Seafarers employed by NY Waterway have approved a new three-year contract that boosts wages and includes other gains.Members ratified the agreement while aboard the boat Bravest, with more than 75 percent of the votes in favor of the new contract. More than 100 Seafarers work at NY Waterway, a passenger ferry service that operates in New York and New Jersey.
The SIU’s negotiating team consisted of Atlantic Coast Vice President Joseph Soresi, Patrolman Joseph Baselice, Captain George Sullivan and Deckhand George Schumpp. Negotiations were reasonably smooth and took place over a six-month period.
“The process was a great experience,” stated Sullivan. “Members, the union and the company all worked well together in the process.”
“It’s clearly a good contract,” Soresi said. “We didn’t lose a single job, and there is no increase in members’ out-of-pocket expenses for health care premiums for all three years. In this day and age, we all know how significant health care costs can be…. This is a mutually beneficial contract for the members
and the company.”
In addition to wage increases in each year of the agreement, the contract also returns members to the Seafarers Pension and Plan and allows, for the first time, participation in the separate Seafarers Money Purchase Pension Plan. The union also secured an extra holiday (Presidents’ Day) for the crews.
Seafarers aboard NY Waterway vessels transport tens of thousands of passengers each day, most of them commuters. The crews perhaps are best known for their heroic roles in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when they evacuated upwards of 160,000 people from Manhattan. A few of the NY Waterway boats operated into the pre-dawn hours of the next day, providing help for emergency crews. Several SIU members rescued people who had fallen from piers into the water, most likely because of terrible visibility.
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