INTERN. ORGANIZATION OF MASTERS v. Andrews
| Decision Date | 30 January 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. A82-465 CIV.,A82-465 CIV. |
| Citation | 626 F. Supp. 1271 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Alaska |
| Parties | INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MASTERS, MATES & PILOTS, PACIFIC MARITIME REGION, a labor organization, Plaintiff, v. Eleanor ANDREWS, Commissioner of Administration of the State of Alaska; Richard J. Knapp, Commissioner of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities of the State of Alaska; Martin Nusbaum, Director of Administrative Support of the Division of Marine Highway Systems of the State of Alaska; and John Doe officers Two through Ten, officers of the State of Alaska, Defendants. Kurt K. PETRICH, Robert W. Seidman, John W.S. Lam, William P. Turner, Sandra Jenson, Grant R. Webber, Ronald P. Tyrell, Mike McRoberts, David Roberts, Robert E. Smith, Frank R. Ewing, Pierre L. Rutledge, Lawrence E. Markham, Arlene G. Sheets, Paul K. Judd, David Lisle, Patrick Kangas, William Petrich, Clement Wischinski, Donald E. Besse, David Kutz, Robert Chamberlain, Victor Freise, Wallace Blackwell, Billie Alsup, Jr., Charles H. Knight, Plaintiffs, v. Eleanor ANDREWS, Commissioner of Administration of the State of Alaska; Richard J. Knapp, Commissioner of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities of the State of Alaska; Martin Nusbaum, Director of Administrative Support of the Division of Marine Highway Systems of the State of Alaska; and John Doe officers Two through Ten, officers of the State of Alaska, Defendants. |
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Richard S. Oettinger, Seattle, Wash., and James B. Bradley, Juneau, Alaska, for plaintiff IOMMP.
Kelby D. Fletcher, Peterson, Bracelin & Young, Seattle, Wash., for individual plaintiffs.
Laura L. Davis, Asst. Atty. Gen., Juneau, Alaska, for defendants.
The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) is owned and operated by the State of Alaska through its Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, and operates ferries transporting passengers, mail, and personal and commercial motor vehicles between Seattle and Alaska, as well as between various Alaskan ports. In 1977, the Alaska Legislature amended the Alaska Public Employment Relations Act, AS 23.40.210 (1985), and provided for cost-of-living wage differentials between AMHS's Alaska-resident and nonresident employees. The International Organization of Masters, Mates, and Pilots, Pacific Maritime Region (IOMMP), which is the collective bargaining representative for sixty-five to seventy AMHS licensed deck officers, and twenty-six other AMHS employees belonging to the Inland Boatman's Union (IBU) brought these actions to challenge the constitutionality of the wage differentials.1 They claim that the differentials violate the federal constitution's commerce clause, U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3, equal protection clause, U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1, and privileges and immunities clause, U.S. Const. art. IV, § 2, cl. 1, and that they operate to deprive the plaintiffs of the "right to travel" guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment.2
The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as money damages.3 The defendants, Alaska state officials who administer AMHS, maintain that AS 23.40.210 is constitutionally sound. The parties have both moved for summary judgment. I grant the defendants' motion for summary judgment.
Alaska began to operate AMHS in 1962. At present, AMHS is the only public surface transportation system connecting the various communities in southeast Alaska, as well as many communities in southwest Alaska. Since most of these communities are inaccessible by road, AMHS provides the primary means of supplying their residents with food and other essential commodities. The annual operating expenses of AMHS substantially exceed the annual revenues it generates; as a result, each year during its budget process, the State allocates funds out of its general revenues to cover the difference. See AS 37.07 (1985) (Executive Budget Act).
When Alaska established AMHS in 1962, it based the wage schedule for AMHS employees on prevailing wages for comparable work in California, Oregon, and Washington, and added 25% to offset what was then assumed to be the higher cost of living in Alaska. A 1980 comparative-wage study revealed that IOMMP members working on AMHS earned between 35 and 40% more than their fellow union members working on the Washington state ferry system. The record suggests that at least part of this disparity in wage levels was attributable to the significantly more demanding job requirements and work shifts on AMHS compared with the Washington system.
