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Home > News > Westar mariners okay contract with 6 percent raise |
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Westar mariners okay contract with 6 percent raiseby Jim Slaughter
Towboat and launch crewmembers at Westar Marine Services in San Francisco have voted to accept a four-year contract with 3 percent annual raises, including 3 percent retroactively over the past year. With the retroactive raise plus this year's raise, the effective date of which was contingent upon approval of the new contract, the employees get what amounts to an immediate 6 percent raise. Westar owns a fleet of pushboats, tugs and crewboats. The employees are members of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots. The new pay rates effective immediately are $33.14 per hour for tug operators (towboat pilots), $27.74 for crewboat operators and $15.72 to $23.39 for deckhands. The contract was approved in a vote counted last Sunday, with 79 percent voting in favor. By the middle of 2006, a towboat skipper at Westar will be getting $36.22 base pay per hour, which amounts to approximately $439 to $664 for a typical 12-hour day, depending on overtime and so-called premium pay. Based on current work schedules, he or she could expect to gross about $110,600 per year. The company had been paying premium pay of one dollar over base pay for work beyond 12 hours in a day. The new contract calls for time-and-a-half overtime after 12 hours in one day, or after 40 hours in one week. In addition, the one-dollar premium pay continues under the new contract, but it kicks in after 8 hours instead of 12 hours. Retroactivity does not apply to overtime. Coast Guard-licensed mariners are not allowed to be on watch for more than 12 hours in a 24-hour period, but an employee at Westar is often on the payroll beyond that limit, for example, while the boat is standing by or the crewmember is being driven to or from a remote location. Employees at the company have long been represented by the MM&P, but have been working without a contract for more than a year. They rejected the company's previous contract offer in June by a vote of 87 percent against. That proposal did not include overtime. Westar (www.westarmarine.com) says it is actively recruiting mariners with OUTV or Master of Towing Vessel licenses. To alleviate the shortage of qualified pushboat mariners on the West Coast, the company is hoping to attract experienced towboat pilots from the Mississippi River and Gulf Intracoastal areas. Most of Westar's business is construction support, moving work barges and derricks at the numerous bridge construction and retrofitting projects around the San Francisco Bay Area. Their tugs and towboats range from 800 to 3000 horsepower.
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