The High Price of Vomit on Washington State Ferries

cascadia center staff

Photo source: WSDOT

In a state fighting for its financial life (like most of its brethren), one might hope that seemingly reasonable attempts to tighten the spigot would be met with healthy appreciation. But here on the Northwest edge of the United States this week, one state senator's idea for cutting a few dollars from the ferry service budget has caused some ferry workers' stomachs to turn.
 
Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, a democrat who represents Camano Island, caught the ire of union workers this week because she doesn't think state workers should be paid extra (double, in fact) to clean-up passenger-provided bodily fluids that find their way to the boat deck. She wants to do away with the state's so-called "vomit clause."

Washington has an extensive (and expensive) ferry system, and Haugen has been looking for ways to trim its budget. But the "vomit clause," she told the Everett Herald "...really stuck in my craw." More Haugen:

"We certainly don't give overtime to some prison guard who cleans up after an inmate or someone working in a mental institution or even someone who worked caring for a person at their home and had to do an unpleasant task."