Britt.
The Orcas ticket kiosk is just inside the door of the terminal building. There one can purchase a wide variety of tickets, including commuter tickets.
Depending on how busy the booth operator is, who is staffing the booth, the weather, what else is happening at the time (example: battery jump start), etc., the ticket booth person CAN sell tickets. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they tell the driver to get their ticket(s) at the kiosk.
Commercial traffic generally has an account with WSF, so they just get their account card scanned at the booth.
The Agent (contractor) has contractual agreements with employees, who are in a maritime union.
Overtime is paid for more than 40 hours of work a week.
I was not aware tickets could be purchased at the booth since I’ve only observed drivers who are told to use the kiosk in the terminal building.
Last posting on this thread.
I’m glad this was your last posting on this thread, Robert. I’m going to reply to some of your points, many of them valid, and wrap this thread up myself. Normally it’s the prerogative of the conversation initiator to do so, as I’ve learned from decades in the Commentariat.
In over a decade living on Orcas Island, I’ve NEVER gone down to the terminal building and purchased a ticket at the kiosk there, which I didn’t know existed until now. That seems incredibly cumbersome to me — involving driving down there, finding a place to park (no easy task), crossing a busy road, going inside and using the kiosk, then crossing the road again and coming back up to reenter the line to the booth, probably taking about ten minutes. For inter-island travel, I’ve always used a credit card to purchase the ticket, then driven into lanes 7 or 8 as directed. And I can imagine the great majority of Orcas Islanders do likewise.
Yes, overtime is paid for more than 40 hours per week as stipulated in an awful union-negotiated agreement, about which I’ll say more below. When she worked 17 hours straight on September 9, 2024, as described in my draft article and comment above, Elisabeth received NO overtime pay for her diligence and devotion to the job. Does that seem at all fair? A GOOD union contract would require overtime pay for working more than 8 hours a day, which she does almost every working day, often working more than 12 hours, well beyond dinnertime, when ferries come in late, as they often do.
Yes, Ron and Mary could indeed hire janitors to clean the bathrooms and haul trash, but they do NOT, leaving it to the regular employees. In fact, Elisabeth recently injured her shoulder while lifting a heavy trash bag into the dumpster and likely will require surgery. Which sidelined her and used up her sick leave well before she was able to work again.
The annual agent’s fee, now up to $576,569 may be profitable but ONLY because it is squeezing the employee wages down far below what is paid for equivalent work at other, WSF-managed terminals such as Anacortes. This is the “financial vise” I have cited as the principal reason for the Terminal Disease on Orcas Island. If that awful WSF contract had not included the words “fifty percent (50%) of” and instead increased the agent fee at the full rate of increase in the CPI, that would have made more than $100,000 additionally available this year, for example, and allowed Russells at Orcas to pay much better wages — albeit probably still not the equivalent of Anacortes. Just do the math: $576,569 x (1.355/1.153) = $677,581.
As Bill Clinton famously said, “It’s just arithmetic!”
And as I said earlier, the union contract (which I’ve only glanced at), which the Inland Boatmen’s Union negotiated with Russells at Orcas, is not much better than the WSF contract. For example, the entry-level wage has been fixed at about $20/hr right through the pandemic, including the great inflation that occurred. No increases. And after about a year’s job experience, Orcas Landing employees are paid about $10/hr LESS than equivalent Anacortes employees. How does one buy food and pay rent at those wage levels? I hear that one of them manages to do so by sleeping in her car.
I finally reached my limit in early April when Elisabeth came down with pneumonia while I was on the mainland — most likely from bacteria she contacted in the booth, with its many unhealthy conditions. By the time I got home around 5:30 pm, she was red-faced and gasping for breath, as she also suffers from asthma. I called 911 and asked that the EMTs from OIFR (where BTW she serves on the Board of Commissioners) come out ASAP. Thankfully, they did a great job of bringing her back to the living..
I think I’ve made a rock-solid case that MAJOR changes are needed at the Orcas Ferry Landing — and strongly suggest that NOW is the time to do so, given the impending July 1 transition.
I hereby rest my case.