In Wake of 1984 Union Boycott : Higher Wages Approved by Fair Board

Del Mar Fair Board members decided Tuesday in closed session to increase wage rates for temporary Del Mar Fair employees, but declined to announce specifics of their actions until late today.

Fair Board President C. Hugh Friedman explained after a 1-hour, 20-minute executive session that “we still have a few loose ends to clear up,” before making the announcement of the new wage scales for workers at the June 20-July 7 fair.

The increases were demanded by labor union executives whose members boycotted last year’s fair and picketed at the fairgrounds in protest to the Fair Board’s decision last spring not to pay union scale wages and fringe benefits to workers hired only for the 18-day event.

Last year, about 350 fair workers were recruited through advertisements in newspapers and were paid an average of $4 to $6 less per hour than were union scale.

Despite picketing and boycott actions by union members, the county fair drew a record crowd of more than 709,000 last year.

In March, labor leader Joe Francis, secretary-treasurer of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, announced a moratorium on the boycott in anticipation of reaching a new wage accord with the fair board members.

The board’s personnel committee held a public hearing on pay rates earlier this month and union members responded by pointing out the disparity between the low wages paid at the Del Mar Fair and the rates paid by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, the Convention Center and the Sports Arena.

Friedman asked union officials to seek comparative pay rates from other county fairs, pointing out that the fair was not a commercial profit-making venture. Francis said that labor organizations would hold off on any decision on whether to boycott this year’s Del Mar Fair until the board’s decision on wages are studied.

Roger Vitaich, fair manager, said last week that with the fair less than six weeks away, more than two-thirds of the workers that were hired last year at the lower pay scales had been promised jobs for this year’s event.