Seasonal Lifeguards Seek Union : Employment: The group plans to petition Huntington Beach for recognition. They say wages, benefits and public safety are the key issues.

Surf City’s 100 seasonal lifeguards are organizing and plan to petition the city today for formal recognition of their labor union.

The part-time lifeguards, who work without benefits and for lower pay than the city’s 12 full-time, year-round lifeguards, are organizing to improve their lot and that of the public, said several of the lifeguards.

Scott Ferry, a high school teacher who has been a part-time lifeguard since 1987, said more than 70% of the seasonal marine safety personnel favor union representation.

“What we want to do now is as quickly as possible get recognized by the city,” said Ferry, 25. “It would be in everybody’s best interest to recognize us as a union so we can . . . negotiate (better) wages and working conditions and have representation.”

The seasonal lifeguards say they are essential for the city to have safe beaches and deserve to be treated like employees, not contract workers. In addition to seeking benefits and better pay, the guards are upset this year that the city is enforcing a 1,000-hour limit on part-timers’ work.

“Right now they’re not even recognized as employees by the city. . . . And that is wrong,” said Richard J. Silber, the attorney representing the seasonal lifeguards. “There is no personnel policy that governs wages, hours and employment conditions.”

Patrick Graham, 40, who has 14 years’ experience in the lifesaving profession, thinks “the city of Huntington Beach is not treating us fairly.”

Graham, a Seal Beach resident, said lifeguards are organizing primarily because of their concern for public safety.

“We are trying to protect the public. We need (experienced) lifeguards on the beach to protect the people,” Graham said.

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Deputy City Administrator Richard Barnard said the city’s legal department is examining the lifeguards’ concerns and is trying to determine if it can satisfy them. He said it is an open issue whether the part-time employees can form a union.

“It’s in the hands of our attorney’s office to decide legally what we can or cannot do,” he said.

The city has kept the beach guard positions temporary, he said, because it needs the lifeguards only five months of the year and having seasonal employees saves money and allows the city more flexibility.

Seasonal lifeguards are paid from $10.47 to $14.44 an hour, depending on their experience and work assignment, and have had no pay raise since 1989, said Ron Hagen, director of community services. The full-timers’ pay ranges from $18.61 to $23.05 an hour, and they receive a benefit package including vacation, sick leave, health insurance and a pension, according to Lt. Steve Seim, a lifeguard supervisor.

Lifeguard Brad Smith, 24, of Santa Monica said that unionizing would be one way to end these inequities.

“You have lifeguards that are very appreciative of the job they have and they are respectful of their jobs,” said Smith, a UCLA political science student who has been a lifeguard for seven years. “But the problem is sometimes we feel neglected.”

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Most of the seasonal lifeguards are 17 to 29 years old. And they are a varied lot: Some are also doctors, teachers, attorneys and college students, all of whom choose to work on the beach for the love and enjoyment that comes with being a lifeguard.

“It’s a real nice feeling to help people. It’s a very important job,” Graham said. “You enjoy working with the public. It’s a real satisfaction when you pull someone from the water and you know they could have died.”

Generally, a part-time lifeguard works a 40-hour week, Ferry said. Most are employed during spring break and from June to mid-September, with some also working during the fall.

A key issue for the part-time lifeguards is the city’s limiting their work to 1,000 hours a year. The city began enforcing the rule last November because it wanted to be sure the part-timers did not become eligible, under state law, for benefits offered city employees who work more than 1,000 hours annually, Seim said.

Graham and co-worker John Beebe this summer filed a grievance with the city because of the denial of employment rights and benefits when they were laid off after reaching 1,000 work hours.

“They refuse to give me the rights and benefits of a full-time employee even though I work full time,” he said.

Since 1989, Graham said, he has worked more than 1,000 hours in a fiscal year. In 1992-93, he put in 2,098 hours, Graham said, adding that nine other seasonal lifeguards also worked more than 1,000 hours a year.

Graham said he filed the grievance because “you just have to stand up for what you believe in.”

Ferry described how his interest in organizing a union arose out of problems he had this summer in being compensated when he injured his knee at work. He said the city was reluctant to pay for his medical expenses and disability costs. Eventually, the city decided he had a legitimate claim, but the experience soured him on the employment arrangement, he said.

Smith said a union is the lifeguards’ only way to have a say over their job conditions.

“Before, if you were unhappy as a lifeguard you would talk to an immediate supervisor or lieutenant and that’s as far as it went. Being organized, you have your own rank and file,” Smith said.

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Ferry also said a union will protect seasonal workers’ rights and ensure that they are treated equally in terms of pay and benefits.

“In the past the city has been able to make up its own rules in regards to wages and working conditions,” Ferry said. “The reason we’re coming together as a union is to have a say in those arbitrary decisions they make about us.

“Without a union, we have no bargaining power, and in these times with the cutbacks we are going to protect ourselves by having an organized voice and bargaining unit.”