Seasonal Lifeguards Vote in Favor of Union Negotiations

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  The city’s seasonal lifeguards, appropriately hooking into the Labor Day weekend theme, voted unanimously Saturday for union representation in their dealings with Huntington Beach.

On one of the year’s busiest beach weekends, 71 of the city’s 103 summer lifeguards turned out at the Huntington Beach lifeguard headquarters to sign up with the newly formed Surf City Lifeguards Employee Assn.

Richard Silber, an attorney representing the seasonal lifeguards, said that after a week of intense lobbying, the lifeguards “rode the big, high wave” in becoming the first group of summer lifeguards in the state to form a union and have it recognized by their employer.

“SCLEA enthusiastically enters the ranks of organized labor,” Silber said. “An impossible dream of less than two months has become a reality for Surf City’s seasonal lifeguards.”

Silber said Saturday’s results were certified by the California Mediation and Conciliation Service and are binding upon the city. Deputy City Administrator Richard Barnard earlier said if a majority of all seasonal lifeguards voted in favor of the union it would become their exclusive bargaining representative.

Seasonal lifeguards, many of whom attend school in the off season, currently have no fringe benefits, work for lower pay than year-round lifeguards and are not paid at a higher rate for overtime.