Washington State Ferries.

The Washington State Department of Transportation Ferries Division, or Washington State Ferries (WSF), operates and maintains ferry vessels; constructs, operates, and maintains terminals; and acquires vessels.  The WSF maintains a fleet of 21 ferries that carry passengers on 10 routes between 20 terminals.  The WSF has nearly 2,000 employees.

Employees of the WSF have collective bargaining rights and bargain with the state over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.  The employer, for purposes of collective bargaining is the state.  The state is represented by the Governor or the Governor's designee.

The Office of Financial Management (OFM) produces a salary survey of public and private employees who perform directly comparable but not necessarily identical work to WSF work groups for use in bargaining negotiations.  For this survey, the OFM considers employees along the west coast of the United States, including Alaska, and British Columbia.

Interest Arbitration.

Interest arbitration procedures are available to WSF employees to resolve impasses over contract negotiations that cannot be solved through mediation.  Under interest arbitration, an impartial third party makes decisions regarding the unresolved terms of the contract taking into account specified factors including a comparison of wages, hours, employee benefits, and conditions of employment of the involved employees with those of public and private sector employees in states along the west coast of the United States.

Washington State Ferries.

When producing the salary survey of public and private sector employees whose work is comparable to WSF employees, the OFM must contract with a nationally recognized firm that has expertise conducting compensation surveys.  While gathering data for the survey, the contracting firm must seek input from employee organizations.

The final salary survey must be made available to all bargaining parties by April 1 of each even-numbered year.  However, if the OFM is unable to complete the final salary survey by April 1, 2026, the bargaining parties must agree to a new completion date.

For deck department, terminal department, engine room, and all other covered employees not specifically listed, the survey must compare the wages, hours, employee benefits, and conditions of employment of WSF employees with public and private sector employees doing directly comparable, but not necessarily identical, work in states along the west coast of the United States, including Alaska, and in British Columbia.

Certain WSF work groups must be compared with specifically enumerated groups of employees as follows:

• The survey for masters and mates must include comparisons with business entities whose operations include the movement of unlimited tonnage vessels, in the designated pilotage waters of the states along the west coast of the United States, including Alaska.
• The survey for engine room employees must include comparisons with private sector shipping employees, and public sector employees on the east coast who operate double-ended vessels with similar horsepower that carry more than 2,000 passengers.
• The survey for trade employees at the Eagle Harbor Shipyard Facility must include  comparisons with public and private sector employees in the Puget Sound region, including the:  Port of Seattle maintenance facility, Port of Tacoma maintenance facility, King County maintenance facility, and rates paid for prevailing wages on public works projects to workers performing construction, maintenance, and repairs on vessels and structures for publicly funded projects in certain counties.

The salary and fringe benefits paid to ferry employees must be competitive with the salary and fringe benefits paid to the enumerated comparable employees.  "Salary and fringe benefits" include direct wage compensation, vacation, holidays and other excused time, pensions, insurance, and benefits received.

Interest Arbitration.

If WSF employees and their employer utilize interest arbitration, the comparison of wages, hours, employee benefits, and condition of employment of the involved employees must be consistent with the specifically enumerated WSF work groups in the OFM salary survey.