Our brothers and sisters who work at the East Bay Regional Park District recently won a historic wage increase with their new contract, showing that park workers deserve the same respect and pay as people doing similar jobs in the Bay Area.
By organizing and demanding that the park district pay them fairly—and by bringing thousands of people from the community into their campaign—they got a 9 percent raise and a new three-year contract, and they made a strong case for why the park district should continue to pay them higher wages in the coming years.
“By coming together, we’ve won a historic agreement to bring respect and fair pay to the hard-working people who proudly keep East Bay parks clean, safe and open for all to enjoy,” said AFSCME Local 2428 President Chris Newey.
Leading up to the victory, our members launched an organizing campaign, where they started a petition, took out online ads, sent emails and collected letters of support from more than 5,000 park visitors. They also threatened to strike during Labor Day, one of the busiest holidays for the park district.
They also flooded the park district’s board meetings to make their voices heard. At one meeting, more than 250 park workers and supporters turned a five-minute public comment period into a two-and-half-hour testimonial session. Dozens of workers and supporters urged the elected officials to use the park’s ample surplus funds to pay workers fairly and take into consideration their contributions to making the parks safe and enjoyable for all visitors—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Bringing employees up to the median (salary range) is simply the right thing to do, and the district can afford it,” James Ginely, a Local 2428 member and head lifeguard at Don Castro Regional Park, said at the board meeting. “A lack of fair and competitive pay is directly leading to a large amount of vacancies across the district. This is especially true among lifeguards who…are responsible for keeping people safe and protecting their well being in deep, dark, murky water.”
In total, Local 2428 represents nearly 600 park rangers, naturalists, administrative staff, maintenance workers and scientists who maintain 73 parks in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Their work allows more than 25 million people to enjoy the district’s 125,000 acres of open space every year. Additionally, because of their commitment to their jobs, our brothers and sisters are able to contribute nearly $200 million in economic activity to the surrounding region.
When the park district conducted a compensation study to evaluate how East Bay Parks workers compared to others in similar agencies, its own analysis found that the agency has been running a surplus worth tens of millions of dollars as a result of unspent salaries, capital gains and increased revenue during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, our brothers and sisters had been taking home smaller paychecks but going beyond their job duties and taking on more responsibilities to make sure that all park visitors have a safe and enjoyable experience with the outdoors.
For some members, they said they’ve had to find second jobs to make ends meet. So the wage increase makes a huge difference.
For example, park rangers will now get an additional 5 percent raise per year. Some park rangers will receive an extra $500 a month starting in November.
“This is not only good news for park workers. It’s also good for our communities,” said Ross Mitchell, a Local 2428 member and park ranger at Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park. “More money in the pockets of workers means more spending at small businesses, which lifts up our local economies.”
In addition to the wage increases, Local 2428 was able to get the park district to move all park worker job classifications to at least the median salary of similar positions in the competitive Bay Area labor market. The agreement also adds Juneteenth as a paid holiday.
