Food service could be restored to the main runs of the Washington State Ferries sometime in May after the concessionaire and the union representing the ferry workers finally reached an agreement in the early-morning hours yesterday.

Union members must ratify the agreement before it can take effect.

"We're excited about it, and we're happy we're going to get food back there, and we think people are going to be pleased," said Nove Meyers, president of Cascade Concessions, the company that has the contract to supply food on the main Puget Sound ferry runs.

Meyers said the menu will be upgraded somewhat, but the changes won't be radical. Ivar's clam chowder will be coming back, and there will be an effort to focus on Northwest regional foods. He said only fair-trade coffee will be served.

Other than the Southworth-Vashon Island-Fauntleroy route, the ferries have been without food since January 2004. Cascade Concessions had been unable to reach an agreement with the Inlandboatmen's Union (IBU), which staffs the galleys. With talks stalled, it appeared that this would be the second summer without food on the ferries.

Frustrated, Mike Anderson, head of the state ferries, last week set a March 18 deadline for both sides to reach agreement, threatening to declare an impasse and consider putting the contract out to bid again.

"I'm pleased by the effort they put into this," Anderson said. "It's clear when I set the deadline it was understood that I meant it."

The galleys went dark after no one bid on the ferry concession. Sodexho, which had held the contract, pulled out with four years to go on a 10-year deal, saying it wasn't making enough money. About 130 employees were given pink slips.

The state re-bid and picked Cascade Concessions for the main ferry routes.

Cascade has the contract to supply food on the Bremerton, Bainbridge, Edmonds and Anacortes runs. The Southworth-Vashon-Fauntleroy route is serviced by Sound Food, which reached agreement with the IBU last fall and is now serving food onboard the ferries.

IBU regional director Dennis Conklin said he thought the union and Cascade had an agreement earlier this year, but it fell apart in February. Cascade and the IBU negotiated all last week, into the late hours. They finally reached an agreement at 5:15 yesterday morning, Meyers said.

Conklin said about 40 of the laid-off galley workers are still without jobs. "We will have enough to come back," he said. "They're going to come back."

Meyers agreed. He'd said he'd bring back laid-off workers "until I run out of them or I run out of jobs."

The agreement will need to be ratified by IBU members; that should take about a week.

A sticking point in the negotiations had been the issue of scheduled split shifts, so that staffing could be stronger during commuter runs. Meyers said the two sides agreed that split shifts would not be scheduled, but that workers could split shifts if they wanted to and there was a need.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com