Respect the workers

This was sent to me this morning from a friend who does facebook. I don’t have the author of this – if anyone knows who penned this then let us know so we can properly attribute and thank them for this excellent note on WSF history w/ regards to current situation.

Wow. Everyone complaining about WSF: You really need to learn some Washington history before lecturing people about Washington State Ferries.

And honestly, you must be new around here, because anyone who has actually lived around Puget Sound knows that ferry labor disputes, contract negotiations, strikes, and service disruptions are nothing new.

But let’s talk about something that seems to be getting completely lost in this conversation: THE WORKERS.

These aren’t people who decided to inconvenience you because they felt like it. These are highly trained maritime workers operating and maintaining enormous vessels in some of the busiest and most challenging waterways in the country. They work long shifts, deal with weather, mechanical problems, demanding passengers, and safety responsibilities that most people complaining about them will never have to think about.

They deserve good wages. They deserve safe working conditions. They deserve reasonable schedules and time with their families. And they deserve the right to collectively bargain for those things.

If that occasionally means a labor dispute affects ferry service, that’s not some shocking failure of civilization. That’s what happens when workers exercise their right to negotiate.

And before somebody starts screaming about how much ferry workers are paid, remember something: if you want experienced people operating vessels carrying hundreds of passengers, you generally want to retain experienced people. You don’t get highly trained, qualified maritime professionals by constantly pushing wages and working conditions downward and then wondering why you can’t keep people.

And this isn’t new. We’ve been through ferry labor disputes before, including major disruptions in the early 1980s. Anyone who’s actually familiar with Puget Sound history knows this isn’t some unprecedented event.

Now let’s talk about the privatization argument.

Washington State Ferries began operating on June 1, 1951, after the state purchased the assets and operations of the privately owned Puget Sound Navigation Company, better known as the Black Ball Line.

Why?

Because private ferry service had developed serious problems, including monopoly concerns, labor disputes, fare disputes, and threats of service interruptions.

The state didn’t create a public ferry system because government officials were looking for something else to run. They stepped in because dependable ferry transportation was an essential public necessity.

British Columbia followed a similar path. BC Ferries began government-operated service in 1960, after decades of private ferry operations and growing recognition that dependable coastal transportation was too important to leave entirely to private operators. The province purchased Black Ball’s remaining British Columbia operations in 1961.

And yes, British Columbia changed the corporate structure again in 2003, creating the privately operated BC Ferries model that exists today under government regulation and contracts.

And if you think privatization means cheaper ferry fares, perhaps you should actually look at what happened in British Columbia.

In 2003, when the new private BC Ferries structure was created, a standard vehicle-and-driver fare on the major Tsawwassen–Swartz Bay route was $44.75. By 2025, the standard fare was $75 for the vehicle plus $20 for the driver—a total of $95 one way. That’s an increase of more than 112% since privatization.

Yes, BC Ferries now offers discounted advance-purchase and “Saver” fares on some sailings, but those are limited promotional fares—not evidence that the standard cost of the system somehow became cheaper after privatization. The current advertised Saver fares can start at $49 for a car and driver, while the standard terminal fare is substantially higher.

So if your answer to every ferry problem is simply “privatize it,” you really need to explain why you think putting a profit motive into an essential transportation system will somehow eliminate the exact problems that exist today.

Because British Columbia already tried your argument.

And the result wasn’t some magical world where ferry service became cheap and labor disputes disappeared.

Private companies still need workers. Private companies still have labor negotiations. Private companies still have unions. Private companies still have maintenance bills. Private companies still have mechanical failures. Private companies still have weather disruptions. And unlike a public agency, a private company also has an obligation to its financial interests.

In fact, BC Ferries is still heavily regulated. Its 60-year contract with the provincial government specifies minimum service levels, while the independent BC Ferries Commissioner regulates average fare increases through a price-cap system.

So you’re not even getting government out of the equation.

You’re taking an essential public transportation system, putting it into a private corporate structure, and then having government continue to regulate it, contract with it, and support the system while passengers still have to pay the fares.

That is not some magical escape from government.

So when someone says, “Why should I have to pay so much or put up with disruptions because ferry workers want better wages?”

My response is:

Because the people operating and maintaining the transportation system you depend on are human beings, not an inconvenience-management service.

They have families. They have mortgages. They have bills. They have the right to expect their employer to negotiate fairly with them. And they have the right to say no when they believe the wages, staffing levels, schedules, or working conditions aren’t acceptable.

You don’t get to demand that somebody else’s family absorb the cost of keeping your commute cheap and convenient. That’s not how this works.

And if you don’t like the reality that living in Puget Sound means occasionally dealing with labor negotiations, weather, mechanical problems, or other disruptions to a ferry system, then maybe Puget Sound isn’t the place for you.

That’s not being cruel. That’s geography.

We live surrounded by water. Ferries are essential infrastructure. And the people who make that infrastructure function deserve to be treated as essential workers.

So before you start demanding privatization because you’re angry about a disruption, maybe take five minutes to learn the history of the system you’re talking about. And maybe, just maybe, show a little respect for the people who actually keep the boats running.

The ferry workers aren’t the problem because they expect to be paid fairly. They’re the people doing the work that allows the rest of us to cross the water in the first place.

Learn the history.

Respect the workers.

Then maybe you’ll stop sounding like an ignorant fool.