Union Dispute Is Still Stalled

Steamship Authority Managers Leave Last Offer on the Table; Vessel
Workers Will Continue Under Expired Contract

By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer

Three days before Christmas, Steamship Authority management and the
union that represents 230 unlicensed vessel workers remain locked in a
protracted contract dispute, with no end in sight.

The Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association (MEBA), one of
eight boat line bargaining units and also the largest, has been at
loggerheads with Authority negotiators since July 2003.

These are the boat line employees who take tickets from passengers
boarding the vessels, who direct and coordinate the loading and
off-loading of vehicles, who clean the inside and outside of the
vessels, and who assist the chief engineers in the engine rooms.

Previously represented by an in-house union, the employees have not
seen their base pay rise since 2002.

Work rules - and the premium pay rates they sometimes entail
- are among the major bones of contention between the Authority
and MEBA.

Both sides have dug in their heels. SSA general manager Wayne Lamson
has taken a hard stand against what he calls expensive and wasteful
practices at the boat line. MEBA representative William Campbell said
the changes included in the latest proposal from management amount to
little more than a pay cut.

Last week, frustration over the deadlock spilled into public view,
with Mr. Campbell complaining at the monthly boat line board meeting in
Woods Hole about what he called the threatening tone of a letter sent to
the employees by Mr. Lamson.

In the letter, Mr. Lamson called the failure of the boat line and
MEBA to come to terms "a major disappointment" in his first
year as the boat line's general manager.

The offer from management included an incentive: each MEBA member
would receive a one-time payment of 5 per cent of the member's
unlicensed pay over the past 52 weeks, if the union ratified the
contract by Dec. 16.

Union members rejected the proposed contract 130-0.

"I considered it pretty insulting," said Stan Dennison
of East Falmouth, a vessel oiler who has worked for the Authority for 16
years. "It basically comes down to us subsidizing our own pay
raises."

Mr. Dennison said the Authority already has a good deal with its
vessel employees, who often must sleep on the vessels at night and are
not paid for the time.

"My gasoline's going up, my groceries are going up, my
taxes are going up but my paycheck's not going up," Mr.
Dennison said. "I don't understand the direction of the
Authority at this time."

Management has yet to declare an impasse, and SSA general counsel
Steven Sayers said yesterday the boat line has no plans to do so.
Declaration of an impasse would shift the dispute to the Massachusetts
Labor Relations Commission, which oversees labor disputes involving
public employees.

State law prohibits Authority employees from striking.

"We're bargaining in good faith on all points,"
Mr. Campbell said.

But the dispute clearly has moved into a limbo of sorts, with MEBA
members continuing to work under the terms and conditions of their last
expired contract.

Since the MEBA negotiations began, Mr. Lamson said, the Authority
has reached new agreements with three other units: maintenance workers,
terminal employees and security guards represented by the Teamsters; the
reservation clerks represented by Service Employees International Union
Local 888; and the licensed deck officers represented by the Licensed
Officers and Maritime Workers Union/United Auto Workers Local 1596.

"While the process with MEBA has undoubtedly been difficult
due to our insistence on trying to tighten up some costly and wasteful
practices, and to control future expenses, similar issues have been
raised and resolved in all those other negotiations," Mr. Lamson
wrote in his five-page letter last week.

Mr. Campbell has said the concessions the Authority wants from the
MEBA members go beyond those granted by the other units.

Practices targeted for elimination include additional pay for
plugging in shore cables to vessels and cleaning marine sanitation
devices. Another practice grants added pay to non-engine room workers
who assist in the engine room.

Authority employees who help plug in a shore cable, for example,
receive a flat payment for $8 for doing so. The cable provides power to
the vessels when they are tied up at night.

Some MEBA members make hundreds of dollars a year on the practice,
with a few earning more than $800. Other members earn no shore cable
money.

The SSA maintains that the duties should be included as part of
regular work shifts and carry no additional pay.

Overall payments for the practices totaled about $160,000 in 2004
- about 1.7 per cent of the $9 million paid that year to
unlicensed employees represented by MEBA.

Mr. Campbell said special pay for the practices has been included in
prior Authority collective bargaining agreements. "It's not
uncommon in the marine industry to have premium pay," he said.

On the subject of costs facing the Steamship Authority, Mr. Campbell
said the union earlier this year agreed to a reduction in 23 positions
that will save the boat line at least $1.4 million annually.

He also questioned why the Authority has agreed to allow Hyannis
Harbor Tours, commonly known as Hy-Line, to carry more passengers on its
high-speed ferry, which competes with the SSA on the Hyannis-Nantucket
route.

"They just gave away more ridership to Hy-Line rather than
invest in their own employees," Mr. Campbell said.

In his letter to MEBA members, Mr. Lamson wrote: "Nothing at
the bargaining table will change the fact that the Authority is a good
place to work, with good-paying jobs and great benefits." He also
wrote:

"With our proposed new wage rates, ranging from $18.39 to
$23.77 per hour, you will continue to be among the highest paid sailors
and marine oilers in the country. But in order to preserve these high
wages, we have to begin to rein in some of the more expensive and
wasteful practices and conditions that have flourished over the
years."

Information provided by the boat line shows that an able-bodied
seaman - one of the unlicensed positions represented by MEBA
- makes $19.61 an hour in regular pay on a 42-hour work week
consisting of triple or double watches.

Under the proposed agreement rejected this month by MEBA, that wage
would have risen by 6 per cent to $20.78. The new wage would increase by
3 per cent on each of the next three anniversary dates.

In 2004, the most recent year for which annual Authority pay records
are available, many MEBA members received between $40,000 and $50,000 in
pay for their work as unlicensed vessel workers. One employee received
$67,318 for unlicensed vessel work that year.

Some MEBA members earned additional pay during the year for working
as licensed deck officers, such as pilots.

In a document dated Nov. 2, the Authority described the details of
its proposal for a collective bargaining agreement with MEBA workers.
Under the proposed contract:

* Employees would be asked to contribute a five per cent
co-payment toward enrollment in the boat line medical plan, which
includes full-family medical coverage, a prescription drug care program
and dental and optical benefits. The SSA now pays 100 per cent of the
cost.

The union has balked at the payment, which would amount to $1,000
annually for family medical coverage and $400 for individual coverage.
MEBA has offered its own medical plan, which Mr. Campbell said would
save the boat line money.

* The Authority wants to relax existing work rules. The boat
line would eliminate premium pay for most work performed on regular
watches. The boat line also could make assignments of five days or less
without regard to employee seniority. The system of tapping permanent
employees and then temporary employees before hiring new individuals
would remain in place.

* The boat line will continue to maintain living quarters and
mess halls on vessels that have them, and would continue to provide $10
in subsistence to employees working on running vessels without chief
cooks. But the boat line would prohibit employees from watching
television while they are on the clock. At present, employees may watch
television while working at the discretion of the vessel captain.

* Employees would be allowed to work their current watch
schedule, so long as the U.S. Coast Guard takes no action affecting the
watch schedules or minimum manning requirements on board vessels.