According to statistics in the record supplied by federal agencies, the cost of living in Anchorage in 1980 for a typical family of four was at least 22.5% higher than that in Seattle. See U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Autumn, 1980 Urban Family Budgets and Comparative Indexes for Selected Urban Areas" (1981).4 The cost of living in Juneau during 1980 was approximately the same as that in Anchorage. See U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Cost of Living Allowance Program, "Cost of Living Surveys for Juneau and Anchorage, 1980" (1981). Alaska has prepared studies concerning the relative cost of living in cities throughout the state, and these indicate that the cost of living in both Juneau and Ketchikan is substantially the same as that in Anchorage, while the cost of living in other southeastern cities such as Petersburg, Sitka, and Haines is slightly higher. See State of Alaska Department of Administration, Division of Personnel, "Election District Pay Differentials" (1970); see also AS 39.27.020 (1985) ().
The plaintiffs have not offered any evidence that the cost of living in Anchorage and southeastern Alaska is less than 22.5% higher than that in Seattle. Nor have they offered any evidence that the cost of living in other parts of Washington state or other places where AMHS employees reside is higher than that in Seattle. Thus, the evidence in the record indicates that the cost of living in Anchorage and southeastern Alaska is at least 22.5% higher than that in Seattle and the other areas where AMHS's nonresident employees reside.
The plaintiffs have offered evidence that the Consumer Price Index, which measures the rate the cost of living has increased in various cities since 1967, was greater for the Seattle-Everett area in 1979 than for Anchorage. See U.S. Department of Labor, "Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers" (1979 and 1983 editions). Moreover, they have shown that between 1979 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index increased 35% more in Seattle-Everett than in Anchorage. Nevertheless, even with this faster growth in Seattle's cost of living in recent years, nothing in the record indicates that the difference in the cost of living between Anchorage and Seattle has ever fallen below 22.5%.
Both state and federal employees in Alaska have long received wage adjustments to compensate them for the relatively high cost of living in the state. As of 1981, federal employees in Alaska received a cost-of-living allowance that ranged from a minimum of 10% of their base salaries (for those without commissary privileges) or 17.5% (for those without such privileges) to a maximum of 25% of their base salaries, depending upon the employee's duty station. The State has adjusted the wages paid to its unrepresented nonmaritime employees since 1966, depending upon the cost of living in each employee's election district. AS 39.27.020 provides that such employees residing outside the state be paid six steps — currently about 22.5% — less than those employees living in Anchorage, Juneau, or Ketchikan. See AS 39.27.020. In 1972, with the passage of the Alaska Public Employment Relations Act, AS 23.40.070-23.40.260, the State initiated collective bargaining with its nonmaritime, union employees; since then, Alaska has negotiated cost-of-living wage adjustments in all its collective bargaining agreements with nonmaritime unions. By 1977, the only collective bargaining agreements for Alaska state employees that did not contain cost-of-living adjustments in the pay plan were those negotiated with the three maritime unions working on AMHS.5
In 1977, the Alaska legislature amended AS 23.40.210. Although the 1977 amendment required that all state collective bargaining agreements include cost-of-living wage differentials, it was clearly targeted at the three AMHS unions, since their bargaining agreements were the only ones involving state employees that did not already include cost-of-living adjustments. As amended, AS 23.40.210 provides that:
Upon the completion of negotiations between a labor organization and a public employer, if a settlement is reached, the employer shall reduce it to writing in the form of an agreement.... The agreement shall include a pay plan designed to provide for a cost of living differential between the salaries paid employees residing in the State and employees residing outside the State. The plan shall provide that the salaries paid, as of August 26, 1977, to employees residing outside the State shall remain unchanged until the difference between those salaries and the salaries paid employees residing in the State reflects the difference between the cost of living in Alaska and living in Seattle, Washington....
AS 23.40.210 (emphasis added). The Alaska House Finance Committee's "letter of intent" concerning the 1977 amendment confirms that its primary purpose was to introduce cost-of-living wage differentials for AMHS employees:
It is the intent of the House Finance Committee in passing the 1977 amendment to provide for a cost-of-living pay differential between...
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International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots v. Andrews
...Protection Clause. 2 The district court upheld AS 23.40.210 against the constitutional challenges. Int'l Org. of Masters, Mates & Pilots v. Andrews, 626 F.Supp. 1271 (D.Alaska 1986). II Jurisdiction and Standard of Review The district court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1343. We hav......
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