A big group of Dodgers followers enthusiastically answered the decision throughout an August residence recreation towards the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was the group’s eighth annual Union Night time celebration, and whereas cheering for the Dodgers, followers additionally chanted for his or her native.
“Who are we?” a leather-lunged fan shouted.
“Teamsters!” got here the reply.
The Dodgers’ advertising technique aimed toward blue-collar followers of the boys in blue isn’t hypocritical. The franchise reached two landmark Collective Bargaining Agreements in 2023 with the Service Staff Worldwide Union United Service Staff West (SEIU-USWW).
Though raises to the 450 staff that included ushers, safety officers and groundskeepers have been acknowledged as lengthy overdue and took organized protests and the specter of a strike for the Dodgers to conform to a contract, the outcome was a decisive victory for union solidarity.
Extra just lately the franchise hasn’t stood in the way in which of one other section of staff trying to unionize. It has hammered out an settlement with the Worldwide Alliance of Theatrical Stage Staff (IATSE) representing the 55 or so Dodger Stadium tour guides — largely part-timers whose data of Dodgers historical past and love of the group is unsurpassed.
The guides supporting the settlement have launched a re-vote for Dec. 15-17, and each side have spent current weeks busily lobbying guides perceived as uncommitted. The divide has impacted morale, tour guides say, at a time when Dodger Stadium excursions have by no means been extra fashionable, described by the Dodgers throughout union negotiations as a “robust money-making operation.”
“The demand has risen tremendously the last two years,” tour information Cary Ginell stated. “It’s been great for the Dodgers. When I joined in March 2022, the cost of a tour was $25. Now no tour is less than $42.50. The team is raking in the money and none of it goes to us.”
Even when the union settlement is accepted, nonetheless, the battle gained’t be over as a result of guides opposing the union have already filed a decertification petition with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board to maintain IATSE from representing the tour guides.
Though each side accuse the opposite of underhanded ways in swaying voters, the important thing challenge dividing the group is pretty simple.
The brand new settlement would enhance wages by 25% from $17.87 to $24 an hour — roughly the identical charge the 2023 settlement did for the SEIU-USWW members — with extra $1 an hour will increase within the second and third years of the contract.
Safety measures at stadium entry factors additionally could be improved. Tour guides have complained that followers who present up for excursions are capable of stroll into the stadium prime deck with out passing via safety, typically even whereas carrying backpacks.
That lapse would finish, in keeping with a draft of the CBA obtained by The Occasions: “The Employer shall provide and properly staff security checkpoints that include a metal detector and bag search at all designated points of entry for patrons entering Dodger Stadium for purposes of participating in stadium tours.”
Unionizing, nonetheless, would possibly finish the Dodgers’ longtime apply of giving tour guides 4 reserve-level tickets for every of the 13 homestands in a season, a perk price an estimated $2,600 assuming the tickets are valued at $50 every. The prospect of that could be a deal-breaker for lots of the guides.
Tour guides current throughout negotiations stated the Dodgers refused to say free tickets within the union contract as a result of they stated different part-time union staff then would demand the identical perk. The Dodgers made it clear they weren’t essentially ending the perk, simply that the problem couldn’t be addressed within the settlement.
The financial worth of the tickets is larger than the increase for tour guides that work near the minimal variety of 60 four-hour shifts per yr. Nevertheless, the typical tour information works about 125 shifts — 500 hours — a yr, and they might be taking residence extra pay in raises than the tickets are price.
Some less-experienced tour guides have felt stress from anti-union veteran guides. Semaj Perry stated that in his coaching in March, an older, revered information satisfied him to signal a decertification petition. Perry has since attended a negotiation session and browse the settlement between the Dodgers and the union.
“It’s more of a status thing than a financial decision for some of the older tour guides,” Perry stated. “For some of them, this is fun to do during retirement. I took the job because I needed to pay rent. I’m voting yes to join the union.”
Dodger Stadium excursions have turn out to be more and more fashionable — producing greater than $1 million a yr in income — due to current stadium renovations, two consecutive World Sequence championships and the signings of Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki.
“The tour program has grown so much in the age of Ohtani,” stated Ray Lokar, a veteran Dodgers tour information whose full-time profession was a highschool coach and athletic director for practically 40 years. “The visibility and security responsibilities have been amplified. It’s grown from a mom‐and‐pop operation of a dozen people showing folks around the stadium to a multi-million dollar asset.”
The stadium excursions now fall beneath the administration umbrella of a just lately applied revenue-producing initiative referred to as Dodgers 365, which provides year-round leases of every part from $50,000 for the sector to $15,000 for the Centerfield Plaza to $12,500 for the Stadium Membership. In September, the LA Card Present made its Dodger Stadium debut, drawing hundreds of followers swapping and bartering buying and selling playing cards.
Whereas recognizing that presumably giving up free tickets is a stumbling block, a number of veteran tour guides who advocate becoming a member of the union are perplexed that so lots of their colleagues are suspicious of organized labor. About all they agree on is that they love the Dodgers.
“The tour team amplifies the most valuable asset the Dodgers have: their brand, the 135 years of history, from the borough of Brooklyn to Dodger Stadium,” Ginell, writer of 14 books on American music, stated. “It’s a different function than any other employee. We make fans happy conveying that history, and it’s that history that got the Dodgers their $2 billion price tag.”
Lokar emphasised equity as a motive tour guides ought to vote to approve union illustration.
“We should be protected, respected and connected,” he stated. “We wanted to feel safe physically and emotionally, be paid fairly, and not treated as second-class citizens.”
