Letter to Editor: Protect ferry workers

Why do politicians want to pick on hard-working staffers?

Letter to Editor: Protect ferry workers

Sponsorship

Ashli Blow

by

Ashli Blow Feb 6, 2018

Feb 6, 2018

Republish Article

You can republish articles in print or online. Simply copy the HTML below, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline, and credit to Cascade PBS. Republishing of the photos or videos embedded in an article can occur only if the photo or video is a copyright of Cascade Public Media ("CPM") and not of a third party. Photos and videos that are a copyright of CPM are not required to appear in the republished article, but if they are used, they must be embedded where they appear in the original article and must include the attribution to the CPM photographer.

You may reprint in any medium
You may edit only for tense and timeliness
If republishing in print you can edit for length if you follow our print republishing guidelines.
You may write your own headline
Include a byline and shirttail with credit and link to Cascade PBS
Include our tracking pixel
Remove if we ask

          <article>
            <header>
              <hgroup>
                <h1>Letter to Editor: Protect ferry workers</h1>
                <h2><p>Why do politicians want to pick on hard-working staffers?</p></h2>
              </hgroup>
               <p>By <a href="/author/ashli-blow/">Ashli Blow</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
            </header>
            <p>Why do politicians want to pick on hard-working staffers?</p><p><strong>Doesn't it bother folks</strong> that Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen and her sidekicks <a href="http://crosscut.com/2011/01/24/transportation/20570/Legislators-counter-Gregoire-s-ferry-plan-with-one-of-their-own/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">want to  change</a> so many state laws to shaft ferry employees? The same employees  that didn't take their cost-of-living raise to help the state while at  the same time WSF management took their 10 percent raises.</p><p>Did any  politician give up their pay raise? What a bunch of hypocrites! Sounds  like a right-to-work state is not far off. Didn't Haugen used to be a  Democrat? Didn't the Transportation Commission spend countless dollars on studies of  WSF, some done by past WSF managers? Didn't they approve bringing back  retired WSF managers at $100 per hour as consultants? Didn't  they waste millions of dollars on a new ferry that is flawed?</p><p>WSF employees are the most federaly regulated state employees and  the Marine Employees Commission has vast knowledge of these requirements and of WSF. They can't  be manipulated by either party making them invaluable to taxpayers. WSF  pays more for WSF managers parking than the state pays for the MEC.</p><p>Wake up, folks, we're being taken for another ride by lawmakers.</p><p>I thank ferry workers for caring for the people they serve.</p><p><strong>Pete Jones</strong></p><p>Anacortes</p>
          </article>

Why do politicians want to pick on hard-working staffers?

Doesn't it bother folks that Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen and her sidekicks want to change so many state laws to shaft ferry employees? The same employees that didn't take their cost-of-living raise to help the state while at the same time WSF management took their 10 percent raises.

Did any politician give up their pay raise? What a bunch of hypocrites! Sounds like a right-to-work state is not far off. Didn't Haugen used to be a Democrat? Didn't the Transportation Commission spend countless dollars on studies of WSF, some done by past WSF managers? Didn't they approve bringing back retired WSF managers at $100 per hour as consultants? Didn't they waste millions of dollars on a new ferry that is flawed?

WSF employees are the most federaly regulated state employees and the Marine Employees Commission has vast knowledge of these requirements and of WSF. They can't be manipulated by either party making them invaluable to taxpayers. WSF pays more for WSF managers parking than the state pays for the MEC.

Wake up, folks, we're being taken for another ride by lawmakers.

I thank ferry workers for caring for the people they serve.

Pete Jones

Anacortes

Ashli Blow

By Ashli Blow

Ashli Blow is a Seattle-based freelance writer who talks with people — in places from urban watersheds to remote wildernesses — about the environment around them. She’s been working in journal

Ashli Blow is a Seattle-based freelance writer who talks with people — in places from urban watersheds to remote wildernesses — about the environment around them. She’s been working in journal