A large group of Dodgers fans responded enthusiastically to the call during an August home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was the team’s eighth annual Union Night celebration, and while the Dodgers were cheering, the fans were, too They cheered for their locality.
“Who are we?” shouted one flogged fan.
“Team members!” The reply came.
The Dodgers’ marketing strategy of targeting blue-collar fans of the boys in blue is not hypocritical. The franchise reached two landmark collective bargaining agreements in 2023 with the Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW).
Although it was acknowledged that increases to 450 employees, including ushers, security officers and groundskeepers, were long overdue and required organized protests and the threat of strike to approve the contract, the result was a decisive victory for union solidarity.
Recently, franchising has not been standing in the way of another segment of employees trying to unionize. I have reached an agreement with International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) represents 55 tour guides at Dodger Stadium – most of them part-time and knowledgeable Dodgers history and love of the team Unprecedented.
However, ratifying the agreement has proven difficult because nearly half of the guides do not want to join the union. The vote in October failed by a margin of 25-24 with six mentors abstaining. Repeated emails sent by The Times to several tour guides who voted against unionizing went unanswered, and the Dodgers declined to comment for this story.
Guides supporting the agreement launched a re-vote from December 15-17, and both sides have spent recent weeks busy pressuring guides seen as non-compliant. The split affected morale, tour guides say, at a time when Dodger Stadium tours have never been more popular, which the Dodgers described during union negotiations as a “powerful money-making operation.”
“Demand has skyrocketed over the past couple of years,” tour guide Carrie Jennell said. “It’s been great for the Dodgers. When I joined in March 2022, the tour cost was $25. Now the tour costs at least $42.50. The team raises the money and none of it goes to us.”
However, even if the union agreement is approved, the fight will not be over because guides opposed to the union have already filed a decertification petition with the National Labor Relations Board to prevent IATSE from representing tour guides.
Although both sides accuse the other of deceptive tactics in influencing voters, the main issue dividing the group is fairly clear.
The new agreement will increase wages by 25% from $17.87 to $24 per hour — roughly the same rate the 2023 agreement did for SEIU-USWW members — with additional increases of $1 per hour in the second and third years of the contract.
Security measures at the stadium entry points will also be improved. Tour guides have complained that fans attending tours can enter the stadium’s upper deck without going through security, sometimes even while carrying backpacks.
The lapse will end, according to a draft CBA obtained by the Times: “The employer shall provide and appropriately operate security checkpoints, including a metal detector and bag searches, at all designated entry points for patrons entering Dodger Stadium for the purposes of participating in stadium tours.”
However, the union may end the Dodgers’ long-standing practice of giving tour guides four reserve-level tickets to each of the 13 homestands in a season, a benefit estimated to be worth about $2,600 assuming the tickets are worth $50 each. The prospect of this is a deal breaker for many guides.
Tour guides who attended the negotiations said the Dodgers refused to mention the free tickets in their union contract because they said other part-time union employees would demand the same privilege. The Dodgers made it clear that they were not necessarily terminating the franchise, just that the issue could not be addressed in the agreement.
The cash value of the tickets is greater than the raise received by tour guides who work near the minimum of 60 four-hour shifts per year. However, the average tour guide works about 125 shifts – 500 hours – per year, and will be paid more than the value of the tickets.
Some less experienced tour guides have felt pressure from veteran, anti-union guides. Semaj Perry said that during his training in March, an older, respected mentor convinced him to sign the decertification petition. Perry has since attended a negotiation session and read the agreement 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 said. “For some of them, it’s fun to do this during retirement. I took the job because I needed to pay the rent. I’ll vote yes to join the union.”
Dodger Stadium tours have become increasingly popular — generating revenues of more than $1 million annually — due to recent stadium renovations, two consecutive World Series championships, and the signings of Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Rocky Sasaki.
“The tour program has grown a lot in the Ohtani era,” said Ray Lokar, a veteran Dodgers tour guide who worked full-time as a high school coach and athletic director for nearly 40 years. “The responsibilities for visibility and security have been amplified. It has evolved from a group operation of dozens of people escorting people around the stadium into a multi-million dollar asset.”
Stadium tours now fall under the management umbrella of a recently implemented income generating initiative called Dodgers 365which is presented Rentals all year round From everything from $50,000 for the stadium to $15,000 for Centerfield Plaza to $12,500 for the Stadium Club. In September, View card los angeles It debuted at Dodger Stadium, attracting thousands of fans who swapped and traded trading cards.
While we realize that giving up free tickets is a stumbling block, many veteran tour guides who advocate for joining the union are puzzled that so many of their colleagues question organized labor. All they agree on is that they love the Dodgers.
“The Tour team amplifies the most valuable asset the Dodgers have: their brand, 135 years of history, from the Brooklyn borough to Dodger Stadium,” Jennell, Author of 14 books He said about American music. “It’s a different job than any other employee. We make the fans happy by passing on that history, and that history is what made the Dodgers worth $2 billion.”
Locar stressed fairness as a reason tour guides should vote to approve union representation.
“We must be protected, respected and connected,” he said. “We wanted to feel physically and emotionally safe, be paid fairly, and not be treated like second-class citizens.”