{"id":92929,"date":"2025-12-13T05:32:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T05:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/92929\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T05:32:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T05:32:15","slug":"dodgers-tour-guides-effort-to-unionize-becomes-a-contentious-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/92929\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers tour guides’ effort to unionize becomes a contentious battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A large group of Dodgers fans enthusiastically answered the call during an August home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was the team\u2019s eighth annual Union Night celebration, and while cheering for the Dodgers, fans also chanted for their local<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are we?\u201d a leather-lunged fan shouted.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeamsters!\u201d came the reply.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 marketing strategy aimed at blue-collar fans of the boys in blue isn\u2019t hypocritical. The franchise reached two landmark Collective Bargaining Agreements in 2023 with the Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW).<\/p>\n

Although raises to the 450 employees that included ushers, security officers and groundskeepers were recognized as long overdue and took organized protests and the threat of a strike for the Dodgers to agree to a contract, the result was a decisive victory for union solidarity.<\/p>\n

More recently the franchise hasn\u2019t stood in the way of another segment of employees attempting to unionize. It has hammered out an agreement with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees<\/a> (IATSE) representing the 55 or so Dodger Stadium tour guides \u2014 mostly part-timers whose knowledge of Dodgers history and love of the team<\/a> is unsurpassed.<\/p>\n

Yet ratifying the agreement has proven difficult because roughly half of the guides don\u2019t want to unionize. A vote in October failed to pass by a 25-24 margin with six guides abstaining. Repeated emails by The Times to several tour guides who voted against unionizing were not answered, and the Dodgers declined to comment for this story. <\/p>\n

The guides supporting the agreement have launched a re-vote for Dec. 15-17, and both sides have spent recent weeks busily lobbying guides perceived as uncommitted. The divide has impacted morale, tour guides say, at a time when Dodger Stadium tours have never been more popular, described by the Dodgers during union negotiations as a \u201crobust money-making operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand has risen tremendously the last two years,\u201d tour guide Cary Ginell said. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if the union agreement is approved, however, the battle won\u2019t be over because guides opposing the union have already filed a decertification petition with the National Labor Relations Board to keep IATSE from representing the tour guides. <\/p>\n

Although both sides accuse the other of underhanded tactics in swaying voters, the key issue dividing the group is fairly straightforward. <\/p>\n

The new agreement would increase wages by 34% from $17.87 to $24 an hour \u2014 roughly the same rate the 2023 agreement did for the SEIU-USWW members \u2014 with additional $1 an hour increases in the second and third years of the contract. <\/p>\n

Security measures at stadium entry points also would be improved. Tour guides have complained that fans who show up for tours are able to walk into the stadium top deck without passing through security, sometimes even while carrying backpacks. <\/p>\n

That lapse would end, according to a draft of the CBA obtained by The Times: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unionizing, however, might halt the Dodgers\u2019 longtime practice of giving tour guides four reserve-level tickets for each of the 13 homestands in a season, a perk worth an estimated $2,600 assuming the tickets are valued at $50 each. Local B-192 IATSE president Nicole Miller said that in 2024 only three tour guides took all 52 tickets and guides on average took 32.<\/p>\n

Still, the prospect of losing the tickets is a deal-breaker for many of the guides. <\/p>\n

Tour guides present during negotiations said the Dodgers refused to mention free tickets in the union contract because they said other part-time union employees then would demand the same perk. The Dodgers made it clear they weren\u2019t necessarily ending the perk, just that the issue couldn\u2019t be addressed in the agreement. <\/p>\n

The monetary value of the tickets is greater than the raise for tour guides that work close to the minimum number of 60 four-hour shifts per year. However, the average tour guide works about 125 shifts \u2014 500 hours \u2014 a year, and they would be taking home more pay in raises than the tickets are worth. <\/p>\n

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 decertification petition. Perry has since attended a negotiation session and read the agreement between the Dodgers and the union. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more of a status thing than a financial decision for some of the older tour guides,\u201d Perry said. \u201cFor some of them, this is fun to do during retirement. I took the job because I needed to pay rent. I\u2019m voting yes to join the union.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodger Stadium tours have become increasingly popular \u2014 generating more than $1 million a year in revenue \u2014 because of recent stadium renovations, two consecutive World Series championships and the signings of Japanese stars<\/a> Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tour program has grown so much in the age of Ohtani,\u201d said Ray Lokar, a veteran Dodgers tour guide whose full-time career was a high school coach and athletic director for nearly 40 years. \u201cThe visibility and security responsibilities have been amplified. It\u2019s grown from a mom\u2010and\u2010pop operation of a dozen people showing folks around the stadium to a multi-million dollar asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stadium tours now fall under the management umbrella of a recently implemented revenue-producing initiative called Dodgers 365<\/a>, which offers year-round rentals<\/a> of everything from $50,000 for the field to $15,000 for the Centerfield Plaza to $12,500 for the Stadium Club. In September, the LA Card Show<\/a> made its Dodger Stadium debut, drawing thousands of fans swapping and bartering trading cards.<\/p>\n

While recognizing that possibly giving up free tickets is a stumbling block, several veteran tour guides who advocate joining the union are perplexed that so many of their colleagues are suspicious of organized labor. About all they agree on is that they love the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Ginell, author of 14 books<\/a> on American music, said. \u201cIt\u2019s a different function than any other employee. We make fans happy conveying that history, and it\u2019s that history that got the Dodgers their $2 billion price tag.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lokar emphasized fairness as a reason tour guides should vote to approve union representation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be protected, respected and connected,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to feel safe physically and emotionally, be paid fairly, and not treated as second-class citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n