S.I. Ferry captains to get $1M in back pay under long-awaited contract deal with NYC

[Kamaji]

Staten Island Ferry captains to get $1M in back pay under long-awaited contract deal with NYC

By Craig McCarthy
September 4, 2023

Staten Island Ferry captains will soon set sail about $1 million richer under a new deal inked with Mayor Eric Adams after working more than a decade without a contract.

The end of the longstanding contract negotiations — which will cost taxpayers $103 million through 2027 — was announced on Labor Day Monday by Adams and Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association officials.

“I wanted to make sure we did this right, so we celebrate people who keep our city going, keeping our city moving in the right direction,” Adams said at the press conference on the slip of the St. George Ferry Terminal.

“This ferry is so significant to the Staten Island community,” the mayor said, adding the agreement would also allow the city to retain and attract talent.

Under the deal, about 150 ferry workers who run the free, daily ferry service out of Staten Island will receive 13 years of back pay and see an increase of tens of thousands of dollars in their base salaries, according to city and union officials.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/09/04/si-ferry-captains-to-get-1m-in-backpay-under-new-deal-with-nyc/

[Kamaji]

[mountaineer]

 

[Fishrrman]

No facepalms and wtf's, please.

Did you read the article?
Sounds like the ferrymen have been working without ANY increase in pay for 13 years.
THIRTEEN YEARS -- how much has the cost of living gone up since then?

It works this way on the railroads, too (under the Railway Labor Act).
When a contract "ends", the workers keep working, but their pay is "frozen" as it was at the end of the contract.
If negotiations cannot quickly result in a new contract, they could keep working for several years, with no increase in pay.

One point of interest:
On the railroad, we went for several years with no actual "raise" in the hourly/daily rate. We did receive, however, modest "cost-of-living" increases from time to time as per the "old" contract.
When the new agreement was finally settled, those cost-of-living increases were "re-claimed" by the company as part of the calculation of "back-time" due when measured against the new daily rate.

Whether or not the ferrymen got cost-of-living increases over the last decade would depend on the wording of their last agreement...