New York City Mayor Eric Adams signs a deal to provide roughly $103 million in back pay to Staten Island Ferry workers after working for over a decade without a contract.
The deal's announcement on Labor Day Monday comes at the end of the longstanding contract negotiations and was made by Adams and officials from the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association (MEBA).
NYC's New Ferry Workers' Contract
In a statement during a press conference on the slip of the St. George Ferry Terminal, the New York City mayor said that he wanted to make sure that they did the agreement correctly. He said it was to celebrate the people who keep the city going in the right direction.
Adams added that the ferry is so significant to the Staten Island Community that the agreement was needed to allow the city to retain and attract talent. The deal would affect roughly 150 ferry workers who run the free, daily ferry service out of Staten Island, as per the New York Post.
The workers will receive 13 years' worth of back pay under the deal and an increase of tens of thousands of dollars in their base salaries. Captains, among the highest-earning mariners, will have their salaries raised to more than twice the original amount.
The situation would lead to a roughly million-dollar payout in back pay for the dozen who are currently on the books. The newly signed agreement would also raise their base salaries to $180,000 by the end of the contract in 2027 from the 2010 average of roughly $71,000.
The other high-earning worker on the crew, the chief marine engineer, will be paid just over $180,000, which is an increase of more than $110,000 from the $69,000 that was provided at the same time.
Long-Awaited Salary Increases
Members of the MEBA, which is the union that represents Staten Island Ferry workers, unanimously supported the newly signed contract, with 94% approving the deal's final details, according to Silive.
In a statement, the union's Secretary-Treasurer, Roland Rexha, said that City Hall and MEBA felt like they were sailing on separate courses throughout the previous administration. But with the new deal, they could finally bring the contract to the dock.
The newly signed agreement establishes a five-step salary schedule for new workers that would go into effect on Oct. 1, 2023. The same full-time schedule for ferry workers would also go from 32 to 40 hours.
Overtime hours were seen as the latest snag at the negotiating table, but that particular issue was quickly resolved with an agreement for an overtime rate that was slightly under the citywide time-and-a-half standard.
During the reveal of the new contract, Adams voiced his disbelief that ferry workers have gone for more than a decade without a single salary increase. He said that while everything else was rising in price around the ferry workers, their wages remained stagnant, said the New York Daily News.
