MSEA-SEIU Member and ferry captain Kevin Hopkins with MSEA-SEIU past president Dean Staffieri, on Aug. 9, 2023. (Provided by Maine Service Employees Association-SEIU Local 1989)
At the grocery store Sunday, Vinalhaven resident Peter Drury ran into an acquaintance who said they wouldn’t be able to go home because two of the three ferry trips between the island and the mainland that day were canceled.
As an island resident as well as a retired captain with the Maine State Ferry Service, Drury knows how disruptive canceled trips can be for the local community and seasonal visitors.
The latest effort to curb these cancellations, which are mostly attributed to boats having an insufficient number of crew members, has come in the form of a new incentive program for ferry workers, but employees and union leaders fear the additional compensation will come at a cost to workers’ other benefits.
In July, leaders from six island communities wrote to Gov. Janet Mills asking her to intervene on the service interruptions.
In a statement to Maine Morning Star about what she has done about the issue, Mills’ office expressed concern about the impact on people’s lives and deferred to the Maine Department of Transportation for a resolution.
“The Department will remain in contact with island and union leaders, with whom we share the goal of solving this problem,” Mills’ office wrote in a statement.
The Maine DOT and the Maine Service Employees Association-SEIU Local 1989 reached an agreement last week that will provide up to $4,000 in bonus pay and increased overtime for ferry crews. Maine DOT said it values the hard work of ferry service crews and recognizes that cancellations are disruptive to the island communities.
Frankie St. Amand, an MSEA field representative, expressed concern that since the extra pay will only be available until Dec. 31, it will only provide a “short term Band-Aid” for the ongoing challenge.
Canceling ferries because of staffing shortages was unheard of even five years ago, said Drury, who worked as a captain for more than 25 years until he retired in 2022, but it’s become more commonplace in the last couple years.
Of the 612 scheduled trips from Rockland to Vinalhaven between July 1 and Aug. 22, 15 of them were canceled. Almost three-quarters of those were because of crew shortages, with the others for routine Coast Guard inspections, according to data provided by Maine DOT.
After ferry disruptions, Maine island officials ask Gov. Mills to assist with staffing challenges
Cancellations are also posted on the ferry service’s Facebook page . Since Thursday, the two trips that didn’t run on Sunday were the only ones reported. Both of those were attributed to crew shortages.
Ferry service workers were heartened by the letters sent to Mills in late July, said St. Amand. But she said the incentive program doesn’t go far enough to address the challenge of hiring and retaining staff.
Workers say they can make more money crewing ferries elsewhere, so there’s little incentive to stay and work in Maine.
“The United States Merchant Mariners are an endangered species,” said Dan McNichol, a captain with 22 years of experience with Maine State Ferry Service.
Drury said he knows there are still people like him who enjoy working on boats, but pay and other lifestyle demands stand in the way of some people participating in those jobs.
New ferry worker incentive program
The plan offers up to $4,000 for working a certain number of rotations, which is the term used to describe the seven days-on, seven days-off schedule for crew members. To receive the maximum amount, someone would need to work 10 out of a possible 13 scheduled rotations between July 1 and Dec. 31. The payment decreases by $400 for each rotation under 10 someone works, according to Maine DOT.
Given the rotation schedule, crew members could work 13 of the 26 weeks between July 1 and the end of the year.
The incentive program also provides increased overtime pay for fully staffed crews, depending on position. Ferry captains will earn time-and-a-half for overtime hours between Aug. 10 and the end of the year. Other crew members included in the agreement will receive double pay during that same time period.
While the up to $4,000 lump sum is appreciated, St. Amand said it discourages employees from using sick time or vacation. She said the union is concerned people may come to work sick or even injured to make sure they are hitting the requirements for the incentive.
Maine DOT Director of Communications Paul Merrill said the requirement to work 10 of the 13 possible weeks between July 1 and the end of the year provides flexibility for crew members to take vacation or other leave while still being able to earn the full incentive.
He also reiterated that crew members can still earn a prorated bonus if they work at least six rotations in the time period.
Since the agreement expires at the end of this year, St. Amand also said the union is concerned this won’t fix the systemic compensation problems.
Maine DOT hopes the staffing situation will improve with this incentive and other recent efforts such as salary increases, higher starting pay, new positions and some crew members returning from medical leave, Merrill said.
However, the department will continue to monitor the situation between now and the end of the year and work on additional solutions in the future if they are needed to keep ferries running on schedule, he added.
‘You have to be able to afford to work here to be here’
Based on the current pay schedule , able seamen can earn a maximum base salary of $46,800 and captains max out at $87,500 for base salary. Maine DOT previously told Maine Morning Star that wages for all ferry service personnel include stipends in response to the recruitment and retention challenges of the positions. The stipend brings an able seaman to a maximum salary of just under $59,000.
But to be competitive, Drury and McNichol explained that wages for merchant marine jobs in Maine have to be comparable to those outside of the state because people could choose to take the same job somewhere else to make more money.
“You have to be able to afford to work here to be here,” McNichol said.
McNichol said he is able to make it work because he racks up about $20,000 a year in overtime and has a pension from the U.S. Coast Guard, but he said it can be hard on young people, especially if they are trying to raise families.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offers a base salary of $49,570 to $52,895 for able seamen, amounting to an average salary of $75,471 with overtime, meal allowance and other benefits.
For several years, the state employees union has been calling on the Mills administration to close the pay gap between State of Maine workers and their public and private sector counterparts. A study from 2020 showed that state employees are underpaid by 15%, on average. However, the Mills administration has argued the pay gap has decreased in recent years.
“The administration needs a long term plan to hire state employees to create local, good paying jobs to maintain service to the islands,” St. Amand said.
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