Baseball fans making the pilgrimage to Dodgers Stadium to watch their team face the San Diego Padres on Friday are seeing more than the usual security lines and ticket scanners at the entrance.
After unionizing last year, Dodgers Stadium tour guides are leafletting the game on Friday as their first contract negotiations with stadium management have stalled over wages and benefits issues. The tour guides, about 50 of whom are organized with IATSE B-192, have selected the high-profile match to bring more visibility to their bargaining difficulties.
“Despite their essential role, they’re being underpaid and unfairly treated,” the leaflets state of Dodgers tour guides. “At just $17.87 an hour, most workers struggle to afford food and rent in Los Angeles. Many are juggling multiple jobs just to scrape by.”
Dodgers Stadium offers an array of tours in Spanish, Japanese and English year-round, from pre-game saunters around the grounds to VIP tours to themed events (one tour is dedicated to Jackie Robinson, another to Fernando Valenzuela).
The leaflets further allege “union-busting” on the part of the Dodgers because in contract negotiations management has allegedly attempted to retract benefits like complimentary tickets, 401(k) plan eligibility for specific employees and the ability for guides to watch their team after a pre-game tour.
The leaflets link to a petition that calls for the Dodgers to agree to a “living wage” in the contract and a continuation of existing benefits.
The Dodgers declined to comment.
After the tour guides voted to unionize with IATSE B-192 in April 2024, the two sides came together starting that summer to start hammering out a first contract. They made progress, having secured holiday pay, a grievance procedure and language around general security on tours, says IATSE B-192 president Nicole Miller.
But still, she maintains, the two sides remain far apart on wages. The union is pushing for the rank-and-file tour guides, who currently receive Los Angeles minimum wage, with tour leads earning $20 an hour, to receive closer to $27.81 an hour, which the union considers a living wage in Los Angeles. The union says that management is currently offering $20.50 an hour.
The threat of retracted benefits, too, is a sticking point. In February, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the Dodgers for allegedly penalizing the tour guides for unionizing by taking preexisting perks off the negotiating table and by changing the terms and conditions of employment during negotiations. The Dodgers have yet to formally respond to the charge.
The union is hoping that Friday’s action will push the Dodgers to cede more ground. “This is an organization that has the money and has the ability to provide the fair and living wage and the benefits that they [tour guides] are asking for. We’re not asking for millions of dollars,” says Miller. “We hope that they hear us and respond to our demands, which are reasonable.”