Baseball fans making the pilgrimage of the Dodgers stadium to watch their team face the Padres de San Diego on Friday see more than the security lines and the usual ticket scanners at the entrance.
After the unionization of last year, the tourist guides of the Dodgers stadium are giplating on Friday while their first contractual negotiations with the management of the stadium stopped on wages and the problems of benefits. The tourist guides, of which around 50 are organized with IATSE B-192, have selected the high-level match to bring more visibility to their negotiation difficulties.
“Despite their essential role, they are underestimated and treated unfairly”, tourist guides in the state of leaflets. “Only $ 17.87 an hour, most workers find it difficult to afford food and rent in Los Angeles. Many juggle several jobs just to scratch. ”
The Dodgers Stadium offers a range of visits to Spanish, Japanese and English all year round, from the pre-match of the wicks around the field of VIP visits to thematic events (a tour is dedicated to Jackie Robinson, another in Fernando Valenzuela).
The leaflets also allege “the coordinating unions” on the part of the Dodgers, because in contractual negotiations, management would have tried to withdraw services such as free tickets, 401 (K) admissibility plan for specific employees and the possibility of guides to monitor their team after an avant-match tour.
The leaflets are linked to a petition that asks the Dodgers to accept a “decent salary” in the contract and a continuation of the existing advantages.
The Dodgers refused to comment.
After the tourist guides voted to unionize with IATSE B-192 in April 2024, the two parties met from this summer to start to mark a first contract. They have made progress, having obtained a vacation salary, a grievance procedure and a language around general security during tours, explains the president of IATSE B-192, Nicole Miller.
But still, she maintains, both parties remain distant from wages. The union put pressure for the basic tourist guides, which currently receive the minimum wage from Los Angeles, with $ 20 -hour tour races, to receive closer to $ 27.81 an hour, that the union considers a decent salary in Los Angeles. The union claims that the management currently offers $ 20.50 per hour.
The threat of retracted advantages is also a bonding point. In February, the union filed an accusation of unfair work practice to the National Commission for Labor Relations against Dodgers for having pretended to penalize the tourist guides of unionization by withdrawing the preexisting advantages of the negotiation table and by modifying the terms and conditions of employment during negotiations. The Dodgers have not yet officially responded to the accusation.
The union hopes that Friday’s action will push the dodgers to sell more land. “This is an organization that has money and has the capacity to provide the fair and lively salary and the advantages they [tour guides] ask. We don’t ask for millions of dollars, “said Miller.” We hope they hear us and respond to our requests, which are reasonable. “”
