It is sad to see that Sound Food Cafe on Vashon Island may end providing food and beverage s to riders on the Fauntleroy, Vashon, Southworth ferry run. The problem is simply that the small island restaurant can't afford to maintain contract requirements that a huge international food services company walked away from.
In a story by Lauri Hennessey on Page One, co-owner Bob Dorn of Sound Food said they tried to make money but just were not able to make the savings needed. One basic element is that the previous food provider, Sodexho, had agreed to pay 100 percent of health care costs to ferry food workers, an enormous burden on a tiny island company. Negotiations went apace and Dorn proposed paying the entire cost of the worker, but not family members. Bargaining is still underway, and a decision may be forthcoming next week.
Key quote here is in Hennessey's story, "I am a small business and I just can't afford it," said Dorn.
When Sodexho decided not to renew its contract in 2003, the food service workers' union, the Inland Boatmen, demanded that all Sodexho workers be rehired by whatever company restarted food service on ferry runs. It also demanded that all provisions of the previous contract be honored. A state created agency, the Marine Employees' Commission, agreed but Washington State Ferries balked and went to court. A month ago, the State Court of Appeals rejected that commission decision.
The appeals court ruled the Marine Employees' Commission "has not been empowered" by the Legislature "to entertain an unfair labor practices complaint" in this situation. The matter is probably headed to the State Supreme Court.
It seems to us ridiculous to demand a small food service company trying its best to serve ferry customers with rider-demanded food service to be burdened with a contract that even a multinational corporation found onerous.
The Legislature should clear up this matter and not wait for the courts. Either the State Ferries is a service agency created by the state, or it is not, and for a labor union to demand an entirely different employer to accept a contract they were not a part of is absurd.
