Other than still needing crew if it is to put the Hubbard into service for the first time since it was built a few years ago, the Alaska Marine Highway System believes it has enough staff to operate the confirmed runs of its proposed summer schedule this year.
The state ferry system has been plagued by staffing shortages the past couple of years due to retirements, resignations and hiring efforts coming up short, temporarily sidelining vessels on occasion.
“We’re still really pushing hard on recruitment,” Shannon McCarthy, communications director at the Department of Transportation commissioner’s office, said last Friday.
Turnover, however, continues to hamper staffing levels. Between June and the end of November 2022, the ferry system hired 42 new crew members, mostly entry-level, but lost 32 in the same job categories, McCarthy said.
The department about a year ago contracted with an Anchorage-based search firm to help find new hires for ferry jobs. The contract focused on recruiting people to fill jobs as junior engineers, oilers, able-bodied seamen and several management positions. The contract paid $5,000 per recruit, not to exceed a total of $250,000. The contract is being extended and expanded past the $250,000 limit, McCarthy said.
The department wants the contractor, Alaska Executive Search, to help recruit for lower-level crew workers too, such as stewards, who are covered by the Inlandboatmen’s Union, she said.
Coast Guard licensing is required for all crew aboard the ships.
In addition to paying a search firm and advertising on its own in Alaska and nationwide, McCarthy said the department will continue to offer $5,000 signing bonuses for new stewards and other crew who stick around through their probationary period.
If enough crew can be hired, licensed and trained in time — 75 new hires would be needed — the Hubbard would join the LeConte in Lynn Canal under this summer’s proposed draft schedule. The $60 million Hubbard, just a few years old, has never been put into service.
The state would need to know sometime this spring if it is going to succeed with adding that many new crew members in order to ensure they are all licensed and trained, allowing the marine highway to start accepting summer reservations for travel aboard the Hubbard.
In 2021, the ferry system was short about 125 workers from the staffing level needed to keep its fleet fully operational and accommodate sick leave and other vacancies without excessive overtime. However, service cutbacks, due to COVID-weakened passenger counts, allowed the marine highway to operate fewer vessels, reducing the need for as many crew members.
Transportation Department officials acknowledged the hiring challenges during 2021 and 2022, briefing legislators several times about worker shortages.
Cutbacks in ferry service the past few years have reduced work hours for crew, adding to the exodus of staff. The ferry system from 2019 through early 2022 lost 155 more employees than it had hired, the department told legislators a year ago.
The Alaska Marine Highway talked of bringing its largest ship, the Columbia, back to service last summer, but never found enough crew to staff the vessel, which has been out of service to save money since fall 2019.
However, the Columbia now is scheduled to rejoin the operating fleet next month to take over the Southeast run while the Matanuska is out of service indefinitely for extensive steel work. Much of the Matanuska’s crew will move over to the Columbia.
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