Does This Change The Game in NY ?
Oct 11, 2024 12:24:47 GMT -5
Post by eye123 on Oct 11, 2024 12:24:47 GMT -5
( A whole lot of questions as to where this leaves trainers at the end of the day. Do trainers with employees signing on to the union leave NY ? Do trainers pass the cost to owners who pay more when other barns (non-union) are less costly ? What about hiring practices down the road ? What about employees making more in a union barn vs non-union barn....and what about vacation time and hours. (OT...etc) ) FUBAR seems to be the outcome.
Unionization Of New York Backstretch Workers Gains Momentum
IBEW Local 1430 said it has been certified by state officials to begin collective bargaining agreements with Thoroughbred trainers.
A movement to unionize backstretch workers at New York Racing Association tracks is a step closer to reality.
Gilberto Mendoza, vice president of Local 1430 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in White Plains, N.Y.. has been collecting signatures from employees of 52 different trainers at NYRA tracks and said the state’s Public Employment Relations Board certified the first nine petitions Sept. 9.
“We’ll have another set of certifications in the first or second week of November,” Mendoza told the Paulick Report on Thursday. “We have sent letters to start negotiating with nine trainers. They have responded nicely, and hopefully we will reach an agreement.”
Mendoza said the 52 barns he has visited so far represent about half of all trainers stabled at NYRA tracks. He said he has acquired over 600 signatures from those barns and has 300 more signatures pending.
During the 2023 Saratoga meet in upstate New York, Mendoza and others held a press conference announcing their plans to form a Backstretch Workers Union and began collecting signatures naming either the New York Racing Association or the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association as the unit they would bargain with for a contract. That effort was derailed when both organizations said they had no jurisdiction because the workers are employed by the trainers – not NYTHA or NYRA.
New York is a heavily unionized state. NYRA, for example, has contracts with 25 different labor unions representing various employees, said Patrick McKenna, vice president of communications for NYRA.
Mendoza said there are several reasons he believes backstretch workers will benefit from being part of a union.
“We want to stop the abuse – the verbal abuse,” he said. “And the rate of pay needs to be improved. They don’t get paid right. They don’t get days off or vacation time, and if you do take vacation or days off, they deduct it out of your pay. They don’t have normal labor rights.”
During his 2023 press conference, Mendoza criticized the living conditions and dormitories at NYRA tracks, citing bed bugs, roaches, and paper thin mattresses.
“The living conditions got better, hands down,” Mendoza said Thursday, adding that he believes it was due to the pressure from his organizing efforts.
John Kimmel is one of the trainers Mendoza has contacted to begin negotiating with.
“I don’t want to alienate anyone, but I think they misrepresented themselves somewhat when they talked to my help,” said Kimmel. “Some of my employees have been with me 30 years or longer. They’re taken care of pretty well.”
The IBEW represents electrical workers in addition to employees involved in a wide array of industries, including construction, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, and transportation.
No other state’s backstretch employees are represented by labor unions for collective bargaining purposes. Horse owners and trainers have purse contracts negotiated on their behalf by organizations like the THA, Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association or Thoroughbred Owners of California. The Jockeys’ Guild represents riders who sign up to be members, but it is not a union as jockeys are considered independent contractors and the Guild does not negotiate collective bargaining agreements on their behalf.
A number of high-profile trainers in New York have been sanctioned for labor law violations by either the U.S. Department of Labor or the New York Department of Labor. Minimum wage in New York City and suburbs is $16 an hour, more than double the $7.25 an hour set by federal law.
