Dodgers tour guides’ effort to unionize becomes a contentious battle

A large group of Dodgers fans enthusiastically answered the call during an August home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was the team’s eighth annual Union Night celebration, and while cheering on the Dodgers, fans were also chanting for their hometown section.

“Who are we?” A leather fan shouted.

“Teamsters!” » came the answer.

The Dodgers’ marketing strategy aimed at blue-collar fans of the boys in blue is not hypocritical. The franchise reached two historic collective bargaining agreements in 2023 with the Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW).

Although the pay increases for 450 employees, including ushers, security guards and groundskeepers, were recognized as long overdue and required organized protests and the threat of a strike for the Dodgers to accept a contract, the result was a decisive victory for union solidarity.

More recently, openness has not stopped another segment of employees from attempting to unionize. He reached an agreement with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) representing the approximately 55 tour guides at Dodger Stadium – mostly part-time employees whose knowledge of Dodgers history and love of the team is unmatched.

However, ratifying the agreement has proven difficult because about half of the guides do not want to unionize. The October vote failed by 25 votes to 24, with six guides abstaining. Repeated emails from The Times to several tour guides who voted against unionization went unanswered, and the Dodgers declined to comment for this story.

Guides supporting the deal launched a new vote Dec. 15-17, and both sides have spent the past few weeks putting pressure on guides perceived to have little commitment. That divide has taken a toll on morale, tour guides say, at a time when tours of Dodgers stadium have never been more popular, described by the Dodgers during union negotiations as a “robust and lucrative operation.”

“Demand has increased dramatically in the last couple of years,” said tour guide Cary Ginell. “It’s been great for the Dodgers. When I joined them in March 2022, the cost of a tour was $25. Now no tour costs less than $42.50. The team raises money and nothing comes back to us.”

Even if the union agreement is approved, the battle will not be over because guides opposed to the union have already filed a motion for revocation with the National Labor Relations Board to prevent IATSE from representing tour guides.

Although both camps accuse the other of using underhanded tactics to influence voters, the key issue dividing the group is quite simple.

The new deal would increase wages by 25 percent, from $17.87 to $24 an hour — roughly the same rate as the 2023 deal for SEIU-USWW members — with additional increases of $1 an hour in the second and third years of the contract.

Security measures at entry points to the stadium would also be improved. Tour guides have complained that fans showing up for tours can enter the stadium’s upper deck without going through security, sometimes even with backpacks.

That loophole would end, according to a draft CBA obtained by the Times: “The employer must provide and properly staff security checkpoints including a metal detector and bag search at all designated entry points for patrons entering Dodger Stadium for the purpose of participating in stadium tours.” »

Unionization, however, could end the Dodgers’ longstanding practice of giving tour guides four spare tickets to each of 13 homestands during a season, a perk worth an estimated $2,600 assuming the tickets are valued at $50 each. This perspective constitutes a break for many guides.

Tour guides present at the negotiations said the Dodgers refused to mention free tickets in the collective bargaining agreement because they claimed other part-time union employees would then demand the same benefit. The Dodgers made it clear that they were not necessarily ending the advantage, just that the issue could not be resolved in the deal.

The monetary value of the tickets is higher than the increase given to tour guides who work near the minimum number of 60 four-hour shifts per year. However, the average tour guide works about 125 shifts – 500 hours – per year, and they would earn more in pay raises than the value of the tickets.

Some less experienced tour guides have felt pressure from anti-union veteran guides. Semaj Perry said that during his training in March, an older, respected guide convinced him to sign a petition to revoke his certification. Perry has since attended a bargaining session and read the agreement between the Dodgers and the union.

“It’s more of a status thing than a financial decision for some older tour guides,” Perry said. “For some of them, it’s fun to do this in retirement. I took this job because I had to pay rent. I’m voting yes to join the union.”

Tours of Dodger Stadium have become increasingly popular – generating more than $1 million in revenue annually – due to the stadium’s recent renovations, two consecutive World Series championships and the signings of Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki.

“The touring program grew so much during the Ohtani era,” said Ray Lokar, a veteran Dodgers tour guide whose full-time career was as a high school coach and athletic director for nearly 40 years. “The responsibilities for visibility and safety have been amplified. It’s gone from a mom-and-pop operation of a dozen people showing people around the stadium to a multi-million dollar asset.”

Stadium tours now fall under the management of a recently implemented revenue-generating initiative called Dodgers 365, which offers year-round rentals of everything from $50,000 for the field to $15,000 for Centerfield Plaza and $12,500 for the Stadium Club. In September, the LA Card Show debuted at Dodger Stadium, attracting thousands of fans trading and bartering trading cards.

While recognizing that giving up free tickets is a stumbling block, many veteran tour guides who advocate joining the union are perplexed that so many of their colleagues are distrustful of the union movement. All they agree on is that they love the Dodgers.

“The touring team amplifies the Dodgers’ most valuable asset: their brand, the 135 years of history, from the borough of Brooklyn to Dodger Stadium,” said Ginell, author of 14 books on American music. “It’s a different job than any other employee. We make fans happy by passing on this story, and it’s this story that earned the Dodgers their $2 billion prize.”

Lokar highlighted fairness as a reason tour guides should vote to approve union representation.

“We must be protected, respected and connected,” he said. “We want to feel physically and emotionally safe, to be paid fairly and not to be treated like second-class citizens. »