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Ferry service snarled across Puget Sound region amid engine worker sick out (KUOW)

"We currently have 13 out of our 18 boats out of service due to crewing issues," Washington State Ferries spokesperson Justin Fujioka said Monday afternoon. "We know that this is a major challenge for people trying to get across the Sound or where they need to be up in the San Juan Islands. We are prioritizing keeping at least one boat in service for those island-served communities, people that cannot or have no option to drive around."

The disruption was the result of 23 engine room employees calling in sick. According to Washington State Ferries, dispatchers attempted to call substitutes, but any employees qualified to step in for the day declined to do so. The result was the cancelation of various sailings and entire routes across the system. WSF posted a lengthy list of affected routes on X.
The sick out comes amid ongoing tensions between the engineers' union and Washington State Ferries over wages and work conditions.

Ferry officials noted that all employees calling in sick, or declining for fill vacancies, are part of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (MEBA), the union that represents engine room workers. A State Ferries spokesperson said that dispatchers continue to call potential replacements.

"The employees who work in the engine room play a vital role in providing WSF’s safe service, which is why Chief Engineers have a base salary of $157,000, and can make more than $350,000 a year with overtime, as well as annual sick and vacation leave, and retirement accrual," the spokesperson said. "We expect our employees to return to work as soon as possible."

According to a union spokesperson, the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association learned about Monday's staffing shortage the same way everybody else did — through media reports.”

Albertsons: Kroger was ‘reckless’ in letting key consultant shred notes ahead of $600M fee trial (BD)

“While the Albertsons Companies’ deal to merge with Kroger has been in the dustbin of history for nearly two years now, there’s one item still outstanding: Albertsons’ allegation that Kroger owes it a $600 million fee for the unsuccessful deal.

Kroger hoped to buy most of Boise-based Albertsons and fold it into its existing operations, which includes Fred Meyer. But after two courts poured cold water on the deal in late 2024, Albertsons terminated the deal and sued Kroger for the breakup fee. A trial is approaching in Delaware in the case, and the two sides are making pre-trial arguments.

Albertsons is arguing that a key consultant for Kroger destroyed notes that would have helped its case, and wants a judge to assume that the missing notes would have helped Albertsons and hurt Kroger.

“Kroger admits it did nothing to preserve Compass Lexecon documents until October 2025, when Compass belatedly instituted a document hold,” Albertsons’ court filing said. “By then, Kroger had anticipated this litigation for almost two years… Instead, Kroger recklessly sat on its hands as Weiskopf followed his ‘normal’ practice of shredding the notes he ‘definitely’ took on calls with Kroger and its antitrust counsel.”

Albertsons said Kroger waited and waited before it told Weiskopf to save his records, which he said he shredded as standard practice.

“Kroger sat on that knowledge until October 2025 — over eighteen months after Kroger anticipated this litigation, ten months after Albertsons filed its complaint, and seven months after Kroger disclosed Weiskopf’s ‘principal role’ in the merger,” Albertsons’ filing said. “Those undisputed facts make it obvious that Kroger was ‘consciously aware’ of a ‘substantial and unjustifiable’ risk that its failure to issue Weiskopf a litigation hold would ’cause or allow evidence to be spoiled.'”

“Produced evidence shows that Kroger meddled with Compass’s economic analyses to ensure that the resulting divestiture packages would serve Kroger’s financial goals instead of maximizing the merger’s chance of antitrust approval,” Albertsons’ attorneys wrote. “Kroger’s lead antitrust attorney (noted) ‘there seems to be a number (of stores) under 650 that should work with the FTC’ but ‘Kroger isn’t so sure about wanting to increase the number.'”

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