'We don't have enough people': Ferry workers express struggles with crew shortages

So many certifications and requirements for entry level seaman jobs on the ferries that make it a high bar of entry. You have to pay your own way for those certifications and get them before applying even if you’re a simple deckhand who is just directing traffic and assisting passengers with simple questions to be answered. Lower the bar of entry or provide the training and certifications in house. Ditch the “on call” requirement and you’ll have plenty of applicants, it’s a fun idea of a job but no one’s trying to do all of that BS for $23 an hour.

If I didn't live here, constantly seeing Inslee, Dow and Harrell crying about the crises they agressively caused, without the support of WA voters, would be comical.

I would have applied two years ago if there was no “on-call” basis for new workers. I don’t want to work on Vashon Island then Anacoetes the next day.

Try paying your ferry workers more than $23 hour, AFTER they have had to Pay for ALL their own certifications & keeping your Captains from "falling asleep" at the wheel & running aground, which has been going on for YEARS with the SAME boats since 1985 !!!

I was at the stop the mandate rally in Olympia when 7 of the senior engineers were going to lose their jobs. This is on Inslee and his irrationality.

WSDOT fired hundreds of ferry employees some with many, many years of experience because of the mandate. The blame is on the governor

Mandates wrecked the ferry system

I have witnessed this grand fleet go from 27 vessels to 21 and it is a shame. However, I also blame the fact that Washingtonians like most western US cities are car dependent.. I have lived in grand port cities from Hong Kong to San Francisco and the ferries don't have to deal with shuttling cars back and forth. I just don't get it. Leave your car at the ferry building and treat it like a park and ride. You can exist wherever your destination is without a bloody car.

They need to quit giving the management raises. They get 10 percent raises. Thats where the moneys going. And people retired from the boats are working in the boatyard collecting money on both sides. The good old boys club. Alot of them. Making huge amounts of money in the boat yard and Captains that are retired working in management.

Welcome to Inslee’s Washington!! 😂😂

I'd like to see the statistics of engineers that were let go from the mandate.

Hire back the employees that didn’t take Bogus Shots Inslee!

Mismanagement of money its been that way for 30 years

Get a different effective republican Governor....asap. Stop the continuous incompetence.

I had a chance in the 80's to get a job, but the 4 on 4 off not know which terminal you be at on call. Maybe work maybe not just wasn't my way of a stable job...

Look at what you have to have to even apply for those jobs crazy . On call 24/7

Don't pay the ferry man until he gets you to the other side.

The kind of people that go mountain biking, not carrying a side-arm, get attacked by a mountain lion and expect the state to take care of it, vote. And this is what we get. Blame those idiots.

Dont worry. We are getting a new class of workers who will happily replace you for 23$ USD. 😂😂😂

National maritime shortage and those colleges charging teens full boat to enter so