A large group of Dodgers fans enthusiastically responded to the call during an August home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was the eighth annual Union Night celebration, and while cheering on the Dodgers, fans also chanted for their locals.
“Who are we?” – shouted the fan with a leather lunge.
“Commanders!” the answer came.
The Dodgers' marketing strategy to target blue-collar Boys in Blue fans is not disingenuous. In 2023, the franchise entered into two landmark collective bargaining agreements with the Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW).
Although the raises for 450 employees, including janitors, security officers and custodians, were considered long overdue and prompted organized protests and the threat of a strike to get the Dodgers to agree to the contract, the result was a decisive victory for union solidarity.
Recently, franchising has not become an obstacle for another segment of employees trying to join a union. An agreement was reached with International Alliance of Theater Workers (IATSE), representing approximately 55 Dodger Stadium tour guides—mostly part-time workers—whose knowledge Dodgers history and love for the team is unsurpassed.
However, ratification of the agreement has proven difficult because approximately half of the guides do not want to join unions. The October vote failed by a 25-24 margin, with six guides abstaining. Repeated emails from The Times to several guides who voted against unionization were not returned, and the Dodgers declined to comment for this story.
Guides supporting the agreement began a second vote scheduled for Dec. 15-17, and both sides have spent recent weeks actively lobbying guides who were seen as uncooperative. The gap affected morale at a time when tours to Dodger Stadium had never been more popular, which the Dodgers described as a “robust money-making operation” during union negotiations, tour guides said.
“Demand has increased significantly over the last two years,” said guide Cary Ginell. “It's been great for the Dodgers. When I joined in March 2022, the cost of a tour was $25. Now, no tour costs less than $42.50. The team makes money, and none of it goes to us.”
However, even if the union agreement is approved, the battle will not be over as anti-union tour guides have already filed a decertification petition with the National Labor Relations Board to bar IATSE from representing tour guides.
While both sides accuse each other of underhanded tactics to influence voters, the key issue dividing the group is quite simple.
The new agreement will increase wages by 25% from $17.87 to $24 per hour—about the same as the 2023 agreement for SEIU-USWW members—with an additional $1 per hour increase in the second and third years of the contract.
Security measures at stadium entrances will also be improved. Tour guides complain that fans who come on tours can enter the stadium's upper deck without going through security, sometimes even with backpacks.
According to a draft CBA obtained by The Times, this oversight will end: “The employer must provide and adequately staff security checkpoints that include a metal detector and bag searches at all designated entry points for patrons entering Dodger Stadium for the purpose of participating in stadium tours.”
However, unionization could end the Dodgers' longstanding practice of giving guides four reserve-level tickets to each of the 13 shelters per season. This benefit is valued at approximately $2,600, assuming tickets cost $50 each. The prospect of this is a deterrent for many guides.
Guides present at the talks said the Dodgers refused to mention free tickets in the union contract because they said other part-time union employees would then demand the same benefit. The Dodgers have made it clear that they are not necessarily terminating the exemption, it's just that the issue cannot be resolved in the agreement.
The monetary value of the tickets exceeds the premium for guides, who work about 60 four-hour shifts a year. However, the average guide works about 125 shifts (500 hours) per year and will receive more in salary in bonuses than the tickets cost.
Some less experienced guides have felt pressured by anti-union veteran guides. Semaj Perry said that during his training in March, a senior, respected guide convinced him to sign a petition to decertify. Perry has since attended the negotiations and read the agreement between the Dodgers and the union.
“For some older guides, it’s more of a status decision than a financial decision,” Perry said. “For some of them, it's fun when they retire. I took this job because I had to pay rent. I'm voting to join the union.”
Tours of Dodger Stadium are becoming increasingly popular—bringing in over $1 million in revenue annually—due to the stadium's recent renovation, two consecutive World Series championships, and contract signings with Japanese stars Shohei Otani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Rocky Sasaki.
“The tour program has grown tremendously during the Ohtani era,” said Ray Lokar, a veteran Dodgers tour guide whose full-time career spanned nearly 40 years as a high school coach and athletic director. “Visibility and security responsibilities have been expanded. It has gone from a family operation of a dozen people showing people around the stadium to a multi-million dollar asset.”
Stadium tours are now covered by a recently launched revenue initiative called Dodgers 365which offers rent all year round from just $50,000 for the field to $15,000 for Centerfield Plaza and up to $12,500 for the Stadium Club. In September Los Angeles Card Exhibition debuted at Dodger Stadium, drawing thousands of fans trading trading cards.
Recognizing that the potential loss of free tickets is a sticking point, several veteran tour guides who advocate joining a union are puzzled that so many of their colleagues are leery of organized labor. The only thing they agree on is that they love the Dodgers.
“The road team enhances the most valuable asset the Dodgers have: their brand, 135 years of history, from the Brooklyn area to Dodger Stadium,” Ginell said. author of 14 books about American music, said. “It's a different function than any other employee. We make the fans happy by conveying that story, and that story is what brought the Dodgers a $2 billion price tag.”
Locard stressed that fairness is the reason why guides should vote to approve union representation.
“We should be protected, respected and connected,” he said. “We wanted to feel safe physically and emotionally, be paid fairly, and not be treated like second-class citizens.”
