🗞️ Mail Ballots Ordered for Six Foss Maritime Workers in Seattle-Area Union Vote

A federal labor official has directed that six line superintendents employed by Foss Maritime Company, LLC will cast their votes on union representation by mail rather than in person, citing the workers' rotating on-call schedules and the logistical burden that simultaneous manual polling at two facilities would impose on the agency.

Ronald K. Hooks, Regional Director for National Labor Relations Board Region 19 in Seattle, issued the decision on June 4, 2026, in Case No. 19-RC-386775. The Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific, Marine Division, affiliated with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, had filed its representation petition on May 11, 2026, seeking to organize the superintendents across Foss's Seattle and Tacoma facilities, roughly 30 miles apart.

The parties stipulated to the composition of the bargaining unit without dispute. The sole question before the Regional Director was not whether an election should be held, but how. The union sought a traditional in-person election, proposing one-hour polling sessions from noon to 1:00 p.m. on a Wednesday at each facility. Notably, the union did not specify whether those sessions would be conducted simultaneously by two Board agents or on separate Wednesdays, nor how the ballots would be commingled and counted if held at the same time. Foss, one of the Pacific Coast's larger tug and barge operators and a subsidiary of Saltchuk, argued that the employees' highly fragmented schedules made a manual election unworkable and requested a mail ballot election instead.

Under the governing standard established in San Diego Gas and Electric, 325 NLRB 1143 (1998), the Board's longstanding policy favors manual elections. However, Regional Directors retain broad discretion to order mail ballots when voters are scattered temporally due to varying work schedules, or when in-person voting would not constitute an efficient use of Board resources.

Hooks found both conditions present. The six employees operate on a rotation of two days on and four days off, with only one worker scheduled per facility at any given time across three rotating shifts (designated A, B, and C) at each location. When on duty, workers are on-call and may be dispatched to a mooring job at a pier up to 20 minutes from the facility at any moment. The employer argued that if a manual election were directed, polling windows of three hours each would be necessary, because a mooring assignment can take up to 2.5 hours to complete, leaving little assurance that an on-duty worker could return to vote within a shorter window.

The union countered that off-duty employees were prepared to drive to the polling sites and cover for colleagues who might be called away, thereby enabling all six to participate. Hooks rejected that argument, noting that the union offered no evidence the employer had agreed to permit off-schedule employees to substitute for those on duty. Absent such an agreement, the proposed one-hour sessions could not reliably ensure that workers assigned to a shift would have the opportunity to cast a ballot.

On the question of resource efficiency, Hooks concluded that dedicating agency personnel to two separate polling locations 30 miles apart, at a time when only one employee would be scheduled at each facility with no certainty that either would be available to vote, did not represent a sound use of Board staff. The Regional Director found that under those conditions a manual election would not meaningfully increase the opportunity to vote. The decision drew on the San Diego Gas framework's explicit instruction that Regional Directors may weigh "the efficient use of Board resources" among the factors informing election method.

Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to eligible voters on June 22, 2026, with counting to occur by videoconference at the Region 19 office in Seattle on July 13, 2026, at 1:00 p.m.

Key Points

• Foss Maritime operates maritime transportation services at Seattle and Tacoma, Washington facilities approximately 30 miles apart, with six line superintendents comprising the petitioned bargaining unit, divided equally between the two locations.
• The Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific, Marine Division, affiliated with the ILWU, filed for representation on May 11, 2026; the parties stipulated to unit appropriateness, leaving only the election method in dispute.
• NLRB Regional Director Ronald K. Hooks directed a mail ballot election on June 4, 2026, applying the standard from San Diego Gas and Electric, 325 NLRB 1143 (1998).
• Employees rotate on a two-days-on, four-days-off on-call schedule, with only one worker present per facility at any given time across three named shifts (A, B, and C) at each location, making coordinated in-person voting highly uncertain.
• The union proposed one-hour manual polling windows at each facility from noon to 1:00 p.m. on a Wednesday but did not clarify whether sessions would be simultaneous or held on separate dates, or how ballots from both locations would be commingled.
• The union's reliance on off-duty employees volunteering to cover for on-shift coworkers was rejected because no employer agreement to that arrangement was presented or established.
• The employer argued that three-hour polling windows would be necessary to account for mooring assignments that can last up to 2.5 hours; this was offered as its preferred manual election format, not as its primary position, which was a mail ballot election throughout.
• Hooks found that dedicating Board personnel to two locations 30 miles apart, where attendance was uncertain and the proposed polling time insufficient, would not represent an efficient use of agency resources and would not meaningfully expand voting access.
• The NLRB's longstanding general preference is for manual elections; mail ballots are an exception reserved for circumstances involving temporally or geographically scattered workforces or inefficient use of agency resources.
• Foss Maritime, whose origins date to Tacoma in 1889, is owned by Saltchuk and operates across major U.S. West Coast ports; the Inlandboatmen's Union has an existing representational relationship with Foss at other facilities.
• Ballots must be signed on the outside of the return envelope to be counted; any eligible employee who does not receive a ballot by June 29, 2026, should contact Region 19 at (206) 220-6300 or the national toll-free line at 1-844-762-6572.
• Either party may file a request for review of the Regional Director's decision through the NLRB's e-filing system at any time following issuance and up to 10 business days after a final disposition of the proceeding by the Regional Director.

Primary Source Author: Ronald K. Hooks, Regional Director, National Labor Relations Board, Region 19

Primary Source: Decision and Direction of Election, Foss Maritime Company, LLC, Case 19-RC-386775 (NLRB Region 19, June 4, 2026)

Primary Source Link: NLRB Case 19-RC-386775

Supplemental References

• San Diego Gas and Electric, 325 NLRB 1143 (1998): Governing standard for mail vs. manual ballot elections
• NLRB Region 19: Seattle Regional Office
• Foss Maritime: Company Overview
• Foss Maritime: Puget Sound Terminal and Line Services
• Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific (IBU)
• Saltchuk: Parent Company of Foss Maritime
• NLRB Election Reports
• Perkins Coie: Analysis of NLRB Mail Ballot Election Standards
• NLRB Edge: Hybrid Manual and Mail Ballot Election Ordered (Dec. 2025)