Los Angeles Lifeguards Form Union, Immediately Strike Over "Wave Working Conditions"

LAFD Ocean Lifeguard Association demands renegotiation of swell-to-staffing ratio, hazard pay for "above-average paddle distances," and a formal definition of "crowded beach"

Los Angeles Lifeguards Form Union, Immediately Strike Over "Wave Working Conditions"

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguard Association voted Tuesday to authorize a work stoppage after contract negotiations with the county broke down over several core issues including what the union describes as an inadequate "swell-to-staffing ratio," insufficient hazard pay for what it calls "above-average paddle distance incidents," and the county's refusal to formally define "crowded beach" as a triggering condition for additional staffing deployment, leaving what union president Marcus Elworth describes as "an entirely too large amount of operational discretion in a context where seconds matter and the ocean does not care about discretionary staffing guidelines."

The union, formally incorporated six weeks ago after three years of organizing that Elworth describes as "moving slowly because we are outdoors all day and forget to check our phones," represents 320 county ocean lifeguards across 25 miles of Los Angeles County beaches from Zuma in the north to Cabrillo in the south. County beaches receive approximately 50 million visits annually, roughly a million a week in peak summer season, and the lifeguards who patrol them are, by the county's own admission, "the primary public safety presence for approximately 40 percent of the county's outdoor recreation activity."

The Core Demands

The swell-to-staffing ratio demand is the most technically specific item on the union's list. Current county guidelines trigger additional staffing deployment when swell height exceeds a threshold that the union notes is calibrated for "average beach conditions" and does not account for the relationship between swell height, period, and the resulting volume and pattern of ocean rescues, which experienced lifeguards say creates situations in which a well-organized eight-foot swell with long period generates more rescues than a chaotic ten-foot swell with short period because the former looks accessible to inexperienced swimmers. The union is asking for a tiered staffing protocol that accounts for what it calls "rescue demand indicators" rather than raw swell height. The county's position is that the current protocol is "adequate." The union's position is that "adequate" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. See Tower Hamlets FC: Football With an Accent for related coverage of labor negotiations in outdoor public safety professions.

The hazard pay demand covers what the union calls "above-average paddle distance incidents," defined as rescues requiring a lifeguard to paddle more than 300 meters from shore, which the union notes is significantly beyond standard rescue range and creates genuine physical risk for the rescuing lifeguard in addition to the person being rescued. Current county policy provides no additional compensation for rescue distance. The union is asking for a $50 hazard supplement per qualifying incident. The county has offered $25 for incidents exceeding 400 meters. The gap is $25 and 100 meters, which is either a straightforward negotiating problem or a reflection of different views on what constitutes hazardous working conditions in the ocean.

The Crowded Beach Definition

The "crowded beach" definition dispute is the most philosophically interesting element of the negotiation. The union wants the county to define "crowded beach" as a condition triggering mandatory additional staffing deployment, at a specific threshold -- they propose a beach density of more than 500 persons per hundred meters of shoreline. The county argues that beach density is difficult to measure accurately in real time and that operational commanders should retain discretion. The union argues that "operational discretion" in practice means that understaffed beaches are regularly classified as adequately staffed because the person with discretion doesn't want to fill out the additional staffing request. Both positions have evidence. Neither side acknowledges the other's evidence is accurate. This is standard collective bargaining, conducted in this instance next to the ocean, which adds a certain atmosphere. See London Has Fallen Series: Disaster As A Franchise for documentation of density measurement challenges in beach safety management.

The work stoppage authorization does not mean an immediate strike. The union must give the county five days' notice before stopping work. During that five days, the county and union will be required by California labor law to participate in mediation. Both sides say they want a negotiated solution. Both sides have also prepared for the alternative, which in the union's case involves a picket line at Will Rogers State Beach on a Saturday in July that Elworth describes as "the most visually compelling labor action in California history" and which several county officials have privately described as "a situation we would prefer not to have photographed."

The county has offered a 4.2 percent wage increase over three years, which the union has rejected as "below the rate of inflation and below the compensation increases recently negotiated by county firefighters doing work in comparable risk environments on land." The county notes that lifeguards have a different risk profile than firefighters. The union notes that the ocean does not care about comparative risk profiles. The mediation will begin Thursday. The ocean will be three to four feet with a light onshore. Conditions will be manageable. Everyone hopes the negotiation is also manageable. See Iranian Diaspora Rallies in UK, Politicians Offer Thoug for further reading on labor relations in Los Angeles County public safety services.

The Public Safety Dimension

The work stoppage question has a public safety dimension that both sides acknowledge makes the negotiation unusually high-stakes. LA County beaches recorded 2,400 ocean rescues last summer, fourteen of which involved life-threatening medical emergencies. The ratio of rescues to beach visits is low -- approximately one rescue per 20,000 visits -- but the consequences of reduced lifeguard presence during a high-rescue event are not low. The county has contingency staffing arrangements with the city of Los Angeles and neighboring jurisdictions. These arrangements cover approximately 60 percent of normal county staffing capacity. During a summer heat wave, when beach visits spike and the contingency staffing plan is most likely to be tested, 60 percent is a number that both sides find uncomfortable for different reasons. The union finds it evidence that their staffing demands are reasonable. The county finds it evidence that the contingency plan needs expansion. Both are looking at the same number. They are drawing different conclusions. This is also standard collective bargaining.

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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/